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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=severiansola@hotmail.com
href="mailto:severiansola@hotmail.com">Lee Berman</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><BR>> From 5HoC to Short Sun, from Number 5 to Shadow Children to
Tzadkiel to Neighbors, Wolfe <BR>> has addressed the Identity Problem by
using characters in his fiction who are not singular <BR>> in nature as we
are. I'm not sure why multiple Father Inire identities is so troublesome<BR>>
and rises such resistance in some. Still the idea seems to nag and bother even
those <BR>> vehemently against it and that itself raises some questions in
regard to why.</DIV>
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<DIV>How neat. That people argue against your theories itself constitutes
evidence for them in your mind.</DIV>
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<DIV>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.<BR><BR> <BR>> I think one problem is that the
story is told in first-person, but Father Inire is <BR>> presented in
null-person. He never shows up. In my current view, the guy is either <BR>>
nowhere or all over the place. I just can't see the literary value in placing
him in <BR>> disguise as a few non-important characters. Why would Wolfe do
that? Why, in the course <BR>> of seven intense years of writing and editing
and creating such difficult puzzles of which <BR>> only some have been solved
to this day, why would he make Father Inire such a throw-away? </DIV>
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<DIV>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. But he’s not all over the place. He’s in the places he’s
supposed to be.</DIV>
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<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
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