Horst

[Fiona Shnapple]

In the old methods of literary analysis we would surely have a major
problem with Horst as sympathetic character because he abuses Maxine.
We can't help but love Maxine, the text makes her the most sympathetic
character, perhaps, of any Pynchon comedy to date. And so, when Horst
strangles her and she puns her way out of it, the company of
stranglers indeed, we begin to see what Max's mother sees in Horst, or
what she doesn't see.

On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 8:24 AM, Fiona Shnapple <fionashnapple at gmail.com> wrote:
> When is a toilet not just a toilet? Anytime we follow a Pynchon
> character into one. When we meet Horst, as the narrative flashes back
> to when Max met Horst, they are drinking and the Bozo, Horst, is
> punning on the Toilet. We're in the Ceres in Chicago. Max is on a CFE
> chore, Horst is in his old stomping grounds, a gin mill where everyone
> is drinking Irish-sized cocktails and Max gets loaded up and argues
> with Horst about Deloitte & Touche, or, as he puns them Louche & De
> Toilet. Before she can recover, still in a hangover daze, he's on her
> tail and nailing it to his schemes. From here, we most of the story in
> the present tense of the novel, visits toilets and more toilets in and
> around NYC, where, you can get anything you want, but you can't
> make/take a shit/piss anywhere. The punning, the language of toilet,
> the bathroom humor is like that roller you notice as your squeezing
> Death out of your Life into the white toilet bowl, and SHIT!!!
>
> Stranded
> Stranded
> Stranded on a toilet bowl
> Stranded
> Stranded
> Stranded on a toilet bowl
> What do you do when you're stranded
> And there ain't nothing on the roll?
> To prove you're a man
> You must wipe it with your hand
> Stranded
> Stranded on a toilet bowl !
>
> SHIT!   FUCK! FUCK YOU!
>
> Magic words of the Preterit
>
> So where does this power of profane words come from?
> Well, you students of Orwell or Arendt.... know that totalitarianism
> is, in part, synthesis and control of discourse. As early as those
> Short Stories P is working on this theme, so that in Lowlands and in
> TSI the junk, the waste, what is discarded, tossed away, disposed of,
> the preterit shit...has magic in it, has great Natural Power, a
> scatterbrained floundering fecundity. The power of the pun, of the
> profane words, of the subversive preterit use of technology, of even
> TV and pop culture, to counter the culture of the Elect producers of
> prole productivity consumption, late capital, and counter their
> esoteric technical language, the language of the Science Elite, this
> is why a toilet is never just a toilet.
>
> So is Horst one of Them or one of Us. And in the end we're only
> ordinary men....(Dark Side of the Bathroom)
>
> On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 5:10 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Sometimes a toilet is just a toilet, but a sewerage network is always
>> "a series of tubes".
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 1:50 AM, Heikki Raudaskoski
>> <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Have a deadline to meet, but will be back for an self-exegesis asap,
>>>
>>> HR
>>>
>>> On Wed, 4 Dec 2013, Fiona Shnapple wrote:
>>>
>>>> I may be confused by the use of the terms here, HD, so yeah, when you have
>>>> a minute to explain, please and thanks.
>>>>
>>>> On Wednesday, December 4, 2013, Michael Bailey wrote:
>>>>
>>>> >
>>>> > On Dec 3, 2013 10:22 AM, "Heikki Raudaskoski" <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi<javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi');>>
>>>> > wrote:
>>>> > >
>>>> > >
>>>> > >
>>>> > > FWIW: in GR, the Toiletship episode (where showers are mentioned too) is
>>>> > > associated to the aerodynamics man Horst Achtfaden, quite probably even
>>>> > > fantasied by him. In BE, Reg's toilet episode precedes Maxine's shower
>>>> > > encounter with Horst. These nice Pynchonian metonymies...
>>>> > >
>>>> >
>>>> > > In both cases, though, toilets seem to stand metaphorically for something
>>>> > > else (the Rocket's wind tunnel in GR, hashslingrzian secrets in BE). Yet
>>>> > > the image of the Toiletship can also be seen as a metaphor of metonymy.
>>>> > >
>>>> > >
>>>> >
>>>> > I join the clamor requesting elaboration!
>>>> >
>>>>
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