CoL49 group reading ch4 - Koteks/Nefastis

[Michael Bailey]

Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 3:19 AM János Széky wrote:

Doesn't it refer to the Kotex sanitary pad?



That’s probably the primary connotation.

Besides bemused startlement, ive been trying to link the name choice along
with Fallopian's as a reference to Oedipa’s menstrual cycle - but to what
end?

To underscore her gender?
To relate her questing to some kind of biological clock?

Maybe just to hint these things in the background?


Since the spelling isn’t exact (the product is spelled Kotex) it seemed
possible to impute a secondary possible connotation when “Kotek” isn’t any
farther from Koteks than is “Kotex”

If Pynchon invents names in part to avoid using, & offending the owners of,
conventional names, adding the “s” has that effect.

- however, again, to what purpose? There isn’t anything particularly
catlike about him, & there doesn’t seem to be a Polish connection in the
story.


Taking a liberty, one might suggest his name is really Kotek & she misreads
as Koteks. Fallopian could be a similar Armenian sounding name
misapprehended - by either the author or the character- for humorous
purposes. (Tom Robbins has named an Armenian-American character
“Buckaroojian”, eg)

If it’s meant as Oedipa humorously blurring the names because of her
gender, that’s kind of sexist, but (imho) not unbearably so.