defrocked monk

[Paul Mackin]

Thanks, Dave, for pointing this out. I found the post in the Waste.org
archives. The old opera house was in the news that day.

                                    P.

Paul Mackin wrote:

> The sad burning of the Venice opera house, La Fenice, a few
> days ago has a slight Pynchonian angle. Could P. be an opera-
> lover (or more likely a V- (for Venice) lover) in his naming of that
> "long defrocked monk named Fenice?"  That gentleman is the friend of
> Stencil with whom he, Profane and Paola stay when their car breaks
> down on the mad dash across Italy (headed for Valletta) in the closing
> pages of V. (p. 444).
>
> V. seems to rise from her own ashes periodically. Let's
> hope La Fenice continues in that same tradition she started so many
> years ago.
>
> Just happened to have reached that point in the book.
>
>                                         P.