Chapter 5: The silent hotel

[Thomas Eckhardt]

John Bailey wrote:

> The linkage I see here is kind of in the hothouse-and-the-street line
> of thinking, ie as closed systems, circuits which feed back upon
> themselves, and in each of which Oed. has some unpleasant experiences.
> Direct correlations come in the form of reflections: if Oedipa is
> repeatedly characterized as a projector (of worlds), what do we make
> of the mirrored surface of the pool at Echo Courts which is so
> frequently mentioned, compared to the mirror in the grand hotel
> bedroom; what are we to make of both Thoth and Nefastis’ watching of
> (and inability to separate reality from) TV? In fact both Thoth and
> Nefastis’ scenes have many crossovers.
>

Some remarks off of the top of my head. I haven't got the time to look
anything up, so somebody please correct my mistakes: Echo was the name
of a nymph who fell in love with Narcissus. Her love was not
reciprocated, and of course, Narcissus was soon to fall in love with the
reflection of his own image on the water and consequently drowned.
Another "death by water". Echo was consumed by her sadness, her bones
turned into rock and all that is left of her is her voice.

The name "Echo Courts", all those pools, mirrors and reflections are
obviously, and I don't use the word lightly, allusions to this story
told by Ovid in, I think, the third book of the "Metamorphoses". Also,
the name of the town San Narciso, while it may perhaps refer to some
ancient bishop, as has been mentioned here, certainly refers to
Narcissus.

These allusions point to a central thematic concern of COL49, i.e.
narcissm and, by extension, solipsism, and thus stress the possibility
that Oedipa is, so to speak, just looking into a mirror. Furthermore, I
can't resist, narcissm is an important theme in Moby Dick. In Melville
the numerous references to the story of Narcissus likewise support the
notion that Ahab in the white whale seeks his own image. This is also,
in my opinion, the most valid interpretation of this central thread of
the narrative - the whale couldn't care less. And, please, don't get me
started about wrinkled brows, hieroglyphs, whale-bones and whiteness...

COL49 echoes the story of Echo and Narcissus. I can't possibly arrive at
an hypothesis about how exactly this works, let alone what it means
(there certainly is an essay or even a book around which gathers all the
evidence and comes to a conclusion), but for the sake of the argument
I'd claim that these mythological resonances are more, or at least
equally as, important to the novel as the influence of roughly
contemporary fiction and philosophy.

Thanks a lot,
Thomas

P.S. As for the subject header of your posting: Silence, no reflection,
no echo, blindness and deafness. I guess there is something in there?