Father Inire

Lee Berman · 04 Dec 2011, 04:20 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2011 23:20:48 -0500
Subject: (urth) Father Inire
Message-ID: <SNT123-W41AC442BC2177330493F25CFB40 at phx.gbl>

>> "saw someone ahead of me sitting (as I first thought) upon a high stool.  As I
>
>> drew nearer, I found that what I had taken to be a stool was a stepladder, and
>
>> that the old man perched on it was cleaning one of the pictures."

>Jeff Wilson: That's correct, but Sev affirmitively writes that he was sitting.

I don't think he does. He says he "first thought" someone was sitting, implying this 

was later proved incorrect. So Rudesind was standing but from a distance his shortness 

made him look like he was sitting.

If he only meant to amend the stool to stepladder I think he would have written it: 

"saw someone ahead of me sitting upon a high stool (as I first thought).

That's my reading. You might be right, Jeff. Perhaps Wolfe meant to describe Rudesind

as being tall with that passage. Perhaps to match tall, old Ultan his fellow curator.

But since Rudesind:

 "scrambled down from the ladder like an aged monkey, seeming all arms and legs and 

wrinkled neck; his hands were as long as my feet, the crooked fingers laced with blue

veins"

he just doesn't seem much like Ultan. Moreover, Severian mentions Ultan's height several

times. I would think he would mention Rudesind's tallness in a similar direct matter if it

were so.

To me he seems a lot like Father Inire, who is short. And resemblence to Father Inire is NOT

something Wolfe will call attention to, even if it is obvious (as for Rudesind and Dorcas'

husband).  Moreover, Rudesin's a gaze is like a turtle, his hands as long as feet and his nose almost 

touching his chin. I could see such features used to describe an alien.

It would be nice if we had someone else's opinion of Rudesind but the two armigers don't 

mention the guy on the ladder in the first meeing. The old Autarch doesn't mention him.  

And they are alone together in their second two meetings.

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