(urth) Father Inire Theory cont.

[Lee Berman]

>Andrew Mason: While if a work has another literal meaning, distinct from the surface one, 
>this will _normally_ subvert the surface meaning.  In discovering what really happens, we 
>discover that we were wrong about what seemed to happen. I now know (because you have explained) 
>that this is not what you were claiming about Wolfe.
 
Correct. This should have been clear from the portion of the discussion where I posited that Wolfe
himself suggests there are seven levels of interpretation to his work. Perhaps we can agree that any
author who bothered to undercut and subvert his own message seven times over is just being a pain in
the ass.
 
The multiple layers support each other they don't undercut. Thus if the superficial text is unclear 
about the origins, motivations or eventual history of a character like Severian or Typhon or Father 
Inire, we can deduce them by studying their legendary model or conflated models, whom I propose are 
Hercules/Jesus, Alexander/Typhon and Dionysus/Great God Pan. BTW, I think this principle can be used to 
answer the question about Maytera/General Mint as I will post soon.
 
>For instance, when asked who Blood's father was he [Wolfe] said, quite straighforwardly, 'Patera Pike'
 
These occasions are nice, perhaps. But so extremely rare that they can't be of much use in your quest to 
determine which Wolfean answer are "right". Moreover the unhappy truth is that Gene Wolfe will be dead 
soon and, as I've heard he kept no notes, that source of determining "rightness" will be forever lost 
to us. I hope you will not fall into the thinking errors of Gerry Quinn who seems to have decided that
his calculations of "probabiity" and "likelihood" of rightness are general truths and not based on 
personal feelings.
 
 
>even if I accept that a work has more than one reading, incompatible but equally real, this does not 
>mean that I will accept every reading of it.
 
Nor has anyone suggested you should. We help each other here. Share ideas. But ultimately, despite Gerry's 
screams of denial, our interpretations of Gene Wolfe's work can never be more than our "own personal mythology" 
that each of us have built for ourselves. You can borrow what you like and build what works for you.