Re: Dune Conlang
From: | Brook Conner <nellardo@...> |
Date: | Thursday, November 11, 1999, 14:54 |
John Cowan writes:
> It's from the verb "gerere", which has a vast range of meaning
> and did not IIRC survive in any Romance language. Its literal
> sense is "bear about, carry, wear"; by extension "bring forth,
> be pregnant with, produce"; metaphorically "play a part,
> conduct oneself, behave, show, exhibit, manifest, administer,
> manage, regulate, do business, spend time". In this case,
> "behave" or "conduct oneself" is the best translation.
To bring it back to Dune, it seems that the more literal meanings,
e.g., bring forth, be pregnant with, are more apt than "behavior" -
the Sisterhood was conducting a selective breeding program to produce
a psychically superior man. I.e., Bene Gesserit - well
he:will:have:produced - He will produce goodness.
This seems to bear up by a weird transposition with the Bene Tleilax
(founded well after the BG), where the "produce" sense of Gesserit has
analogously transfered to the Bene, while Bene retained some sense of
the "well". Tleilax being the planet known for excessive genetic
engineering and manipulation. So "Will produce good genetically
engineered things."
All hypothetical (unlike John's analysis of the Latin).
Any comments? Further thoughts? Any notes in Herbert's letters, etc.?
Brook
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CONGRESS.SYS Corrupted: Re-boot Washington D.C (Y/n)?
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Fancy. Myth. Magic.
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