(urth) Five Severians -- Severian-as-Clone

[Lee]

>Michael Thayer: I agree that in order to understand tBotNS or tFHoC, we need to 
>take account of Wolfe's propensity for autobiography, self-reference, etc., and 
>I think your thoughts (which I certainly do recognize) shed a lot of light into the
>shadowy mausoleum.  But the five coffins -- *two empty, three closed* --
>should work not only on the level of authorial symbol, but the level of
>narrative as well, shouldn't they?

I agree. Wolfe is meticulous enough to write at multiple levels and to impart real
meaning at multiple levels. But surely some levels of meaning take precedence over 
others for certain sections. Wolfe is still human (I think). And for me, the mausoleum
has more self-referential meaning than Severian/narrative meaning. For me, we are told
there was another previous Severian and there are two coffins open, and that is 
sufficient narrative meaning for me.

I like Entonio's observation that perhaps they are not really just "coffins". The
speculation by so many about possible cloning scenarios demonstrates that there is
sufficient evidence in BotNS to at least speculate on possibilities.

>I think we need to entertain the idea that Father Inire --
>"alive so long beyond the span of his short-lived kind" (Citadel, 405) --
>who seems (to me) to be many places at once, is not a single person but a
>multitude of clones...and all the "bent" "crooked" or
>"small" men who show up cowled or masked in the text -- servitor who
>confers with the Autarch and escorts Sev to the Green Room (Claw 338), the
>masked medicine man escorting Sev in the jungle toward the end of Citadel).
> tFHoC certainly alerts us to the clone as a Wolfe convention and plot
>device -- could it be a key as well?

I very much think so. I've had a similar "Father Inire Theory" for a number of years.
A key difference might be the mode of cloning. Cloning a human presumably means
special biological laboratory equipment as we see in Maitre's and Typhon's and
Baldander's labs. But key question:

Is Father Inire human?

As a "cacogen", surely not. Are we shown an alien form of "cloning" which might be a
more natural biological function not requiring laboratory manipulation? 

Yes, with Tzadkiel. In the Captain's chambers, the huge Tzadkiel has one of her fingers 
break off and form into a human sized Tzadkiel. A sponge (sea creature!)-like reproductive
process is used to explain it. We see similar human-sized buds from giant sea creatures
on Blue and on Urth with Great Scylla in the Short Sun trilogy. Perhaps something like 
this process has produced our multiple Father Inire "clones"?

I'll go further out on a limb. Tzadkiel tells Severian that he had been an acolyte of
Severian's in a previous iteration. Is this a throwaway line or are we supposed to guess
the identity of this "acolyte"? There are few plausible candidates. 

But I go out on a limb and propose- Hethor. Even among Severian-as-Conciliator's followers,
no character more deeply expresses fawning admiration for Severian and calling of "Master" 
than Hethor.

But how could Hethor be associated with Tzadkiel? Because he served on Tzadkiel's Ship. 
Because in his rantings there is talk of him being part of a mutiny to displace the Captain.
Because Severian sees someone looking like Hethor among the "Jibers". Might Hethor have 
originated as a broken off piece of Tzadkiel just like the tinker-bell Tzadkiel? Yes, 
Hethor is a "demon". But what is a demon but an angel who has rebelled and has fallen to 
earth (Urth)?

How does Hethor relate to Father Inire? Both are from off-Urth Both are crooked little guys. 
Both use mirrors and are associated with monsters (Inire's "teratoid symbols). Both seem to 
be keeping an eye on Severian through his travels and adventures. Inire's mirror book shows
Tzadkiel. (FWIW, Inire has some connections to Dionysus, as does the Outsider in Short Sun).

Final summation, perhaps some "clones" in this series are part of a natural biological alien
process. Tag question- How might Severian fit into that scheme? (to be addressed in another
post)