(urth) Father Inire

[Ryan Dunn]

Why would one sit on a "step" ladder, let alone do so while actively cleaning a painting?

To me: 1. Rudesind is standing on a step ladder; and 2. Severian thinking he at first sees a man sitting on a high stool (I'm envisioning a bar stool) implies that (combined with the monkey like long arms and the way he "scrambles") that Rudesind is gangly and short indeed.

And not at all like the more exultant seeming (even in name) Master Ultan. Ultan seemed more like Severian's grandfather while Rudesind seemed like Inire's brother.

One represents a stunted commoner while the other represents a weathered person of import. At least to me.

But what of Cyby!?!?

:)

...ryan

On Dec 27, 2011, at 12:23 AM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at clueland.com> wrote:

> On 12/3/2011 10:20 PM, Lee Berman wrote:
>> 
>>>> "saw someone ahead of me sitting (as I first thought) upon a high stool.  As I
>>> 
>>>> drew nearer, I found that what I had taken to be a stool was a stepladder, and
>>> 
>>>> that the old man perched on it was cleaning one of the pictures."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> Jeff Wilson: That's correct, but Sev affirmitively writes that he was sitting.
>> 
>> 
>> I don't think he does. He says he "first thought" someone was sitting, implying this
>> 
>> was later proved incorrect. So Rudesind was standing but from a distance his shortness
>> 
>> made him look like he was sitting.
> 
> 
> Perhaps. When diagramming the sentence, it is evident that the parentetical could modify either of the previous "sitting" or the subsequent "upon a high stool", and the following sentence makes it clear that the stool was the mistaken thought since it is a stepladder instead. This accounts for the "as I thought" conditional, ergo the "sitting" predicate stands unmodified. Rudesinde is sitting on a stepladder in the way that a person would be expected to sit on a high stool, and in so doing gives the impression that a stepladder is a high stool.
> 
> High stools typically raise the occupant's head to close to a standing height, making their seats about rump high. The smallest practical stepladder would be about two 8" steps tall, while they go on up indefinitely, but given that when Severian speaks...
> 
>> "Excuse me," I said.
>> He turned and peered down at me in puzzlement. "Know your voice, don't I?"
> 
> Rudesind's head is still higher than Sev's head, so making the "stool" shorter makes his standing height taller still. Given that Sev's used to being taller than the bulk of non-exultant humanity, the expected height of a high stool occupant would be a head shorter than him, while Rudesind seems to be at least a head taller.
> 
>> But since Rudesind:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  "scrambled down from the ladder like an aged monkey, seeming all arms and legs and
>> 
>> wrinkled neck; his hands were as long as my feet, the crooked fingers laced with blue
>> 
>> veins"
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> he just doesn't seem much like Ultan. Moreover, Severian mentions Ultan's height several
>> 
>> times. I would think he would mention Rudesind's tallness in a similar direct matter if it
>> 
>> were so.
> 
> But he only mentions Baldanders' tallness once or twice despite him being very tall indeed.
> 
> It may be that Severian thinks of tallness as being outranked in visual magnitude by Baldanders' overall hugeness and by Rudesind's gangliness.
> 
> But he does mention Rudesind's oversized parts (hands as long as feet, disporportionate limbs and neck) but does not mention any parts that would make him any smaller overall.
> 
> So yes, he's similar to Inire in his simian physique, but he's easily 2-3 times his size.
> 
> -- 
> Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
> Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
> < http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >
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