Theatre/theater

[Paul Mackin]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2000 Lycidas at worldnet.att.net wrote:


> Right, it would be easy to miss, but what if Pynchon marked
> it and proof readers, editors, printers and publishers, and
> the rest, got it just the way he intended it--the only
> "theatER" in the book. It would alter the sense by virtue of
> its being the only Theater. It is an American spelling. We
> could say it is contrasted with all the other "theatre"
> (these appear in every conceivable manifestation and on
> every ontological/episemological level and on nearly every
> page of GR). And as Tom noted, "theatre begins on page the
> first, GR.3 and end on the final page, GR.760.

Don't know about "nearly every page" but no matter. Let me ask this
question. Is Enzian's use of the word the only place in the book that it
connotes suspected dis- or misinformation? It's interesting to me that
this definition doesn't get into any of the dictionaries I've looked at.
Also interesting is that American CIA operatives use the word in this way.
I'm taking Norman Mailer's word on this. Programs of spreading falsing
information on the part of the CIA are given prominance in "Harlot' Ghost"
which I've just finished rereading. In the closely pages of the book which
I got to last evening "theater" used thusly. Now I can't locate the exact
page but it's there.

For what it's worth.  Or perhaps Norm got the idea from GR.

			P.