"crystal palace" (WAS: NP Krystalnacht)

[Andrew Foley]

>Sometime recently, Otto wrote:
>"I'm not sure if Pynchon had that in mind when he was referring to the
>Crystal Palace in London, as Weisenburger says in his Companion. Or isn't
>he refering to that historical building at all, it's not written in
>capitals?"
>
>Germans and your Love for Capital Letters.  :)  I take it as a reference
>to the ideas embodied/promoted by the Great Exhibition -- knowledge,
>commerce, and empire coming together in glorious transparency.  The term
>"crystal palace" as a concept (not a building) appears in the literature
>of the Victorian era; Dostoyevsky used it in a few of his novels.


The Crystal Palace was built for the Great Exhibition in 1851, (predating
Dostoyevsky somewhat) and was originally sited in London's Hyde Park.  What
Weisenberger doesn't mention is that it was subsequently moved to a London
suburb, and that suburb was then named Crystal Palace (which still exists,
and hosts a professional soccer team of the same name).  The palace itself
burned down before World War II (and if it hadn't it might have been
demolished to prevent it being used as a sighting for German bombers).

Prentice's dream is of a railway station, and the grand Victorian terminal
railway stations in Britain, with their huge glass roofs, bore a resemblance
to the Crystal Palace.