(urth) Father Inire guises

[Jeff Wilson]

> Jeff Wilson asks:
>> Er, how do you explain Docas' husband being dead *and* immortal? Or the 
>> well-connected Inire handicapping his earnest search for Dorcas' body by 
>> doing it manually and alone, one body at a time?
> 
> Um. well, if I must defend: Within this interpetation, Dorcas' husband/Father Inire isn't 
> really dead.  Occasionally playing dead would be a necessary skill for an immortal guy
>  who takes on many mortal human roles, yes?  On his bier he is described by Severian
> as with a "back so straight, his face in death, so youthful, that I hardly knew him. That's
>  a rather odd thing to happen to a dead body (imo) unless the dead body is a shape 
> changer who wants his wife of many years ago to view him more as she remembered him.

One of the ways of telling a person is dead is that opposing muscle 
groups are relaxed, so it would not be unusual for a person often in the 
grip of strong emotion to look more youthful in death, or a wry necked 
person to lay straighter now that the abnormal muscle tension is gone.

And why would Inire spend years trolling alone, again?



-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >