(urth) Father Inire

[David Stockhoff]

On 12/2/2011 12:05 PM, Jerry Friedman wrote:
>> From: Gerry Quinn<gerry at bindweed.com>
>> From: Lee Berman
> ...
>
>>> 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?
>> If she’s old, she can’t be Severian’s twin, certainly.
>   
> There's always time travel.  Is it odd that Severian doesn't consider the possibility?
>   
> By the way, is there any reason to connect the speculation that there's only one Ship with Severian's speculation that there are only two witches?

Provisionally, I consider such thoughts to be largely philosophical and 
intended to disguise hints about Severian himself as well as the nature 
of time and the universe and human evolution. They suggest that 
archetypes are real---and one could write a book about that topic in 
Wolfe alone.

Somehow I have a persistent image of a single needle stitching back and 
forth through time---is that Severian's or my own? At any rate, Master 
Ash suggests time is a fabric or a sea. The Conciliator seems to behave 
as a darning needle stitching the fabric of time. Whether purely 
cyclical or slowly getting somewhere it is a huge theme; one would 
expect hints such as this dropped throughout. And they are.
>
>> Maybe she isn’t really old and her witchy experiments/knowledge age her.  Then she would look similar to the Cumaean’s previous acolyte whom Severian met.
>>
>> I don’t think there’s any sensible reason to think Jolenta is Severian’s sister.  We don’t know her name,
>   
> Let me see if I have this right.  For some readers, our not knowing her original name would suggest that she's Severian's sister, because if we knew it, that would give the game away.  Can anyone confirm this?

If that were true, the only possible name would be Severa. No other name 
comes close to the absolute certainty that Severa is sister of Severian. 
All other feminine names could serve to hide that name. So I don't see 
how characters' names can mean a lot one way or another in proving 
Severa exists.
>
>> and your “incest factor” is meaningless.
>   
> I'm inclined to agree there.

I think incest is meaningful but that doesn't mean it must occur, much 
less always. For all we know, Severa is indeed Severian's real twin 
sister and according to alchemy, their union would repair the divide 
between the male and female godhead, or whatever it's supposed to have 
done for the Egyptians.

So what? That would make Apheta a prime candidate, but that turns the 
theory on its head. What would happen if Severa and Severian did NOT 
meet and mate? Anything?

If Briah is a gnostic/fallen universe where beings enact meaningless 
rituals in hopes of connection with the Divine, but where a Christ 
figure achieves an apotheosis of sorts and a partial reconciliation of 
Increate and man by doing all sorts of other things, would we really 
expect all those rituals to come about? Wouldn't they be a different 
path from the one he took?