MDDM18: German

[John Bailey]

Which would explain German Enthusiasts, I guess, as those in the minority to 
whom the advancement of German culture in America was something to support? 
Is how I read it, anyway. I don't see it as a negative reference, either, 
and I don't think that Pynchon demonises German culture in the least, 
especially not in GR, where the case is taken up with a lot more complexity 
than you see in most WWII fiction.

Pynchon, I suppose, debatably described (by some) as a Menippean satirist, 
does business, to quote Frye, "less with people as such than with mental 
attitudes. Pedants, bigots, cranks, parvenus, virtuosi, enthusiasts, 
rapacious and incompetent professional men of all kinds...", all of whom are 
as visibly present as usual in M&D.

>From: Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>CC: Otto <o.sell at telda.net>, Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: MDDM18: German
>Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 00:03:22 -0800 (PST)
>
>Was wondering if/when this would come up ...
>
>--- Otto <o.sell at telda.net> wrote:
> >
> > When did English become official US-language? Or has
> > it never been a question at all?
>
>This simply came up first ...
>
>"Those of you who have been around here for longer
>than you care to admit (like me) may remember the time
>someone brought up a legend about German having
>narrowly missed becoming the official language of the
>United States. This is a common story, and the usual
>cap to it is that Congress voted - by a majority of
>one vote - to make English the official language of
>the US, this significantly altering the course of
>development in the US textbook publishing industry.
>
>"The story is false. Matter of fact, the US at present
>does not have an "official" language in the sense of a
>language declared by law to have special status;
>English is merely the de facto standard. There _was_
>indeed some discussion about which language to adapt,
>with some strong seperatists arguing that English was
>the language of the "enemy". However, there were no
>cliff-hangers as suggested by the legend mentioned
>above; the strong seperatists were a minority group,
>and it was pretty clear from the start that most
>people considered changing from English to be too much
>trouble. All this junk was discussed the last time
>around, but i wanted to summarize it for those who
>weren't with us then.
>
>"The reason for bringing this up is that i have found
>an incident that may be the source of this UL. (Drum
>roll.) My source is the _Cambridge Encyclopedia of
>Language_, by David Crystal, published by the
>Cambridge University Press, (c)1987. In the interest
>of completeness, ISBN 0 521 26438 3.
>
>from page 365:
>
>_A planning myth_
>
>"Probably the best-known myth in the history of
>language planning is the story that German nearly
>became the national language of the US in the 18th
>century, losing to English by only one vote in the
>legislature (the "Muhlenberg" legend). In fact, all
>that was involved was a request, made by a group of
>Virginia Germans, to have certain laws issued in
>German _as well as_ in Englih. The proposal was
>rejected by one vote, apparently cast by a
>German-speaking Lutheran clergyman, Frederick
>Muhlenberg (1750-1801). But the general status of
>English as the majority language was never in doubt.
>(After S.B. Heath and F. Mandabach, 1983.)
>
>[End quote]
>
>"Just to show that i did my homework, the paper
>referred to is: Heath, S.B., and Mandabach, F. 1983.
>Language status decisions and the law in the United
>States. In J. Cobarrubias and J.A. Fishman (eds.),
>_Progress in language planning: international
>perspectives_ (Berlin: Mouton), 87-105."
>
>http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/german_us_official_lang.html
>
>And see also ...
>
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/question.htm
>
>http://www.aclu.org/library/pbp6.html
>
>And this is particularly extensive ...
>
>http://www.watzmann.net/scg/german-by-one-vote.html
>
>Okay, looks like y'all've been active today, so ...
>
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