CoL49 group reading ch4 - Koteks/Nefastis

[Michael Bailey]

On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 5:10 AM J K Van Nort <jkvannort at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Also why does Oedipa visit Vesperhaven? She wasn’t going there to meet Mr.
> Thoth specifically. He’s the first person, beyond the fly obsessed nurse,
> she meets. Is she making rounds of Inverarity holdings or just bored?
>

If it were Maxine, in BE, maybe her bladder signaled her…here, it’s one of
those curious coincidences

But yes, boredom, possibly; also Metzger hasn’t bothered to try to interest
her, & even blew up at her, so, rebelliousness;

Also, the historical marker…although the incident it described had no
survivors, maybe Mr Thoth had known some of them? Before she met him,
though, she still might’ve thought someone local had gotten it put up, as a
reason for her to look for oldsters.

Then too, as you say, investigating Inverarity’s holdings, with an eye to
seeing constellations: she has just started that notebook with the phrase
borrowed from Driblette. “Your Dragon, Whale, Southern Cross” - seems like
a stretch to try mapping these - but, Yoyodyne (fire-breathing death from
above), real estate (where Pierce was a whale), Tristero stamps (Southern
Cross a symbol of resistance in Australia*)?

* from Wikipedia
“Since the 19th century, the Eureka Flag [featuring the Southern Cross] has
achieved customary use as a general-purpose symbol of protest….”



>
> A church father named Clement equates the Egyptian god Thoth with Hermes,
> the messenger god. Mr. Thoth discusses the Pony Express as well as giving
> Oedipa a “message” about the Tristero.
>

A litttle further afield, probably even less likely than mapping
constellations, but
Kotek - Polish
Fallopian - Armenian
Toth - popular Hungarian name

All part of USSR in 1964, could this be a languid, sinister crypto-motif
featuring the totalitarian status of Eastern Europe? (As something faced by
“Pierce-as-JFK”, debatable as that is)


>
> Why the knitting bag with blue yarn?
>

no idea


> The comparison between the black clad anarchist in the cartoon and the
> black feathered, fake Indians makes the overwrought evil anarchist fooled
> by Porky into a truly threatening violent organization. Yet the Pony
> Express riding grandfather Thoth proves to be not only up to the challenge
> but capable of defacing the dead for a trophy.
>
>
> Who really is the more evil?
>

Well, they were out to kill him, weren’t they? He was just trying to
deliver the mail. But, yes, even young Mr Thoth deplores old Mr Thoth’s
salivating blood lust.

- who told him about the black feathers, though?
I mean, he would’ve seen the feathers, but where did he get the lore about
burning bones for black charcoal?



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