Musings on the Hierodule fieldguide

CRCulver03 Sep 1998, 00:03original as archived

<???--Father Inire. He's a hunched little guy, a Daedalus or Hephaestus or Toth, and since Toth is the most ancient I tend to think of Inire as being something like Toth's totem, the ibis, a bent neck little bird hobbling around, finding treasures in the muck. (Of course, he's also Lewdis Carnal, Victorian child pornographer, hunched over his primitive camera obscena. <g>)> Happily, Inire seems to be just enamoured by little exultantesses, and there is no evidence of his actually molesting them. Boy, wouldn't that be an embarassment to the reign of the Autarch Severian. I'm sure Inire has a longer lifespan than other Hierodules, considering he easily surivived ~2 chiliads as grand vizier (but what happened to him after Severian sailed to Yesod???) Mantis compares Inire to a bird, but I believe the monkey comparison is used more than once in the ol' manuscripts <There are more Hierodules onboard the time saucer. Dr. Talos wants them to come out and blast/scare the natives.> Do you mean the so-called "fantassins?" Fantassination is one of the least- discussed aspects of Hierodulic technology, and I wish Wolfe would share more. Perhaps the fantassins about the Ship of the Hierodules are the same who tried to subdue Baldanders at the House Absolute. Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com> http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html

William H. Ansley04 Sep 1998, 00:06original as archived

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3 quoted lines

<???--Father Inire. He's a hunched little guy, a Daedalus or Hephaestus or Toth, and since Toth is the most ancient I tend to think of Inire as being something like Toth's totem, the ibis, a bent neck little bird hobbling around, finding treasures in the muck. (Of course, he's also Lewdis Carnal, Victorian child pornographer, hunched over his primitive camera obscena. <g>)> Happily, Inire seems to be just enamoured by little exultantesses, and there is no evidence of his actually molesting them. Boy, wouldn't that be an embarassment to the reign of the Autarch Severian.

I certainly hope no one reading this list thinks that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) molested any children. He didn't. He also wasn't a child pornographer - mantis was joking (I hope). William Ansley

Charles Dye04 Sep 1998, 09:30original as archived

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William Ansley writes:

3 quoted lines · 1–2 deep

[quoting mantis]

Happily, Inire seems to be just enamoured by little exultantesses, and there is no evidence of his actually molesting them. Boy, wouldn't that be an embarassment to the reign of the Autarch Severian.

I certainly hope no one reading this list thinks that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) molested any children. He didn't. He also wasn't a child pornographer - mantis was joking (I hope).

In fact, Inire seems decidedly un-Carrollian in the "Father Inire's Mirrors" episode. He takes Domnina away without her parents' permission; he frightens her; his explanations seem to confuse rather than educate. He speaks general relativity, rather than charming nonsense. Still, the connection is definitely there. Mirrors and little girls. And notice how coyly Father Inire drops the name "pleasance?" raster at highfiber.com

William H. Ansley05 Sep 1998, 00:31original as archived

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4 quoted lines

raster at highfiber.com (Charles Dye) wrote: In fact, Inire seems decidedly un-Carrollian in the "Father Inire's Mirrors" episode. He takes Domnina away without her parents' permission; he frightens her; his explanations seem to confuse rather than educate. He speaks general relativity, rather than charming nonsense. Still, the connection is definitely there. Mirrors and little girls. And notice how coyly Father Inire drops the name "pleasance?"

I certainly don't deny the Carroll connection, I noticed it myself on my first reading of TBotNS and especially "The Cat". Even though I was quite sure that Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com> was just joining in on mantis's joke about Lewis Carroll and that everyone reading the list would understand this, I thought there was just the tiniest possibility for confusion, which was why I spoke up (thus revealing a hypersensitivity to possibly harmful misunderstandings that Charles Dodgson himself could probably have appreciated). (BTW, I accept your apology mantis, but no real offense was taken.) William Ansley