(urth) Father Inire Theory

[Ryan Dunn]

On Dec 4, 2010, at 12:25 PM, Lee Berman wrote:

>> M. ben Witz: Wait a sec. I JUST finished NewSun again and I can not remember the 
>> old boatman in any other scenes besides the near drowning at the beginning and when 
>> we meet him on the Lake of Birds.
> 
> That's an interest post to me Witz. Most do not think the boatman at the drowning is
> the Boatman at the Lake of Birds. I think Borski suggests that the "drowning" old boatman
> is Maxellindis' "Uncle", who is also a boatman, because they both speak of undines. Actually
> all three of these boatmen speak of undines. I wrote it as Maxellindis' "Uncle" because 
> Severian suspects it isn't really her uncle. Thus we have at least two of the boatmen showing
> a creepy fascination for pubescent young women (some calculate Dorcas' age at 13-14 for her
> first birth). So maybe add "creepy poppet fascination" to "monkeys", "old and bent" and "obscured 
> eyes" as marks of a shapeshifter.


To me, the simple clue of a random old man asking whether a man underwater was sure he didn't see a woman under there, would suggest the Boatman. Doesn't Gyoll flow into the Garden of Endless Sleep, anyway?

I don't recall the boatman at Gyoll asking after undines, just whether Severian was sure he didn't see a woman.

And regarding the boatman at the Botanic having a fascination for young girls, why couldn't the boatman have been of a similar age when she died? I thought the point of the boatman was to demonstrate just how long Dorcas had been submerged. Am I missing something?

...ryan