the bald gnome Error...

**wesbonifay** · 11-28-2001, 09:30 PM

ok, i don't have my copy of HoL in front of me, but there is a footnote (which happens to be my favorite sentence in the book even though i can't remember it right now) where Zampano writes about killing a man blah blah blah and "that bald gnome Error who came out with his featherless ankles to feast upon the mighty dead" or something just as bizarre.

my question is simple: What?

**albuhtross** · 11-30-2001, 04:05 PM

You got me. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

**angelguts** · 12-02-2001, 01:23 PM

I had took it when i read it to mean some sort of personification of error (like aphrodite love - pan/mischeif etc - and took it to mean in some ancient celtic myth -- and unfortuneatly my knowledge of celtic myths is very sparse -- quiz me on greek/roman myths any day of the week but not celtic ones or even norse) that perhaps there was a gnome who caused error or mischeief or what not) *shrug* but then again maybe i dismissed it too easily.

[ December 02, 2001: Message edited by: angelguts ]

**ManiKatt** · 12-02-2001, 01:39 PM

Perhaps there is a characterhere who fits the description "the bald gnome named error"....

**ThomasJ** · 01-12-2002, 04:39 PM

I think the "marked in white" entry for the word "bald" refers more specifically to the Bald Eagle, whose head is not actually bald, but rather marked in white.

**verismo** · 01-12-2002, 06:21 PM

It sounds like the vulture to me. The one preying on Delial.

**Pulseless** · 01-12-2002, 07:53 PM

i'm startin to think its more of a Pelican

**Pulseless** · 01-12-2002, 11:12 PM

ok, i'm not exactly thinking lucidly right now, nor do i have my copy of HoL on me, but i've decided to expand this topic. i don't know if this reveals any specks of sanity on the whole Bald Gnome Error bit, but worth a shot, huh? found this on a website:

'gnome' is Greek for opinion, thought, or judgment. A 'Gnomic discourse' was the exchange of opinions and thought. 'Gnomic' is from the Greek 'gnomikos.' 'Gnomologies' were collections of moral sentences from some poets of the time.

hmmm...bald, thanks to M-W online:

1 a : lacking a natural or usual covering (as of hair, vegetation, or nap) b : having little or no tread
2 : UNADORNED
3 : UNDISGUISED, PALPABLE
4 : marked with white

and, well, error, thanks again to same, sans examples (but i left the weird Christian Sciece thing):

1 a : an act or condition of ignorant or imprudent deviation from a code of behavior b : an act involving an unintentional deviation from truth or accuracy c : an act that through ignorance, deficiency, or accident departs from or fails to achieve what should be done d : a mistake in the proceedings of a court of record in matters of law or of fact
2 a : the quality or state of erring b : in Christian Science : illusion about the nature of reality that is the cause of human suffering : the contradiction of truth c : an instance of false belief
3 : something produced by mistake; especially : a postage stamp exhibiting a consistent flaw (as a wrong color) in its manufacture
4 a : the difference between an observed or calculated value and a true value; specifically : variation in measurements, calculations, or observations of a quantity due to mistakes or to uncontrollable factors b : the amount of deviation from a standard or specification
5 : a deficiency or imperfection in structure or function

whew. ok then, lets pick at this shall we? i'll begin.

i'll stick with bald being something lacking a natural or usual covering. though the "marked in white" is intriguing. i'll also note the christian science bit. taking gnome into account, perhaps the Bald Gnome Error is meant to be some reference to our ability to have opinionated discussions that bare our selves to light. i'm thinking about the house constantly being covered, hidden, far from bald. if it were it would be far easier to understand it in some fatal way. but the bald gnome error stumbles onward. what the fuck does he mean? perhaps this post will assist anyone. hmmm...bald false opinion. "marked in white?" hello? someone do me a favor and take a bite at this, save me some sleep.

i dont' think this makes any sense, but i won't go back to check what i've written. this will probably cause my errors and opinions to be exposed. arrrggghh!

-P-

**Lost_In_Crete** · 05-01-2002, 12:17 AM

I'm thinking that 'bald/gnome/error' might be another one of those 'known/some/call/is/air/am' or 'etch/a/poo/air' things.
I don't know French, but so far I've gotten

nom = name (obviously)
erreur = error (again, obviously)

so, c'mon somebody who knows French! What's bald mean???
Even w/o it... 'name error' hmmmmm, any thoughts?

**Francis Glances** · 05-01-2002, 05:10 AM

Most men have a bald gnome who often causes them to make errors.

I think Zampano is refering to the (incorrect) psychologist's belief that men are at the mercy of their genitals. Tie's in nicely with the theory that Zampano in some way betrayed a relative by commiting adultery.

[ May 01, 2002: Message edited by: Francis Glances ]

**Lost_In_Crete** · 05-01-2002, 02:59 PM

Any French experts in here? The help would be greatly appreciated. This is really bugging me.

**Jessie** · 05-01-2002, 05:42 PM

Verismo had brought this up before on a thread called "Throwing it out there".
I found some cool things and posted the findings on that thread. I thought I would throw it here as well to see if it helps at all...

"I was intrigued by your ideas and went digging only to discover that every culture since the dawn of existence seems to have their own ideas about vultures
The first one I found made the most sense.
"The father of tragedy" Aeschylus, was known for his magnificently tragic trilogys.
Throughout his dramas is shown the deepest veneration for the gods, the highest regard for the sanctity of an oath and of the nuptial bond, and a firm belief in the immortality of the soul.
The story as to the manner of his death, that a Lammergeier vulture, mistaking his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise upon it to break the shell.
As to the gnomes - the word is of Rosicrucian origin and is the name for earths minerals and elements.
In poetry gnomic verse consists of poems laced with proverbs, aphorisms, or maxims. There were a few essays on Aeschylus I found where he is referred to as a writer of gnomic verse.(Johnny references Prometheus on page 546)
I am wholly ignorant to Aeschylus works so perhaps someone who has studied him in depth would be able to shed some light on if the "bald gnome Error" references a passage in one of his pieces.
Something else worth mentioning is with regard to Zampanos shared traits with author Jorge Luis Borges. Borges had a book of imaginary beings featuring a chapter on Gnomes. He discusses the origin of the word which is from the Greek gnosis(knowledge). Could Zampanos phrasing of coming "out of a cave like a bald gnome error to feast on the dead" have something to do with his diminished mental state. The bald gnome error being less a physical embodyment of a creature but rather a metaphor for his growing insanity?
Also regarding vultures, they are notorious for having horribly weak feet(which is why the Aeschylus-tortoise myth has been deemed a hoax)The feet are important as Navidson has problems with his. More importantly and with specific regard to its eating habits, vultures never kill. They only feed on what is already dead.
This is a horrible observation but in picking over all of Zampanos "bones" Johnny seems to have turned into a vulture in his own right.
Johnny seems to mirror Hamlet in Oscar Wildes essay De Profundis where he observes that Hamlet;
"Instead of trying to be the hero of his own history, he seeks to be the spectator of his own tragedy. He disbelieves in everything, including himself, and yet his doubt helps him not, as it comes not from scepticism but from a divided will."
One other item I found was regarding Aries the God of war- his bird was the vulture. Nisus was Aries son. He was King of Megara when the fleet of King Minos of Crete captured this city. He had a purple lock of hair on which his life depended but his daughter Scylla fell in love with Minos and pulled out her father's purple hair.The ultimate symbol of betrayal. Minos spurned her love and she became a seabird. This story is represented in Ovids Metamorphoses.
{There are variations to this myth and one of them has vultures devouring Nisus heart.}
The second item I found regarding vultures that was appealing deals with Pelafina and her metaphorical relation to the vulture;
"Egyptian Mother Goddess as vulture gives protection and shelter, but at the same time is the death-bringing, corpse-devouring goddess of death."
I was reading about goddesses and sirens and was astounded by how many traits P. shares with the latter.
"Whether Sirens had fish or bird bodies, clearly they symbolize a dual nature-- part animal, part human.
Sirens are irrational entities, perpetually provocative and disturbing.
the Siren is a "Bird-Woman/Fish-Woman whose songs guide Wayfaring Wenches into realms of Deep Memory."
That last part about "wayfaring wenches" was compelling in that in several letters Pelafina quotes the elegy The Seafarer.
That along with the Wanderer and The Whale elegies seem to complement the activity in both HOL and The Whalestoe Letters.
A significant symbolic aspect of the Sirens is that chanting represents their essence. If it's song that tears down the order of man's rational mind, then the Siren could be considered a destructive aspect of the muse. And as is the case with many deities who have a duality of both destructive and creative power, death, on a psychological level, can represent the demise of the ego, which releases the soul to blend into the cosmic consciousness of the universe."

**Francis Glances** · 05-02-2002, 01:01 AM

I'm not kidding, bald trouser gnome is a well known euphemism for a penis.

Ever watch 1940s film noir?

Seems far more likely than a cack-handed translation into french. Why? french? All the other phonetic phrases were latin.

"out of a cave like a bald gnome"? Come on, there is clear sexual symbolism there.

**magnus_jor** · 05-02-2002, 04:44 AM

lol! but what would the error be?`that he had sex with pelafina? that the result of htis was johnny?

**Francis Glances** · 05-02-2002, 05:18 AM

If you look at my earlier post in "Jacob and Esau" which went completely ignored you'll see exactly who.

For some reason people don't seem to want to consider that what MZD refers to as the "horrible truth" in HOL could in fact be a tale of incest and child abuse. There are a lot of indicators to suggest this and I'll get round to working up a full theory soon.

Thanks for taking it (semi)seriously magnus.[/LIST]

**hello?** · 05-02-2002, 09:16 AM

me ignorant; where MZD refer to something as "horrible truth?"

**Agrimorfee** · 05-02-2002, 09:35 AM

[ps I like the Jacob/Esau hypotheses...go with it!]

BALD GNOME ERROR
Going from my barely remembered 3 years of French in High School, I tried looking at these phonectically--->

bal ("ball", like a dance?)

nomer (to name, I think)

muerer (to murder?--I'm probably wrong on this)

"No" is spelled "non". The "n" part part itself with an apostrophe could be part of a negating phrase (as in "je ne sais pas"--"I don't know").

"Error" au francais I think is spelled differently, but an "m" with an apostrophe in front, as such---> "m' error"--translates to "my error".

"Bal de ne/non m'error"?
Dance that was not my mistake?
Dance that I could not name?

Or say the BALD part a little strangely, you could get "beau"= beautiful (masculine) and "de"=of

Beauty of my mistake?
Beauty that i do not name?

Hope this has been of some use, and not a further cause of confusion.
[img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img])

**ztifhael** · 05-06-2002, 04:59 AM

I do think it's French. It's too much of a stretch, really, when all the other instances of phonetic similarity to other languages has been dead on.
I'm more inclined to an instance in mythology where there was a bald gnome who made some kind of error. Or that bald gnome is some kind of euphemism to puzzle over to find the meaning. Like that it could be a penis.
Maybe Zampano was a bald gnome? I can't remember from the book (my copy is not here [img]images/smiles/icon_sad.gif[/img] ) if he was bald, but I do remember getting the impression from the descriptions of Zampano Johnny gets through Lude that he did seem gnarled and shrunken.

**bluebaby** · 05-24-2002, 06:33 PM

i can't get the "ball" part, but "gnome error" does have a passing resemblance to "non mere" (as in "no, mother" or "no mother"), not to mention, "non mer", or "no sea".

just my .02

blue baby

**Muruxi** · 05-27-2002, 10:17 PM

Well, here's something that the name Error reminded me of. In that old NES game, Link, there is a bald man/gnome named Error. As a kid, I looked up the name (along with the name Zelda, Link, etc) in one of my library's books on mythology. I remember I came up with somehting, but didn't put any thought to it, as it was a boring entry. I'll go search the net for it...Maybe I'll come up with something again...

**Rubble** · 06-20-2002, 05:15 AM

Well, Muruxi, i'm interested. What did you find? (I must say that I think it's awesome that you like Zelda so much you looked up obscure names from it. That rules.)

**hello?** · 06-20-2002, 03:35 PM

Which proves that MZD is also a classic videogame fanatic.

**girl2** · 06-20-2002, 04:39 PM

out of the entire book, the 'bald gnome error' stuff is the one thing that i can't figure out that bothers me the most.

after reading muruxi's post, i searched for info on the game/character, but i swear the damn internet just hates giving me the information i need! maybe a serious gamer out there could find the info that i couldn't...

i've also been thinking that if someone just said the words "bald gnome error" to someone who speaks fluent french, or who is french, we might be able to solve this french puzzle once and for all. if it is supposed to be a play on french, saying it aloud would immediately register it on the french-speaking radar, right? unfortunately, i know very few frenchmen... *sigh*

**David J Draines, MD** · 10-09-2002, 07:54 AM

quote:
Originally posted by girl2:

i've also been thinking that if someone just said the words "bald gnome error" to someone who speaks fluent french, or who is french, we might be able to solve this french puzzle once and for all. if it is supposed to be a play on french, saying it aloud would immediately register it on the french-speaking radar, right? unfortunately, i know very few frenchmen... *sigh*

perhaps one of our colleagues posting on the "maison de fueilles" part of this site could be enlightening. unfortunately I do not speak french, only a little spanish.
michelle vr5, for some reason i thought you speak french. is that correct?

**fatwoul** · 10-09-2002, 08:25 AM

quote

Originally posted by David J Draines, MD:...michelle vr5, for some reason i thought you speak french. is that correct?

The member you should pester is called Claro - I think they had a lot to do with the French translation of the book, and can be found hanging around the Maison Des Feuilles forum.

**Pelafinamaniac** · 10-09-2002, 08:57 AM

quote:
Originally posted by wesbonifay:
ok, i don't have my copy of HoL in front of me, but there is a footnote (which happens to be my favorite sentence in the book even though i can't remember it right now) where Zampano writes about killing a man blah blah blah and "that bald gnome Error who came out with his featherless ankles to feast upon the mighty dead" or something just as bizarre.

my question is simple: What?

OK, I don't think anyone ever brought this up, but Error is a creature from The Fairie Queen, I beleive, that would eat anyone who entered into his cave, and the people eaten would just sort of be trapped and suffering, getting chewed on a lot and stuff. Someone correct me if I am way off, but I know Error is from The Fairie Queen.

**hello?** · 10-09-2002, 09:37 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Lost_In_Crete:
I'm thinking that 'bald/gnome/error' might be another one of those 'known/some/call/is/air/am' or 'etch/a/poo/air' things.

I think so too; and I think the best support for this is "featherless ankles," which is probably supposed to mean "fetterless," as in unbound. So unless Zampano really means ankles without feathers (aren't they all?) then one of his readers/writers just didn't understand what he was saying. Damn phonetic puzzles.

**fatwoul** · 10-09-2002, 09:46 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Miztee D:
...Someone correct me if I am way off, but I know Error is from The Fairie Queen.

I don't know any of this, but is this the Fairie Queene you're talking about?

**Agrimorfee** · 10-10-2002, 09:12 AM

quote:
Originally posted by fatwoul:

The member you should pester is called Claro - I think they had a lot to do with the French translation of the book, and can be found hanging around the Maison Des Feuilles forum.

I posted a friendly question to the French readers in "La Maison de Feuilles" board about this. Hopefully someone will respondez tout suite. Check there under the thread "bALD gNOME eRRROR". (no response as of 1:15 EST today)

**BaldGnomeError** · 11-10-2002, 04:23 AM

Hi, I'm new to these boards but I think I can help you here.
I'm french actually and... sorry, but bald gnome error doesn't speak to me at all. If it has a phonetic signification, it's very well hidden, but I don't think it's the case.
Furthermore, in the French translation of HOL, "bald gnome error" has been litteraly translated (other phonetic riddles, like Non Sum Qualis Eram, have been appropriatly translated).
I really think it has a connection to mythology. Or mayboe it's a metaphore, but you'll have to consider the whole sentence to understand it in this case.

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