CoL49 Group Reading - procreational note

[Mark Kohut]

Yeah, so What is That about?....Oedipa's quest--and fate--is a woman's one?
She is akin to V--the feminine principle in history?--with a
new outcome? Maybe?

On Tue, Jun 11, 2024 at 5:35 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Character names with TRP are often just good for a quick one-off smirk.
> But I think that ALL of these names having to do with the female
> reproductive system is too much smoke to be smirked at.
>
> On Tue, Jun 11, 2024 at 3:00 AM Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > So while Oedipa is having sex with Metzger, she meets Fallopian.
> >
> > After Metzger departs (“the big lummox, she’s glad he backed out” to
> quote
> > sweet Betsy from Pike) having left her unimpregnated so far as any
> textual
> > indication - Koteks enters the picture.
> >
> >
> > Could be a reference to egg cycle. Fallopian and Koteks both appear
> > recurrently, don’t they?
> >
> > Why would Pynchon choose these names?
> >
> > A reminder of a monthly cycle she has to deal with while she is
> > perambulating?
> >
> > A way to underline her femininity?
> >
> > I like and agree with Mark’s comment that we can’t insist that character
> > names be excessively meaningful, so I don’t think it’s a way to connote
> the
> > passage of time exactly -
> > though of course if it were, it’d be about 2 weeks from The Scope to the
> > Yoyodyne meeting.
> >
> >
> > I saw on Qi a bit where they said the Italian anatomist Fallopian
> actually
> > named them “tubas” because of their shape, but the Italian plural was
> > “tube” - so eventually everyone just called them tubes.
> >
> > Almost a post horn reference…
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>