CoL49 group reading ch4 - Koteks/Nefastis

[János Széky]

Maybe these have something to do with giving birth/not giving birth as a
metaphor and the theme of fertility/infertility. It might be a spoiler, for
which I'm sorry, but do so remember Oedipa meeting Grace later on, who
says she thought only kids can cause that "harassed" look.

Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> ezt írta (időpont: 2024. jún.
19., Sze, 23:08):

> 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.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>