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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=marcaramini@yahoo.com
href="mailto:marcaramini@yahoo.com">Marc Aramini</A> </DIV>
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<DIV>> Could be Gerry, in light of Empires of Foliage and Flower where
</DIV>
<DIV>> Father Thyme is like a big time travelling vegetable.
Could be. </DIV>
<DIV>> You have to watch out for the vegetation, I'm telling you! (I
know </DIV>
<DIV>> you aren't serious but it sneaks up on you and EATS you) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>That’s included in my theory! What do you think the Garden of
Everlasting Sleep is but the Gardens’ open mouth? They get so many
corpses they don’t mind sharing with the birds and Hildegrin. And of
course the averns also kill manatees. Manatees (mermaids) are
obviously spies and assassins sent by the sea monsters, but the Garden’s
averns deal with them easily.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It’s safe to assume that the Gardens/Inire absorb the memories of
those who dissolve in their waters. And consequently, there’s little
doubt that Dorcas, like the boatman, is one of the Gardens’ bud
puppets. There was a real Dorcas once, but the Dorcas Severian meets
is a copy. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ah, how wrong I was to discount the vegetable and fish imagery that
permeates BotNS, focusing instead on the travails of some pitiful
wandering human and his species! And yet, has Wolfe ever written a
single book that does not reference both vegetables and fish? Even
the obvious land and sea references of Blue and Green in Short Sun did not
give me a clue, nor the amphibious yet plantlike nature of the inhumi, who
are destined finally to unite the two Kingdoms.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Vegetables versus fish is the key! All else is just
misdirection and playacting.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR>--- On <B>Tue, 11/8/11, Gerry Quinn
<I><gerry@bindweed.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV>
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<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline">Well, since you say I never come up with
the sort of ideas you like, here’s the solution to how Father Inire can
be lots of people. Note how there is no actual shapeshifting in
the standard sense in BotNS. Tzadkiel and the sea monsters can bud
off small pieces of themselves, but Father Inire is a little guy who
certainly couldn’t do that. So the Father Inire we see must be the
bud of some gigantic creature, and once you realise that it’s obvious
where he comes from.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV>
<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline">Father Inire is the Botanic Gardens!
We are told repeatedly how he (that is to say the Talos-like ‘bud’ that
prowls the corridors of the House Absolute) is associated with them and
has placed magics there, arranged the placing of certain parts, grown
vicious deadly averns, etc. And the Botanic Gardens are right in
the centre of the Commonwealth, hiding in plain sight. >From there,
little humanoid pieces scurry away, becoming artists, spies, and
viziers. Many of the suspicious characters you have noted such as
the boatman and Inire himself are associated with the place. And
the Green Man is an obvious clue: this bud for some reason had not
completed its disguise when it was captured in Saltus, and deprived of
sunlight, it was unable to do so.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline"> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline">The Gardens battle the sea monsters Abaia,
Erebus et al, similarly gigantic creatures living under the sea.
The Wall of Nessus needs no further explanation – the Gardens
ordered its construction for their own protection.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline"> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline">Needless to say, a flooded but sunny world
will be welcomed equally by both vegetables and fish. So while the
Gardens and the sea monsters battle without quarter for the allegiance
of mankind, both support Severian in his quest to bring the New
Sun.</DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline"> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV style="DISPLAY: inline">I wish I knew something of Gene Wolfe’s
food preferences, so I could guess which side he truly supports in the
cosmic struggle between vegetables and fish that is at the heart of any
sane interpretation of
BotNS.</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
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