(urth) Father Inire Theory cont.

[Jeff Wilson]

>
>
>>Dan'l D. Oakes- Um. That he isn't helping Valeria doesn't necessarily
>> mean that he's
>>not on Urth.
>
> It does to me. You could guess that he is up in Ascia or something. But
> Ascia is not shown to us,
> thus it exists outside the Labyrinth. Not an option. In my view Father
> Inire can be in three
> possible places, the places we are shown: The Commonwealth, The Ship or
> Yesod. If he ain't in the Commonwealth....
>
>
>>Jeff Wilson- when Sev signs off to board The Ship, he speculates that
>> Inire will not long survive the
>>coming of the New Sun due to his extreme old age. Since Severian is
>> expecting the New Sun to come as
>>shortly as a few years, the fifty year interval that ends in the thrown
>> room with all the other parties
>>assembled suggests that Inire's just plain dead.
>
> If you trust that Severian understands Father Inire. Which I don't (or
> perhaps I don't trust that Severian
> is telling us all he knows of him). Let's not forget Baldanders. He tells
> us that such angelic beings as
> hierodules die like dogs after a score of years or something like that.
> Not very respectful of angels. Perhaps
> to be expected from a guy who aspires to be a giant, seabound
> monstrosity/demon. But not fully to be believed,
> by me either.
>
> I find the mythological subtext regarding angels, fallen or not,  to be
> far more interesting and inspirational than
> the words of these unreliable guys regarding such important characters as
> Father Inire and B, F and O.
>
> "Well, he got old and just died somewhere and we don't see it and nobody
> talks about it and Severian never finds
> the grave, even though he finds his own".
>
> Jeff, if that works for you, cool. I'm absolutely not arguing it
> shouldn't. But for me it doesn't work.  Not in this
> tightly constructed BotNS Labyrinth. Not for an important character.  For
> me, we HAVE to see Father Inire again just
> as surely as Severian HAD to end up in the Matachin Tower again.  We see
> the story infolds upon itself like that over
> and over. If we don't see Father Inire again I feel compelled to look for
> him. If there is such a giant loose end left
> hanging out of the maze I feel Gene Wolfe is inviting me to tie it up.

I don't think it's important to see "again" a character who never made an
overt appearance to begin with. There's no reason for Inire to be around
after his mission of helping bring the New Sun is compelted, in fact
having him around afterward would itself be a loose end to deal with.

As for Severian finding his own grave, being a time traveler that is not a
big deal; in fact he finds it at least twice, maybe 3-4 times.