CoL49 group reading ch4 - Koteks/Nefastis

[János Széky]

Doesn't it refer to the Kotex sanitary pad?

János

Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> ezt írta (időpont: 2024. jún.
19., Sze, 8:25):

> 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.
> --
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>