(urth) Monkey business

David Stockhoff dstockhoff at verizon.net
Mon Jul 12 16:53:22 PDT 2010


Could this fit a genetic program carried out by Inire? The problem there 
is that you consider Inire to be corrupting, but in that scenario he 
would be purifying.

Of course incest itself is seen in exactly those terms, which makes this 
logical.

Lee Berman wrote:
> Roy I appreciate your efforts to ground all discussion in direct
> references from the text. I certainly welcome the generation of
> a theory which explains all these monkey references better than 
> mine, which struggles and strains to hold together.
>  
> I must add that it isn't only the monkey aspect that I see as 
> marking the appearances of Father Inire, it is a constellation
> of traits. The best illustration of that is the old boatman. It is
> from him that we hear the confirming description that Inire is small
> and bent. But we are told, without acknowledgement by Severian, that
> the boatman himself fits that very description. If we are looking for 
> a mysterious Inire and we find a guy who looks like him and spends 
> large amounts of time in a place built by Inire and frequented by 
> Inire and his brethren, a red flag goes up for me. Severian is 
> always comparing things to other things and people to other people
> so I am suspicious when he doesn't make an obvious comparison like this.
>  
> Another suspicious scene occurs in regard to the old person in 
> Casdoe's house. The red flag goes up for me because, over a long sequence 
> of events,  nobody (except Severian's narration) acknowledges this person.
> Nobody says, "hey Little Severian, tell grandpa its time to eat" or "hey,
> grandpa, a monster just ate two of our family, we have to leave". Only 
> Severian interacts with that old person.
>  
> My guess is that was done to avoid the use of any revealing pronouns. 
> My guess is that Severian has misjudged the gender of this person. I 
> think this person's description of Fechin is so adoring and admiring
> that it must come from a woman, not a man. And thus perhaps we have
> two unreliable narrators. I suspect Fechin is not really tall nor 
> handsome but just perceived that way through loving eyes. I detect some
> jealousy as the old person discusses how she(?) has to wait for Fechin
> while he has his liaison with a beautiful girl (Dorcas?). 
> Wait for her turn, I think.
>
> All this is the sort of speculation piled upon speculation that Roy hopes
> to avoid. And I apologize. The only reason I indulge in it is because it
> provides (for me) answers to one of the deepest mysteries of the story
> Who are Severian's family members?
>  
> If I am right about the boatman, then Inire is Severian's grandfather. If
> I am right about the old person in Casdoe's house then Little Severian is
> Severian's cousin. If I am right about Rudesind, his dead wife and
> two daughters, then Dorcas is his grandmother, Catherine is his mother and
> Cyriaca (who has a suspiciously knowledgeable "uncle") is his aunt. I see 
> other clues which suggest Agia and Agilus are cousins and Jolenta is his 
> sister. The source of all the incestuous desires in the family is from the
> patriarch, Father Inire, a benign but corrupting alien influence on humanity
> (and Severian's cursed family) which must be cleansed.
>  
> Naturally there are text citations I can make to support each of the 
> possibilities I suggest above.  If somebody wants to hear them that's
> fine. Finding mistakes and inconsistencies is also welcome.  Otherwise
> that's my nutshell theory on Father Inire which, for the most part, works
> for me.
>  
> (I'll remention that I think the positive model for this ubiquitous, chimeric
> being is the non-fallen Tzadkiel, who can simultaneously be as big as an
> island, small as tinkerbell, exist as a hairy blob, a caveman, an adonis and a
> female. How all this relates to Severian's mating with Apheta is an interesting 
> question)
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