toileting and bathing in books

MrBob

MrBob

Well-known member
A discussion on a Harry Potter forum on the imdb was about the lack of talking about bathing/toileting (as I will use instead of saying the actual terms). Thinking about it, I have rarely read about anyone toileting in books. In The Neverending Story, that is something that Bastian thought about while sitting on the toilet: As he sat there, he wondered alound why heroes in stories like the one he was reading never had to worry about such problems.

I have read about bathing much more frequently than toileting, but it is still rare. In MN, Digory and Polly both take a morning dip in a river. In Meet the Austins by Madaline L'Engle, they talk about the children taking baths.

While this is not books, it also reminds me of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek TNG where the people who made the schematics for the Enterprise-D only put one set of pubblic bathrooms (rooms to use the toilet) and they were in the center of the saucer section.

Anyone know of other toilet or bathing scenes? I did not mention the Harry Potter GoF bath scene as he did more than just bathe in the bath.

MrBob
 
Considering for how long television ridiculously referred to a toilet as "the bathroom bowl," I'm not surprised that numerous books euphemize it out of existence.
 
I remember years ago watching some movie set in medieval times. A number of the King's soldiers came across a man singing and washing off with soap in a pond. Later they warned the King about the stranger. "We saw him trying to scrub some sort of plague off his skin!"

It was one of the subtle hints that intimacy was creeping into their relationship in C.S. Forrester's "The African Queen" when Rose and Charlie had to bathe in the river...at opposite ends of the boat, mind you...and she couldn't get back in the boat without assistance. He came and pulled her back into the boat.

In the 1950s sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," older son David was taking a shower when younger son Ricky turned off the hot water.

But to get to ye olde Porcelain Pony itself, I think the first time I ever saw one on TV was during an episode of The Golden Girls when the house residents thought they could save money putting one in themselves. There it sat in the middle of the living room where the delivery man, cheated out of an installation fee, left it in disgust. Elderly Sophia came in and saw it sitting facing the TV and said, "You're a genius! This is an old lady's dream!" Before that, the Porcelain Pony only really made TV commercials about "Cleaning easily under the rim..." While they talked about...and did sound effects for...the toilet in "All in the Family", they never actually showed it.
 
You read snopes.com and the first toilet tank to be shown on US TV was on "Leave it to Beaver", the episode which aired in 1957. The episode was delayed for a week as the CBS execs did not want any bathroom scenes, much less a toilet.

The problem was the toilet was a central facet of the plot as the boys hid a baby alligator in the tank and no other place in the house could be used to allow the boys to sufficiently hide the alligator.

The comprimise was to show only the tank and not the bowl.

How times have changed.

MrBob
 
In a similar vein, they debated for a long time letting Ed Norton work in the sewer on The Honeymooners because they wondered how audiences would react. Good thing they left it in...it generated endless gags (the good kind of gagging...). One of the best was an episode where Ralph Kramden was going on and on about the leader of the Raccoon Lodge, that he was expecting a call from the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler. When Norton seemed dismissive, he asked him if HE ever had such an honour. "Why should he call me? We see each other every day down in the sewer!"
 
MrBob said:
A discussion on a Harry Potter forum on the imdb was about the lack of talking about bathing/toileting (as I will use instead of saying the actual terms). Thinking about it, I have rarely read about anyone toileting in books. In The Neverending Story, that is something that Bastian thought about while sitting on the toilet: As he sat there, he wondered alound why heroes in stories like the one he was reading never had to worry about such problems.

I have read about bathing much more frequently than toileting, but it is still rare. In MN, Digory and Polly both take a morning dip in a river. In Meet the Austins by Madaline L'Engle, they talk about the children taking baths.

While this is not books, it also reminds me of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek TNG where the people who made the schematics for the Enterprise-D only put one set of pubblic bathrooms (rooms to use the toilet) and they were in the center of the saucer section.

Anyone know of other toilet or bathing scenes? I did not mention the Harry Potter GoF bath scene as he did more than just bathe in the bath.

MrBob
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I don't think it's really important for them to have those scenes.
 
I always think about that while reading a book, especially books where they go on long journeys and I have always wondered about it. I thought about in a book I read called Abhorsen by Garth Nix, because they go on a really long journey and it tells you nothing.
 
"I don't think it's really important for them to have those scenes."

Important, insatiable curiosity, what's the difference, ofice :D

What's interesting in the HP books is they enter bathrooms on a number of occasions and in both instances, they are doing something very different than toileting. Hermione, and for that mater, Myrtle, both used the bathroom to hide away from everyone else.

While our reticence to even talk much about toileting is a major reason why it isn't discussed described in books, I still like to think about it.

MrBob
 
The whole bathroom topic makes me feel flushed. My composure goes down the drain.... :p

On the other hand, have you noticed that while they wouldn't talk about what comes out, several sitcoms had prominent scenes of what goes in? Ever notice how many times you see characters around the dining room or kitchen table stuffing their faces and taking drinks?

Just think of the sequel of "Look Who's Coming to Dinner?" It could be "Look Who's Using our Bathroom?" :D
 
EveningStar said:
The whole bathroom topic makes me feel flushed. My composure goes down the drain.... :p

On the other hand, have you noticed that while they wouldn't talk about what comes out, several sitcoms had prominent scenes of what goes in? Ever notice how many times you see characters around the dining room or kitchen table stuffing their faces and taking drinks?

Just think of the sequel of "Look Who's Coming to Dinner?" It could be "Look Who's Using our Bathroom?" :D
Click to expand...

Well, unelss it's a "family TV show" and they have really young children and they have the infamous "Potty training episode."

@Mr. Bob good point about the Enterprise! Aside from the schematics ( which ironically if I'm not mistaken put the public toliet some where in the bridge.) Forums for Star Trek ( and like wise Star Wars ) are filled with fans asking "Where's the Toliet on the Enterprise?" Where's the toliet on a Romulan bird of prey?", "where's the toliet on the Mellenium Falcon" "where's the Toliet on the Death Star?" Afterall they are in space for a long time, they would have to "take care of that bodily function". It's best summed up in a scene in Apollo 13 when Jim Lovell is giving a tour of The Vehicle Asssembly Bulding to some of the press and one person asks, "how do you go to the bathroom in space?"
Jim: "Well, its' a highly technical process of cranking down a window and looking for the nearest gas station...."

For soem reason, we just want to know. And yet no one asks when Gilligan bothered to dig a latreen for the castaways on the island.
 
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