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Re: THOUGHTS: Bourne, Berne, Berneville, Bourneville
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Matt wrote:1. James Ramey, in his article, "Parasitism and Pale Fire's Camouflage," points out that in a passage from Ada (p. 230-231), Nabokov uses the French word berne (meaning trick, dupe, fool). Here is Ramey's analysis:And it is perfectly true that "berne," in French, means "trick," "dupe," or "fool." But that in itself may be a hint that the reader is being duped (or burned) by this very word[...] It all makes sense only when we discover that in Webster's Second, "berne" is listed inconspicuously in the lower section of p. 256 as a synonym of "TORCEL." When we follow this indexical plot twist, we find "torcel" listed on p. 2671 as "The larva of a South American botfly (Dermatobia hominis) that lives beneath the human skin." Thus the berne in Ada is yet another mimesis of nature's mimicry, deceiving us once again into blithely taking appearances as they appear.
JM: I've often seen the "bicho berne" (as it is called here) but mainly in warm-blooded farm animals. The insemination by a botfly is achieved by a trick, by duping the second host ( I don't remember the exact procedure now, but the botfly lets its eggs be borne away by another less conspicuous fly).
Berne also suggest "bear" ( Swizterland's Berne, Berlin... Russia!)
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JM: I've often seen the "bicho berne" (as it is called here) but mainly in warm-blooded farm animals. The insemination by a botfly is achieved by a trick, by duping the second host ( I don't remember the exact procedure now, but the botfly lets its eggs be borne away by another less conspicuous fly).
Berne also suggest "bear" ( Swizterland's Berne, Berlin... Russia!)
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm