Mr. Thoth

[Tim Strzechowski]

Given our discussion of religiosity in CoL49 and "The Adversary" in the
previous chapter, I found this chapter interesting in Pynchon's
introduction of a Mr. Thoth. Thoth, of course, has its origins among the
ancients:
http://members.aol.com/egyptart/thoth.html
http://sobek.colorado.edu/LAB/GODS/throth.html

In _Companion to CoL49_, Grant states:

"'Mr. Thoth, named for the Egyptian god of scribes, resides in a nursing
home and, like the state of the written word, decays' (Newman, 76).  The
name connects with earlier references to hieroglyphics and with Oedipa's
momentary association of Fangoso Lagoons with the _Book of the Dead_.

"Madsen makes much of this name, noting that Thoth is credited with the
introduction of plurality into the spoken language.  He is, she
maintains, a 'counterpart to the Christian concept of Babel.'  Thoth is
also associated with Hermes, the god of cryptography and thus, Madsen
argues, 'is alligned with the Tristero, an organization which
intentionally eludes articulation and any specificity of description"
(p. 72)

Thoth (aka. Ashtaroth) also makes an appearance in Book I of Milton's
_Paradise Lost_:

"With these came they, who from the bord'ring flood
Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts
Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male,
These feminine.  For spirits when they please
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded in their essence pure,
Not tied or manacled with joint or limb,
Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,
Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose
Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure,
Can execute their airy purposes,
And works of love or enmity fulfill."   (lines 419-31)

Also, a few months ago on Milton-L there was a discussion of Milton's
use of acrostics in _PL_, and some of the posters examined various
acrostics like ADAM, STARS, and . . . THOTH.  Here's an excerpt from a
John Geraghty post:

--------------------
THOTH

Moseley's article points out the possible acrostic THOTH. I would also
like to note that the acrostic only occurs once in the poem in the
relevant context of a description of Satan:

The Mother of Mankinde, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers!
He trusted to have equal'd the most High (I.36 ff.)

Moseley also points out that THOTH was identified with the Greeks as
Hermes
Trismegistus which would be a very appropriate analogy for Satan.

I would like to add a few of my own observations to the THOTH acrostic.
I believe  there is further backmasking in the secondary acrostic foe in
this passage which is apparent in the following diagram:

T
H
O f
T o
H e
 [snip]
-------------------------

I suspect there's more to Mr. Thoth than merely the representation of
the decay of the written word.  The name is ripe with allusion, and its
connections to Satan (aka The Aversary), as well as the cryptography
(Grant) and the androgeny (PL, and Grant alludes to this as a
gender-bending motif of the novel via names like Stanley Kotecks and
Mike Fallopian), make Mr. Thoth, though brief in appearance, a
singularly appropriate character given the context of this novel.

When we first meet him, he is dozing in the sunlight of the front
recreation room and jarred awake by a fly (and a noisy nurse).  Mr.
Thoth discusses his dream of his grandfather (an Indian killer with a
horse named Adolf), and notes that he himself feels like he's been 91
his whole life (page 91 in Harper Perennial Ed.).  The dream of the
Indians mixes with Porky Pig and the anarchist reveries, culminating in
everyone wearing black (black feathers, due to the blackbone stirring).
Oedipa notes the WASTE symbol on Mr. Thoth's ring and muutters, "My
God"; and in a comic exchange, Mr. Thoth reveals that he feels God close
to him "certain days."  Finally, Oedipa leaves to find Fallopian who may
know about the Pony Express and Wells, Fargo, but "not about their dark
adversaries."  (The whole description of his grandfather and his
treatment of the Indians almost sounds like something out of _Blood
Meridian_, where we see another Satanic character --- the Judge!)

If anything, Mr. Thoth seems to provide Oedipa with a sense of "evil in
the history of the US postal system," something on which she (and
supposedly we) can rely as historical proof. Oedipa is now beginning in
this chapter to piece together the various tidbits she's encountered.
_The Courier's Tragedy_ is ultimately a work of fiction; Mr. Thoth,
however, gives Oedipa and the reader historical fact regarding the
postal system/bones. (Which is amusing, since all of this is within a
work of fiction anyways!)

Hope this lengthy post didn't keep anyone away from lunch, sex, or
depravity for too long.

Tim

BTW, here's a pretty cool site for you Dungeons & Dragons types:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/2510/battlelords/battlelords.html