(urth) Monkey business

Roy C. Lackey rclackey at stic.net
Thu Jul 8 21:07:58 PDT 2010


Okay, let's see if we can find some middle ground in all this monkey
business.

That some characters in the Urth Cycle are compared, in some way, with
monkeys is beyond dispute. Since Wolfe wrote it, I think almost everyone
will agree that the simian markers signify *something*. What seems to be at
issue is what that something is.

There are also some appearances of monkey-like creatures, including the
dog-ape hybrid figure who looked in on Severian in the lazaret. Inire,
Rudesind and Fechin are each likened (by Sev or report of another character)
to a monkey, but in different ways.

Inire is rumored to look like a monkey and said to be the oldest man in the
world, so he must look like a very old man. He is said to be a little man,
with a wry neck and bow legs.

Rudesind has a wrinkled neck, long arms and legs, long feet, crooked fingers
and moves up and down his ladder like an aged monkey. His height is
undetermined, but when he led Sev to the Old Autarch in the House Absolute
(in CLAW) he was leaning on Sev's arm and had to cock his head up to look
Sev in the face. That implies that he is not very tall. He has brown eyes
that are "rheumy" and the hairs on his face are white with age.

Fechin is said by the old man at Casdoe's cabin (hereafter I will call him
"Old Man", since his name is not given**) to be tall and have red hair on
his hands and arms. His arms, but for their size, are said to have looked
like a monkey's. His face, however, was unlike a monkey's; it was handsome.

(** That his name is not given may or may not be important.)

Old Man and Rudesind both knew or met Fechin when they were boys, and the
old men were thought by Sev to be about the same age. Each had their picture
drawn or painted by Fechin when they were boys.

I don't think there is much to argue about in the above. Maybe having all
these basic facts in one place will suggest a theory other than Inire
somehow being some or all of these characters.

It should also be remembered that Sev's first manuscript was written ten
years after he became autarch, and that he had full access to the Old
Autarch's memories. The significance of that is that he had decades of
familiarity with Inire, which means most of the normal human lifespans of
the above men except, of course, Inire. If Rudesind, an acknowledged agent
of the Old Autarch (and of Inire), had not aged like a normal human being
during the Old Autarch's tenure, then Sev should have and would have known
it.

-Roy




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