Theatre/theater

[Paul Mackin]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2000, Mark Wright AIA wrote:

> Howdy
> 
> Dare I suggest that the single instance of the "theater" spelling might
> be a typo?

Funny thing is however that "er" is the spelling an American proofreader
would be trained to correct the word to whenever coming upon the "re"
variation. If P wanted to override this he'd have to indicate
his preference on a case by case basis in the manuscript. If the "er"
instance in GR does by any chance happen to be unintentional it would have
to result from Pynchon's neglecting, in this single case, to put in a
leave-it-as-written notation as he had done so many times elsewhere.

I'm basing the above speculation on what the Chicago style manual sez.
They say their proofreaders are supposed to consistently use the first
listed spelling in a recognized American dictionary such as Webster's. So
I checked the Third International to find that "theatER" is listed first.
Don't know about Heritage, etc.

			P.