Fenestrations

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Andrew Walser writes:
" Which languages does Pynchon know, and how well does he know them?       
Perhaps Andrew Dinn, with his impressive Wagnerian signature, could
comment on the German in GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, and perhaps another
Rugglophile could analyze the Spanish in V. and VINELAND.
        Mulling over FENSTER, FENETRE, and TRANSFENESTRATION led me to
this question."

I'd endorse such commentary too--and let'
s not foget street-Italian in V.!

But the whole transfestration notion might have been inspired by a rather well-
known historical incident, The Defenestration of Prague.  I remember this being
cited in 8th grade World History--as memory (or what's left of it) serves,
it occured when a rep. of the Pope was pitched out the window by officials of
one of the Electors of the Holy Roman Emperor.  Now I've probably gotten this
all conflated with half a dozen other things--but I think it was a spark to
light the Thirty Years War.  Too lazy to check my facts just now.

But it being a memorable title of a slightly wacky historical incident, it
could easily have caught TRP's (TP only to his detractors, Mike!) attention.
It's typical of Our Boy to switch prefixes, suffixes and otherwise invert and
fool around with familiar words and phrases.  Transfenestration certainly does
have an elegance to it!

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)