(urth) Father Inire Theory

[Jeff Wilson]

On 12/4/2010 11:42 PM, Ryan Dunn wrote:
>
> On Dec 5, 2010, at 12:38 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>
>> On 12/4/2010 10:07 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Jeff Wilson: Maxellindis' uncle was under constant observation by Eata for four or
>>>> five years on their boat before *he* died, also during the time when
>>>> Inire was actively serving Autarch Severian.
>>>
>>> We could thus disqualify Maxellindis' uncle from consideration as a version of Inire.
>>> Or it could be a push toward option 2: The multiple versions of Inire are independently
>>> operating copies of a larger god-like being. I've been leaning toward #2 for a while.
>>
>>
>> That would suggest that Severian and Dux Caesidius and Ouen are shape-shifting godlets, as they resemble each other in just as many respects. Agia and Agilus are even more alike, surely they are as well?  The Path of Air woman, Catherine, and the woman stolen from the necropolis are likewise suspiciously similar. The village sorcerers are practically all alike other than their names, and then there are the ape men at the mine who don't even have names to set them apart. Are they all carbon copy gods as well?
>
>
> To paraphrase with less snarkiness... Jeff Wilson does not believe Father Inire to be a shapeshifter.

Not one of that kind at least. Most of the major and minor characters 
undergo changes equally or more profound, but in different ways. The 
shapeshifting of Foila's story and Tzadkiel's literal ability are 
"taken", and the plot device needn't be debased when there are so many 
options left like Dr Talos' thaumaturgy or the mirrors' 
transmogrification, or the Exultants' royal jelly, or....

Inire and the Cumaean are manufactured creatures or at least of 
manufactured race, like the rest of the Yesodis. They have no need to 
split and change shape because they are made to order for their specific 
tasks handed down by the likes of Tzadkiel. They become bent with age as 
they struggle to exceed their parameters, but that's it. They're the 
underpeople, the replicants of Yesod, similar to the way the animal-folk 
are the underpeople of the Commonwealth.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >