(urth) Father Inire Theory cont.

[Lee Berman]

> OTOH, if I say a man is Odin, he must have a crow on his shoulder as well.
>Ah, so you agree that Silk is Odin.
 
For the record this is definitely NOT my line of thinking. My theory works best
(as it was largely inspired by) the words of Gene Wolfe in his James Jordan interview.
For me, this is not our universe but a previous iteration of it. Severian is not Christ
but a Christ-figure. Father Inire is not Dionysus/Pan/Satan/Lucifer etc. he is a silver-
tongued devil-figure in the model of various evil presences from Earth. By the Christ-model
we can understand some things about Severian. Same principle for Father Inire.
 
It is clear to me that Gene Wolfe considers pagan gods and angels and demons to be real entities
in some way. And part of their nature is that they are frickin' BIG! To interact with humans they
must have a way of changing size. I think Wolfe favors breaking into smaller pieces over shrinking the
total. This allows one entity to do lots of things at once, whisper in multiple kings' ears, etc.

 
Antonio P. Marques: "- What the hell is the purpose of the Cumaean."
 
An excellent question I think. But I'd rather expand it to, "what the hell is the purpose of all the 
attention showered on Severian by all these Urthly alien/pagan god weirdos? First I'd like to point 
out that I see Severian as a Hercules-figure more than a Christ-figure. His life parallels Hercules in
so many ways I've listed elsewhere I think. The name Nessus is an impossible-to-mistake clue and I detect
hints of the 12 Labors in many of Severian's adventures; taming bulls, killing multi- headed monsters, 
capturing a special deer (well, gazelle, which is what "Dorcas" means); the cleansing of the Vincula/Augean 
Stables has already been mentioned. Perhaps there were a few more. Carry Cerberus out of Hades? hm.....
Of interest...one of Hercules' alternate names is Palaemon. Perhaps he was that first Severian...?
 
However, I think there is one thing Christ could do that no Greek/Roman heroes or gods were able to fully  
do, which is a true resurrection of the dead to life. When I look at the many adventures Severian was steered 
toward on his journey, I find a common theme over and over- true resurrection of the dead. Dorcas, himself, 
Thecla, Typhon, Miles, Zama. Tzadkiel had a pretty good way of doing that with eidolons but it wasn't true 
resurrection. Vodalus, The Cumaean, Father Inire, the Old Leech and Ceryx (these last two are also part of 
the alien/pagan god crowd) all had inferior and abominable ways of resurrection. 
 
So the purpose of all these characters was what a pagan god/fallen angel would want most from a Christ-
figure. The Secret of Life. So they put him in various situations in which his nascent powers would perform,
hoping to unknowingly wrest the secret from him. Doomed to failure of course. Higher powers were using the
same adventures to steer Severian toward his destiny as New Sun and the cleansed Urth called Ushas.