(urth) Horn's ability

[Jerry Friedman]

>From: Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com>
>From: Lee Berman 
>> From 5HoC to Short Sun, from Number 5 to Shadow Children to Tzadkiel to Neighbors, Wolfe 
>> has addressed the Identity Problem by using characters in his fiction who are not singular 
>> in nature as we are. I'm not sure why multiple Father Inire identities is so troublesome
>> and rises such resistance in some. Still the idea seems to nag and bother even those 
>> vehemently against it and that itself raises some questions in regard to why.
>
>How neat.  That people argue against your theories itself constitutes evidence for them in your mind.

He hasn't said that, but certainly questioning why people don't agree with you is rude, as if they couldn't have a rational reason.  And if one were to go farther and suggest psychological obstacles to people's agreement with one's theories, that would be rude and annoying whether one's guesses were right or wrong.  I'm glad Lee didn't do that.
 
>I told you why I argue against it already: Father Inire as boatman, as well as making no sense in itself,  wrecks the character and storyline of a major character, Dorcas.
>
> 
>> I think one problem is that the story is told in first-person, but Father Inire is 
>> presented in null-person. He never shows up. In my current view, the guy is either 
>> nowhere or all over the place. I just can't see the literary value in placing him in 
>> disguise as a few non-important characters. Why would Wolfe do that? Why, in the course 
>> of seven intense years of writing and editing and creating such difficult puzzles of which 
>> only some have been solved to this day, why would he make Father Inire such a throw-away? 
>
>He’s not a throwaway.  He’s the cacogen who came to Urth as advisor to the Autarchs.  He is capable of the odd spying mission in
> the jungle, too.
 
What is the overt value of Father Inire to the narrative?  He introduces the mirrors, he provides an explanation for how the Botanic Garden can be mostly in good repair (and for the Secret House? I forget), and his letter shows the kind of information Severian now needs as the Autarch (in addition to being the clearest source in BotNS for the information that the Ascians are the slaves of Abaia, I think, but no doubt someone will correct me if there's another clear source).  He provides a mystery that may engage our attention and a suspect for the manipulation of Severian's life, which he tells us overtly is happening.
 
I don't see that as a throwaway at all.
 
> But he’s not all over the place.  He’s in the places he’s supposed to be.
 
In particular, we may be tempted to deal with this air of mystery by detecting his covert influence on the story, more or less speculatively.  But the solution doesn't have to be that he /is/ other characters.  Whatever the purpose of his being another character may be, it can probably be served by his employing that character.  It's /more/ explicit in the text that he employs Rudesind than that he is the cowled servant or the old jungle guide, which suggests a theory he has agents here and there, or that he both has agents and appears in disguise.  (Then there's a possible theory that other characters' agents are trying to suggest that they're his agents or him.)
 
I thank people for looking at these theories, as I'd never have noticed on my own that the cowled servant or the jungle guide could be Inire.
 
Jerry Friedman