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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Fictional toilets #WorldToiletDay #amreading

18/11/2016

17 Comments

 
We all know that fictional characters, like royalty, don’t have to suffer the indignity of urinating or opening their bowels. But, having marked World Toilet Day on Annecdotal every year since launching in 2013, regular readers know that clean and hygienic toilet facilities are something to celebrate. In last year’s post, I wrote about the advantages of gender-neutral facilities. For this year, while the official theme is toilets and jobs, I’ve collected a few quotes from novelists who don’t ignore this most basic of human functions. And if these aren’t enough to satisfy, Twitter is usually quite entertaining on 19 November each year.

Picture
Ananda, an Indian student currently living in London, in Odysseus Abroad, waxes lyrical on the editing out of toilet functions from European literature (p128):

Neither Hercules nor James Bond … interrupted their antics and missions because they had to visit the toilet … For Bond, saving the world took precedence over everything. The furthest he went towards his hygiene was shaving … even this one recorded act of his humble daily twilight was made tantalising by being never completed

Sometimes we only discover the value of something through its absence. Travelling to communities in which a toilet isn’t a given taught me to appreciate the humble lavatory. So I understand Dantala, the young Nigerian narrator of Born on a Tuesday, when he takes pride in the new toilets in the mosque where he works (p59):

I was thrilled to be using a flush toilet for the first time in my life. In some ways it was similar to the pit toilet I was used to—we still squatted— only now, you could see your shit after you finished and it only disappeared after you pulled the rope connected to the flush handle on the water tank above … I liked the sound of the water as it ran down the pipe and into the toilet, making it white again

Back in the UK, Stephen, the professional eavesdropper in
The Long Room, gains a degree of perspective on the woman he’s idealised thinking that private functions (p65):

Helen, like any other earthly creature, perforce must eat and then excrete. He remembers playground titters about poo and pee and bums and asking his mother if Jesus went to the toilet too, like normal people, like the Queen. In response she scolded him for being blasphemous … Although he can smile now at the guilelessness of the child, he still believes that bodily functions can be problematic. There are things that women ought to do alone, their ceremonies and secret rites, which should not be seen by lovers.

I was a little surprised to find that my own debut novel,
Sugar and Snails, has 14 mentions of the word toilet, perhaps because of its theme adolescent development. But the main toilet scene is when my character, Diana, discovers she has an infection (p188):

In my dream, Geraldine hitches up her skirt and squats. Urine streams between her legs onto the tarmac, all the way down Bessemer Terrace. I’m also aching to go, my bladder blazing with the weight of water, but I daren’t expose myself in public. I hop from one foot to the other, pressing my hand between my legs to hold it in.

I’m not quite awake when I throw off the duvet and dash to the loo. I only just remember to gather my galabeyah out of the way as I drop onto the seat. Instead of the expected torrent, there’s a shy, burning trickle. It brings no respite; the moment it stops I’m desperate to go again.

Here’s wishing you a Happy Toilet Day! I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed, but please do let me know if you come across any other toilet quotes.

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Since Toilet Day is about combating the widespread cultural
denial of our dependence on the lavatory, I feel duty bound to incorporate the theme in my response to the latest flash fiction challenge. Charli has invited us to compose a 99-word story that might be told around a campfire. Here is my interpretation of the theme:

Long drop toilet

Nature, she’d always thought, was best observed from the window of a passing vehicle. But she couldn’t bear to disappoint the kids. And really, it wasn’t anything like as gruesome as she’d expected. The tents were roomy and the long drop toilet even had a seat.

It was cosy in the evening sitting around the campfire, picking out constellations in the sky. But she was puzzled. Why, with all that wood around the campsite, were they using gas?

“Haven’t you heard of biogas, Mother? Why chop down trees when our bodies can make fuel for free?”

I’m not sure how my narrator has failed to notice the anaerobic digester located beside the lavatories, but never mind! Follow the link if you like to know about biogas production.


Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
17 Comments
Ellen Best
18/11/2016 10:17:38 am

Reply
Ellen Best link
18/11/2016 10:23:23 am

Very good bio gas if I could collect from the bottom of my husb would heat the house with one fart! Haha! Loved the girl guide feel to your story. Thank you. 😇

Reply
Annecdotist
18/11/2016 12:05:27 pm

Thanks, Ellen, I worked on domestic biogas (not the technicalities, just digging holes) many years ago as a volunteer in rural India, so it’s quite special to me.

Michael link
19/11/2016 11:29:45 pm

Well Anne I didn't know there was a World Toilet Day, so again I have learned something new today.....and I am sure there should be more use of biogas production since there is a never ending supply of the stuff.

Reply
Annecdotist
21/11/2016 03:02:13 pm

Thanks, Michael, I try to spread the word – even when people raise their eyebrows and think I’m joking!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
20/11/2016 06:17:08 am

Hi Anne, I'm pleased to see you celebrating World Toilet Day again, and combining it with Charli's prompt. I thought I might do a bit of a combo myself. I like where you've gone with the biogas. I think we could do many things more effectively.
I know how we suffer little inconveniences for the children. I'm not into roughing it either!

Reply
Annecdotist
21/11/2016 03:01:12 pm

It’s funny, but I’d actually forgotten about the project until I wrote the flash – it’s such a shame these days when we are looking for alternative energy sources. And I used to love camping but I need my home comforts now.

Reply
Irene Waters link
25/11/2016 07:50:00 am

Well done Anne on not missing one toilet day since its inception. It really is a worthwhile project. not until you have lived without a toilet do you know how essential they are. One fictional book (but not European) well worth reading where toilets get a mention is in A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. We have a system in Australia that is called a composting toilet. I know a number of people that have them and they are fantastic. They don't require the addition of anything to them for them to work. The best thing about them is that they are a waterless system which saves about 35,000 litres of water per year and they are cheap. Any system that works though has to be good for the developing world.

Reply
Annecdotist
25/11/2016 05:53:15 pm

Thanks for your input, Irene, but I haven’t done quite as well with my toilet day posts as you thought, as I’ve only been following it since the inception of my blog, although I have supported a related charity Water Aid from its beginning, and I’m assuming I first came across torrent is through them.
Thanks for mentioning A Fine Balance – I read it many years ago when I was less alert for toilets, although I did learn quite a lot about toilets in my travels in India.
I’ve also used composting toilets and agree on the appeal. In Britain we waste so much clean water flushing toilets (although I think some other European countries, such as Germany, use greywater) and obviously it’s ideal for hot countries. I think it’s just a matter of adjustment, but we are often quite squeamish around the subject so difficult I imagine to change people’s practice.

Reply
Deborah Lee link
27/11/2016 08:11:33 pm

As I commented on Norah's flash, I had not known there was a World Toilet Day. I'm happy to know it's there and sad that it HAS to be. My homeless character, Jane Doe, must contend with this, but I've never addressed it in her fiction out of a desire to be delicate. Thanks for helping me to go there (pun intended). Nice flash, too!

Reply
Annecdotist
28/11/2016 06:37:46 pm

Thanks for adding that, Deborah, as the difficulty accessing toilets when one is homeless is something that Charli has highlighted. I’m fascinated that you chose to be delicate and glad you might have found some confidence to confront the taboo through these quotes.

Reply
sarah link
29/11/2016 02:58:26 am

Nice one. I did follow the link and it's interesting. I wish we heard more about it. Always look forward to your toilet day posts and am buying holiday gifts this year of...toilet paper. :-) I had forgotten about it but Norah wrote of it in her post. A lot of people are going to get Who Gives a Crap this year.

Reply
Annecdotist
29/11/2016 04:29:06 pm

Sounds like those are going to be really useful presents, especially with all the eating people do over the holidays.

Reply
Sherri Matthews link
29/11/2016 04:21:22 pm

Hi Anne. I've never heard of World Toilet Day, so thank you for edcuating me! I think of my great-aunt who, as the story goes in my family, 'never went to the toilet you know, never!' Gender-neutral toilets are something we really need to see more of. Loved your flash...

Reply
Annecdotist
29/11/2016 04:30:49 pm

You’re welcome, Sherri, and thanks for reading and commenting.

Reply
Charli Mills
30/11/2016 04:27:59 am

Happy World Toilet Day! I had thought to join in, but finding my own lack this summer yet painful to write about in a meaningful way, yet. Not exactly a toilet story, but your scene from the "Long Room" reminded me about a friend who says her new husband (of two years) has still never passed wind around her. Having been married to a rip-snorter for nearly 30 years, I could only wish! :-) Your scene from "Sugar and Snails" reminds me how much I enjoy your writing. And unlike your character in your flash, I'd rather be intimate with nature than a passing observer!

Reply
Annecdotist
30/11/2016 02:26:17 pm

I can appreciate that being a step too far for you this year, Charli, but I look forward to your insights going into your novel. I have to say, I can’t see much point in being married if you can’t fart in front of each other. Thanks for that endorsement of my writing. While I also enjoyed being out in nature, I like my home comforts too.

Reply



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