(urth) Father Inire as Dionysus

[David Stockhoff]

On 10/23/2011 9:56 AM, David Stockhoff wrote:
>
> Going further: I could add a fourth "reason" for Severian to not 
> mention things that he must know as Autarch---which is that in his 
> acquired memories he knows so much that it would overpower any 
> narrative. To tell his story he must push those memories aside and 
> speak as himself.
>
> Still, the Autarchs must not know everything about Severian, or else 
> Severian himself would know everything about himself. This present 
> further problems. Either Inire knows more than the Autarchs (quite 
> likely) or Severian actually knows (rather than suspects or fears) the 
> answers to all the things we puzzle over and deliberately hides them. 
> Fine. But then we must believe he hides them badly. 


Looking through the text, I just realized that one of the first things 
Sev does upon gaining the old Autarch's memories is to go question Ouen 
with very specific questions.

So, just to answer myself (I'm sure everyone else is way ahead of me 
here), either the Autarch DID know the identity of Severian's mother and 
passed it to Sev, indicating that the Autarch was in on the plot (or 
knew its characters) ...

... or Sev just did a lot of thinking while he was alone in the mountains.