(urth) Faterh Inire Theory cont.

[Lee Berman]

Son o' Witz- I think you meant, "Just smokin' the stuff"  :)

 
Hah!  :- P!
 
Antechamber aside, I can't help but feel the discussion of Jonas's ship is missing a major thematic
connection. Jonas and Hethor and Father Inire all have a facility with mirrors. All have served on 
a spaceship or come from other worlds. Hethor notes he served various roles on his Quasar ship with 
demon-haunted sails. Severian has a spaceship and fountain in his mausoleum crest. Severian's crowning 
achievement is to take a ship and retrieve the New Sun.
 
Ship, ship, ship. Sure we can postulate that Jonas' ship was some other ship which happened to use mirrors.
But I just don't feel that's how Wolfe is working, especially with BotNS. With this story he has constructed
a *Labyrinth*. A closed off "world" which does not allow excessive outside introductions to clutter things up. 
Instead every twist turns the story back on itself. Each branch of the path brings one (us and Severian) back 
to familiar scenes with familiar characters. 
 
Wolfe is working like Dr. Talos. Instead of recruiting lots of different actors to play the many parts, he finds
ways to disguise his existing actors so they can play multiple parts. A criticism of my Father Inire Theory is 
that I am finding him everywhere. I think this is not a weakness but rather its supreme strength.  In my view 
Father Inire is stunningly, breathtakingly everywhere.
 
I think Gene Wolfe expected us to be able to (intuitively?) gather the evidence above and conclude that there
was only one Ship for Father Inire, for Hethor, for Jonas and for Severian. Nobody was smart enough to do that.
So in UotNS he showed us THE Ship (and did not show us any other interstellar ships). He showed us the sails and 
their action in close detail. He showed us beings resembling Jonas on this ship. He shows us a sailor who resembles 
Hethor on this ship (in the hologram Autarch scene). It is enough for me. I get it, there is no "perhaps". In the 
Solar Labyrinth there is only room for One Ship.
 
Wolfe shows us Severian on this ship. He kinda shows us Jonah and Hethor.  But someone is missing. Where is
Father Inire? If he were to be on The Ship, how would we know him? What is his essence? 
 
On Urth, Inire was a never-seen mysterious figure who might have taken various guises, shapes, sizes and even 
species forms to keep tabs on Severian. We have a figure like that on The Ship.  On Urth, we have Inire as a
demi-urgical ruling power who works both sides of wars and conflicts to achieve his goals. On The Ship (the
trip TO Yesod) we have an all-powerful Captain who is never seen but who is somehow unable to control a 
mutiny of jibers; a conflict Severian gets embroiled in. A necessary embroilment as we later find out.
 
After Severian gets on the ship, why has Father Inire not been helping Valeria as Autarch after 1000 years of 
doing just that? out when Severian got on The Ship? Where did he go? Why did Hethor seem so sincere in his reverence 
and respect for Severian, "My Master!" Why did Tzadkiel say he had been an acolyte of Severian's in another past 
universe?
 
For me the dots are not too far apart and fairly easy to connect. There may be bits of counter-evidence tossed
here and there to confuse us. Wolfe always does that. But the big picture is too big and clear for me to ignore.
Father Inire is everywhere. He is demonic, he is angelic. He is scientific, political and magical. He is gigantic 
and tiny, animal, human, alien, male, and female. Father Inire is master of all opposites. Father Inire is....