CoL49 group reading ch4 - Koteks/Nefastis

[Michael Bailey]

Stanley Koteks / looking for “surname Koteks” revealed a bunch of “Kotek”
Several links, including
https://ourpublicrecords.org/lastname/kotek have info to this effect:

The surname 'Kotek' is of Polish origin. It is derived from the Polish word
'kotek,' which means 'kitten' or 'male cat.' The name may have originally
been given as a nickname to someone who had characteristics associated with
a cat, such as agility or playfulness.


I thought I saw another link which claimed Kotek meant “warlike” but now I
can’t find it (Tristero at work?)


But up also popped a reference to the city of Novi Pazar (of GR fame)

“Volleyball clubs in the city are OK Novi Pazar (first league) and OK
Koteks.”

- strongly doubt whether this would’ve been found in the research phase of
CoL49, although one never knows, does one?




Nefastis - a Mark Kohut p-list post

https://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/2009-June/115879.html

- found this not on a p-list search, but a regular Google search. I didn’t
think the p-list was on Google, maybe didn’t use to be? But with AI maybe
it’s different now? I better watch what I say. (-;
- searching my full email didn’t turn up a slew of p-list posts, but
amongst all the other Mike Baileys (I’m Mike Bailey, I’m the real Mike
Bailey, all the other Mike Baileys are just imitating…) there is the odd
post or so.
- it’s droll to think about some misguided AI training on p-list, isn’t it?

Anyways ——- Mark Kohut in 2009 quoth as follows:
“p. 86 hc. John Nefastis still invents. [nefastis = unholy]


fasti, the name given to the old Roman calendar which originally
indicated dies fasti and nefasti, the days on which it was or was not
permissible to transact legal and public business. Later were included
lists of consuls (fasti consularçs), priests (fasti sacerdotalçs), and
records of triumphs. They were published in 304 BC by Gnaeus Flavius.
Some fragments survive in inscriptions. (Compare ANNALS.)

Kinda an "unreliable type' in THIS fiction, yes? “


- I could run with that: whilst Oedipa is questing for Tristero, she’s not
doing the legal business…so a lot of her days become nefasti / her sorting
is going to create a hot spot around Tristero and drive as-yet unknowable
engines / Metzger already peeved, because her sorting isn’t creating
dynamism around Pierce’s estate business


- I think Stanley Koteks only shows up this once in the book (leaving only
the link to Nefastis, and a decided lack of a Cheshire Cat smile, to
remember him by)

There’s a little kerfuffle about where Nefastis is:

“Well this was invented by John Nefastis, who’s up at Berkeley now.”

- when you say someone is “at” Berkeley doesn’t that imply them being on
the faculty?
- my search for cognates was as yet fruitless
- lots of Nobelists there
- also, 1964, the likely time of the events in the novel, saw the inception
of the Free Speech Movement
- which would be a different kind of hotspot, people focusing on critiquing
the status quo (analogous to Oedipa looking for Tristero)
- instead of conforming in aid of the business of victory in Indochina and
growing the economy (analogous to the estate grindstone to which Metzger,
Esq wants Oedipa to set her nose)

But when Stanley starts to write Nefastis’s address, he gives the WASTE
(excuse me, W.A.S.T.E. - although not every reference seems to insist on
the dots the way Koteks did) box -

“Box 573,” said Koteks. “In Berkeley.” “No,” his voice gone funny, so that
she looked up, too sharply, by which time, carried by a certain momentum of
thought, he’d also said, “In San Francisco; there’s none—” and by then knew
he’d made a mistake. “He’s living somewhere along Telegraph,” he muttered.
“I gave you the wrong address.”

- so by this, it seems Berkeley hasn’t got a WASTE branch?

Also, he rapidly shuts down the conversation.