(urth) Father Inire [was: Pike's ghost]

[Gerry Quinn]

From: Lee Berman 

> Well, I'm being silly. The text of UotNS makes it pretty clear that it is the hierodules
> who are being refered to as cousins. The Baldanders/Talos conversations rather clearly
> describe B, F and O as reluctant helpers of humanity. 

Indeed, it seems likely that these are the cousins in question.  Reluctantly or not, they seem willing to help both humanity and others; Severian interrupts one of their visits to the room where Baldanders vivisects human women.  As interstellar arms dealers, if that is one of their roles on Urth, they also apparently do not choose sides.  They seem to take the view that conflict leads to progress.
 

> Invoking the religio-mythological connection, who would be the "once or twice removed" 
> relatives of angels? As I see it, removed from heaven= fallen. I think we can expect 
> that fallen angels would be, in many ways, the opposite of angels. 

This angle would seem to require that you identify angels.  You mean the interstellar arms dealers, right?  Would an angel say: "Is all the world a war of good and bad? Have you not thought it might be something more?"


> B and F are tall, 
> Inire and Cumaean are short. B and F are young and beautiful, Inire and Cumaean are 
> old and ugly. B and F are careful to minimize their interactions with humanity.
> Inire and the Cumaean get right into the thick of things- ugly things like war and
> necromancy and artificial beautification.

If the Hierodules are supplying weapons to both sides (of course we’re not certain of that, I think – perhaps some other group of cacogens is supplying them, in which case it might be *they* who are Inire’s cousins), they would seem to have a worse claim on our sort of morality than Inire.  The Cumaean does a little necromancy, but the artificial beautification was the work of the Hierodules’ pal Talos.

 
> Anyway, what Inire hopes to get from his "cousins" are more weapons. This is made clear 
> from the letter and Inire's obsession with winning the war with the Ascians. When he
> says "us" he may mean Inire and Severian. He may mean the Commonwealth. It doesn't
> matter. Think of it from Father Inire's perspective. He gets a new Autarch every few
> decades but he remains in his position as "humble servant" for 1000+ years. Who is really 
> benefitting when the Autarch and the Commonwealth triumph? Father Inire. 

Is there any evidence that Inire has been around for 1000 years, or anything like it?  And if he knows that Severian will bring the New Sun, he doesn’t apparently intend to do anything to stop it.

 
> B, F and O seem to have higher goals in mind than winning wars.

Indeed, it appears they don’t care who lives or dies so long as human knowledge advances.  They would willing have worked simultaneously with Josef Mengele and the Manhattan Project.


> Inire, Cumaean and Barbatus 
> and Famulimus may share Roman names, as cousins might be expected to do,  but their physical, 
> behavioral and lifespan differences must mean something. We may be tempted to think of Inire 
> as a wise, benign, humble sort of servant to Severian. But if we read Inire's letter and the 
> story of Domnina carefully we are shown disturbing flaws in his character. Wolfe marks Father
> Inire's chamber with a monstrous ("teratoid") symbol. Should we ignore it?     

No more than we should ignore the hideous masks worn by Barbatus and co., I suppose.

- Gerry Quinn



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