(urth) Patera Inire

[David Stockhoff]

Does Inire ever do anything without being commanded so by the Autarch?

Lee Berman wrote:
>
> This is all good but not (I think) answering the question which is being
> asked. Perhaps we've all seen the Christian bumper sticker which reads:
> "I know the Future.  God wins".  So fine, we know that. No matter the 
> triumph of evil, we know God eventually uses that victory to His final ends.
> Does this mean Satanists and Hindus and atheists are purposefully working toward 
> Christian goals because their actions will eventually lead to God's victory?
>  
> The question that is posed is whether Father Inire is consciously working
> toward bringing the New Sun. Of course whether the New Sun is an evil event or
> not has been debated in other threads. But let's assume that the New Sun
> is, ultimately, a "good" thing intended to happen by the Increate. By what
> direct evidence do we know that Inire is consciously working toward making
> it happen? His mirrors, his vizier-hood, his architectural exploits, his war and 
> procurement of weaponry from his alien cousins, his distance from B, F and O and 
> Tzadkiel etc.; none seem to suggest Inire has the direct purpose of helping Severian
> bring the New Sun. He seems to be playing his own game.
>
> This gap of purpose for Inire has left me dissatisfied and forced to seek another
> interpretation of the guy. Casting him in the role of pagan god in the face
> of impending Christianity ties the story together for me. Not just Inire's
> governmental role but the veiled references to shapeshifting, monstrous beings,
> half-man half beasts, incest, angels etc. all tied together in a nice pagan package.
>  
> The Greek and Roman gods were associated with their respective empires. 
> Greek and Roman civilizations were the creche and nursery of a now globe-spanning
> religion. If the Olympian gods were actual, real beings (as Wolfe believes they were)
> would we want to say that Zeus and Hermes and Vulcan etc. spent their immortal lives
> consciously working toward the goal of Christianity? That's why they promoted the
> Greek and Roman empires, because they knew it would lead to Jesus? Did Pas set up
> the Whorl because he knew it would lead to the ascendence of the Outsider? 
> I really can't see that.
>  
> Likewise, while I can see Father Inire advancing the Commonwealth, it is without
> purposefully working toward the New Sun. My sense is that higher powers made Inire's
> Urthly efforts work for them. Bottom line, this guy isn't Typhon but he is just too 
> creepy and ugly to be an angel. Perhaps the fall damaged him. Likely Inire's 
> various corrupting influences are a big part of the reason a Flood is needed. 
>  
> FWIW, this works for me. Understood if it makes no sense to others.
>  
>
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