(urth) Father Inire

[David Stockhoff]

On 12/2/2011 8:15 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
> On 12/2/2011 12:02 AM, Lee Berman wrote:
>
> Gerry Quinn: The Cumaean does a little necromancy, but the artificial beautification was the work of the Hierodules’ pal Talos.
>
>
> Merryn twice makes claims that The Cumaean is superior to Dr. Talos, both as a physician and a beautificator. Merryn herself appears to be a subject of The Cumaean's work as she appears to be the same age as she was when Severian saw her some 15 years
> previously. At that time, when Severian was a kid, Merryn's face was:
>
>
>
>   "at once suggestive of beauty and disease. The witch to whom it beloned seemed old to me and must actually have been about twenty or a little less..." She was not tall and she carried herself in the bent-backed posture of extreme age. Her face was so lovely and bloodless that it might have been a mask carved in ivory by some master sculptor".
>
>
>
> Severian's connection to The Cumaean during the seance seems to give him the gift of true sight. He sees The Cumaean in her snake-like form, "one of those who ride the night air who sometimes choose to borrow a human seeming".
>
>
>
> He sees Merryn and observes, "Now that intelligence no longer animated that ivory mask I saw that it was no more than parchment over bone".
>
>
>
> Severian had it backwards in their first meeting, Merryn is really old but has been made to appear young. This jibes with The Cumaean's decribed role as a beautifier and her detailed knowledge of those arts including how Jolenta had been beautified.
>
>
>
> FWIW, I think Merryn's age, name and lack of height disqualify her as a candidate for being Severian's twin. I think Jolenta's height, name and the incest factor make her a better candidate. Was she a witch before waitress? 	

With all that is going on in the rooftop scene, it seems a little narrow 
to focus on "Cumaean as beautician." Or even as a physician:

"You do not need a physician now," Merryn said. "Someone better is here."


Merryn doesn't say "a better one is here." She says "someone better 
[than a physician] is here. " Therefore, the Cumaean is not a physician. 
After all, she doesn't have anything but wine to give Jolenta.

She seems to have powers over time. If she always sees the way Severian 
sees during the seance, as from a perspective longer than a single 
moment, then of course she can see Jolenta's bands and wires like he 
can. She doesn't seem to care much about appearances, and given the 
dismissive way she talks of Merryn, she doesn't really sound like a 
witch who would say, "Oh my, you'll never catch a man with that face, 
dearie. Come here and let me fix you up."

As for the evidence that she is a beautician ... is it possible that you 
have been deceived by a metaphor? "Parchment over bone" means either 
that Merryn wears a mask, which Sev can now see (it is not "ivory" as it 
appears, i.e., firm, smooth white carved "skin," but a thin skin mask), 
or that she is simply very old (no mask at all, but thin skin over 
cheekbones without flesh, as the aged can have)---hard to say for sure. 
Maybe she is a kind of marionette, who knows.

Either way, is it not likely that Merryn is ravaged by time? And is it 
not just a small step from there to consider that maybe she has seen 
more years than those that have passed between now and last Severian saw 
her? And is she not bent over, thus actually making her taller than she 
looks? Sev says "she was not tall" and "she was bent over" in the same 
breath. I defer to his ability to size up a client, but that seems odd.

Without judging whether Merryn is Severa or not, Merryn strikes me as 
being the closest. Only three rules need to be true to make her a 
candidate: (1) all half-exultant women are tall, but not as tall as 
exultants or male half-exultants (2) all twin sisters of torturers are 
witches (3) all witches are ravaged by time. (1 and 3 would effectively 
cancel under casual observation.) Is there not a hypothesis floating 
around that the Witches' Keep is a "chronostructure"?

What is it about the name Jolenta (violet) that disqualifies her from 
being Severa?