GR translation: loping Fen

[alice wellintown]

>From _A Gravity's Rainbow Companion_ by Steven Weisenburger_  we learn
that these episodes are indebted to two texts by Iona & Peter Opie.
They are _The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren_ and _Children's
Games in Street and Playground_

You might search the index for some of the phrases. I suspect that
loping, as in the loping of a horse, is a bit of a jump. Fen, as
posted, and notice its Capitalization, seems to direct us to skating
on or in Fen. Fen, the place name, jives with the geographics of the
games and language P has lifted from the Opie books here. Also, fen,
fain, as noted in Opie's LLSC connotes prohibition or rules broken or
better bent by kids or a truce called, a self-defence, I fen, when
they play. Notice also that the Opies ref. Dickens's Jo, Bleakhouse,
one of Pynchon's formative (under Nabokov) texts.


These books make for interesting reading; I would love to have these
on American schoolchildren, their language, lore and games.



On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 1:29 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
> On 7/8/2011 1:24 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
>>
>> It must have something to do with this:
>>
>> http://www.gileslandscapes.co.uk/fen-skating.aspx
>>
>> So it's some sort of old-style skating posture, possibly?
>>
>> Laura
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>>
>>> From: Mike Jing<mikezjing at hotmail.com>
>>> Sent: Jul 8, 2011 3:40 AM
>>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>> Subject: GR translation: loping Fen
>>>
>>>
>>> P94.1-2  ..., neither caring to risk the ice, loping Fen or any style, in
>>> front of the children.
>>>
>>> Who, or what, is "loping Fen"?
>>>
>>>
>>
> Sounds right. It's too cold for puddles.
>
> P
>