Agilus and Agia

Jeff Wilson · 03 May 2013, 19:33 · from 2013-May.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at clueland.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Fri, 3 May 2013 14:33:25 -0500
Subject: (urth) Agilus and Agia
In-Reply-To: <BLU175-W36080314441D4B14DB3094CFBE0 at phx.gbl>
References: <BLU175-W36080314441D4B14DB3094CFBE0 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <cead62bde5167cf171815b89b4a25de6.squirrel at webmail.prismnet.com>


On Fri, May 3, 2013 07:01, Lee Berman wrote:
>>aaron: Anyone have any good theories about Fechin?
>
> Good theories? I don't know about that. But I think it is a
> reasonable guess to think that Wolfe based part of
> the character on Russian artist Nicolai Fechin. It took some
> digging but I think I have determined, from younger self-portraits,
> that both Fechins have red hair.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolai_Fechin
>
> http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2142/5732351770_766b0948aa_z.jpg
>
> http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2142/5732351770_766b0948aa_z.jpghttp://farm3.staticflickr.com/2142/5732351770_766b0948aa_z.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F8zrQ1ChEuE/USAfEKlT9YI/AAAAAAAAOzs/bzABfvMstzg/s1600/fechin+self+portrait1.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F8zrQ1ChEuE/USAfEKlT9YI/AAAAAAAAOzs/bzABfvMstzg/s1600/fechin+self+portrait1.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F8zrQ1ChEuE/USAfEKlT9YI/AAAAAAAAOzs/bzABfvMstzg/s1600/fechin+self+portrait1.jpg
> My not-so-good theory is that Fechin is another incarnation of
> Father Inire. Like Borski, I think that Inire's absence is an
> invitation for the reader to find him, wherever he might appear,
> though I do think I have a better explanation for why Inire would appear
> so many times.
>
> The tools we are given to conduct the search are the constellation
> of things we know about Inire: appearing small, bent, old, monkey-like,
> an association with art and museums, a lech for young human women, and
> perhaps a few others. Each appearance of Inire will demonstrate some
> of the characteristics, but none will display all of them. That's the
> puzzle I think we are presented.
>
> With Fechin we have the characteristics of art, old, monkey-like and
> the lech. Moreover we have Rudesind as a bridging character between
> Fechin and Father Inire, speaking of both as though they were his master.
>
> (not to ignore that Rudesind himself is small, old, bent, monkey-like and
> associated with art and museums. Rudesind describes a painting that Fechin
> made of him when he was a boy. The painting has paintbrushes shown next to
> him. It is an old mystery-solving trope, e.g. Encyclopedia Brown or
> Hardy Boys, where the mystery is solved when it is recognized that a
> painting
> of someone with paintbrushes is a self-portrait)

I can buy Rudesind being Fechin, or at least having taken Fechin's
identity. But I don't recall Fechin being old, and a handsome teenage boy
gaining carnal knowledge of a teenage girl hardly sets him apart.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - < jwilson at clueland.com >
A&M Texarkana Computational Intelligence Lab
< http://www.tamut.edu/cil >

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