(urth) Father Inire Theory cont.

[David Stockhoff]

My 2 cents ...

On 12/11/2010 12:10 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
>
> 1. Ultan is a curator which automatically associates him with Father Inire, who may not be the
> most wholesome character to associate with.
He's an employee of sorts.
> 2. Ultan's assistant, Cyby carries a five-branched candlestick which could hint at the occult
> symbol of the pentagram with a candle at each point.
A pentagram is a pentagram, and a row is a row. The number 5 is probably 
more to the point, and that is what the pentagram represents anyway. 
Man, among other things. God's grace is another.
> 3. Ultan says that on the Feast Day, their guild marches down "Iubar Street" conspicuously mentioning
> the name twice. Iubar is a Latin word invoking radiant light, a splendid, glorious appearance,
> the morning star, and the chemical phosphorus. All these are directly related to Lucifer.
Good! Lucifer, not Satan.
> 4. Ultan mentions books bound in the hides of echidnes and krakens. This could mean spiny anteater
> and giant squid skins. But any mention in this story of a giant sea monster and the Mother of All
> Monsters/wife of Typhon raises a red flag for me.
Fair enough, although these emerge more in Long Sun.
> 5. Ultan describes the entry process to their guild: A child perusing books in the Library long enough
> eventually finds The Book of Gold. "Then the librarians come, like vampires, some say, but others say
> like the fairy godparents at a christening. They speak to the child and the child joins them....soon
> his parents know him no more." Legends have both fairies and demons involved in such child snatchings.
Yes. However, recall that BOTNS is meant to be taken as the (or a) 
Golden Book, which does the same thing. Books are another world, like 
the Celtic Otherworld; they are important in their own right and that 
can explain this. Still, the Faerie reference is strong.
> 6. Ultan is especially familiar with the book Lives of the Seventeen Megatherians as well as Wonders Of
> Urth and Sky. Both books seem to deal with the monsters in the sea and their origins.
Or, Ultan knows his myths because he knows his books.
> 7. When Severian speaks to Ultan of eating the dead, he replies, "It is unwise to know too much about
> these practices, though when I think of sharing the mind of a historian like Loman or Hermas...".
> Severian thinks Ultan must have forgotten, "how nakedly our faces can betray our deepest feelings..by
> the light of the candles I saw his twisted in such an agony of desire that out of decency I turned away".
Ultan desires exactly what he says he does, and for the reason he gives. 
He loves books, and books are a way of sharing minds that does NOT 
involve cannibalism. Really, this is Ultan as anti-cannibal, not as 
cannibal.
> One or two of these elements I wouldn't notice as significant. All seven added together...sorta creepy.
> Did Wolfe put them all in without purpose?
>
> FWIW, in a recent search I chanced upon this, the wording and ritual for conducting Black Mass. Also pretty
> creepy in a similar way to Master Ultan's issues, for me. http://www.angelfire.com/in4/cotf_indianapolis/rituals2.html 		 	   	
This idea of Satanism is a very recent and very silly invention. So is 
the pentagram as a symbol of Satan. More to the point, it is not literary.
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