The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet

by Julie L. Horan

Traces the history of the toilet, from the third millennium B.C., evolving over 5,000 years into the high-tech twentieth-century toilets of the Japanese

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Microhistory

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 1 out of 5]

To sum up: She tried hard, and meant well. This writer would not know a reliable source if it peed on her.
There seems to be an awful lot lifted wholesale from Scatalogic Rites of All Nations, which is a late-Victorian compendium of excretory trivia, rumors, myths etc. Sir John Harington's A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax. A Critical, annotated edition. seems to make a lot of appearances, but in neither case is there any critical analysis of the material presented. At least there is a bibliography, though it includes titles from a "Culture Shock!" series which explains why there is a disclaimer in the introduction about including sources so people don't think she made up the insulting parts. (The fact that the information about Muslim/Koranic hygiene customs seems to come entirely from a biography of Sir Richard Burton is disturbing too.)
There are fascinating bits, mostly unsourced, but given the uneven quality of the content I almost can't bear to follow up to try to find if they have any basis in fact.
Even though it claims to be a history, it's really more of a bathroom reader.

[Koray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu kitabı okurken çok eğlendim. Çok ilginç anekdotlar (güldürücü öykücükler) yer alıyor kitapta. Bazıları uygarlığın yazıyla değil, ilk tuvaletle başladığını ileri sürerler -ki haklılık payı epey yüksektir. Sadece benim oturduğum sitede günlük 1 ton dışkının görünmeden kanalizasyona aktığı düşünülecek olursa dışkı yönetiminin ne kadar büyük aşamalardan geçtiği görülebilir. Bu arada oturduğum sitede 250 daire var. Her birinde ikişer tuvalet ve o tuvaletleri kullanan en az üçer insan olduğu dikkate alınırsa 21. yüzyılda katı ve sıvı atık yönetimini ne kadar ustalıkla yapabildiğimizi daha iyi görmüş oluruz bence. Gelelim kitaptan edindiğim alıntılara:
"...Dışkı denetimi, insanların kendi pisliklerinden kaçmak için dünyayı dolaşmaktan kurtulup sonunda yerleşmelerini sağlayan bir geliş­me oldu...."
"...Uygarlık, insan pisliğinin imhasına önem verilmesi ve "tuvalet"in geliştirilmesiyle başladı. Önlerindeki örnek olan Etrüsklerin tesisatçılık bilgisine dayanan Romalılar, imparatorluklarının en güçlü dönemine ulaştıklarında, aynı zamanda tuvaletin evriminin doruğuna da ulaşmış­lardı..."
"...Onyedinci yüzyıl İngiltere'sine damgasını vuran iki önemli olay 1666 vebası ile 1667 Büyük Yangını'dır. Günlüğünde bu korkunç yılları be­timleyen Samuel Pepys, Londra'da yukarıdaki pencerelerden düşen dışkı­lardan kaçmaktan söz ediyordu. Bu kaotik dönemde doğan Jonathan Swift, Londra sokaklarını aşağıdaki gibi betimler: Kasap tezgahlarının süprüntüleri, dışkı, bağırsaklar ve kan, boğulmuş köpek yavruları, kokan ringalar, hepsi çamurlara bulanmış ölü kediler ve şalgam başları seli akıyor..."
"...Lağım fareleri tesisatçıların dostları olmuşlardı. Lağım kanalında fare­ler varsa, her şey yolunda demekti. Ölü fareler havanın zehirli olduğunun ve bir kibrit çakılırsa patlama olabileceğinin işaretiydi. Su sistemli ilkel klozetler, sudan kaynaklanan kolera gibi hastalıklara uygun zemini hazır­lıyorlardı..."
"...Bugünlerde hemen her şeyi yeniden kullanmak olanağı var. Çiftçiler nit­rojen açısından zengin, "kara altın" adı verilen dışkı toplama işini yüzyıllar­dır zaten yapıyorlardı. Kimyasal gübrelerden çok daha iyi olan insan dışkısı, tahıllar için iyi bir gübre oluşturmakta ve toprağı fazladan zenginleştirmek­teydi. 1982'den öncesine değin, dışkının yüzde yetmiş beşi toprakta yakılı­yor, okyanusa dökülüyor ya da yakılıyordu. Artık, bu rahatsız edici sorunun yüzde ellisinin yeniden kullanımı gerçekleştirilebiliyor..."
"....1900'lerde bir gönüllüler ordusunun sağlık konusunda özel bir biçimde eğitilmesi gerekmişti. Muharebeden önce askerlere "banyoya gitmeleri" söyleniyordu. Bir top mermisiyle vurulmak, eğer bağırsaklarda dışkı varsa çok daha zararlı oluyordu..."
"...İç Savaş sırasında, 1862'de General McClellan'ın ordusu, 100.000 askerinin birden ishal olması nedeniyle Richmond'u zaptedememişti. Eyaletler arası savaş boyunca, ishal 70.000 askerin hayatına mal olmuştu. İspanyol-Amerikan savaşının kurbanlarının büyük çoğunluğu, kurşunlardan değil, ishalden ölmüştü. II.Dünya Savaşı da bu eğilimi sürdürdü: Burma'da "Merrill Çapulcuları" adı verilen savaş gücü, ishale ödediği diyet yüzünden dağıtılmak zorunda kaldı. Bir müfrezede hastalık öyle berbat bir hal almıştı ki, askerler pantolonlarının poposunu kesip çıkarmışlardı..."
"...Uzay mekiği çağı, uzay tuvaletinin son yükselişine damgasını vurdu. Başlangıçta atık yönetim sistemi, yedi kişilik mürettebatın yedi günlük gö­revine göre ayarlanmıştı. Yapılan değişikliklerle bu süre on dört güne çıktı. Sonunda, mekiğin uzayda deprem yaratacak keşiflerine devam etmesi isteniyorsa, yepyeni bir sistemin oluşturulması gerektiği açığa çıktı. NASA Hamilton Standard'la bir kanalizasyon sistemi üzerine anlaşma yaptı. Yeni tuvaletin uzayda ilk kullanımı uzay mekiği Endeavour'da gerçekleştirildi ve tam bir başarıya ulaştı. Yeni tuvaletin fiyatı çatışmalara neden oldu. NASA, bu sistem için 23.4 milyon dolar okkalı bir bedel ödemişti..."
"... Texaslı bir adama hiç beklenmedik bir talih kuşu kondu. Bu adam birkaç günlük bir süre içinde, tuvaletinde lağım kanalından gelmiş yetmiş beş adet dolma kalem buldu. Bu muamma çözülemedi. Kanalizasyon şirketinden dolmakalemlerin buraya nasıl gelebildiğini kimse açıklayamadı. Dayanıklılıklarının bir kanıtı olarak, kalemler hala yazıyor..."

[arriki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. It was not all that well written but it shed light on a lot of aspects of human civilization.

The disposal of human...let's call them what they are...feces has been a major problem since civilization began. All those ancient cities stank. More soldiers died from disease from lack of sanitation than from fighting with the enemy up until maybe WWII. People, even kings and princes and great ladies, defecated and urinated in the halls and rooms of the great palaces.

The author brought out examples from all ages. How feces clogged the sewers of ancient Rome causing the feces to back up in the streets. Piles of feces often became permanent landmarks. The most common solution was to empty them into rivers. Imagine. And people used those same rivers for drinking and cooking water oftentimes. The English dumped into the Thames so much excrement that in the summer heat many times Parliament was dismissed because people couldn't stand the stench coming from the river.

That was Western civilization. The Chinese took a more practical approach. They not collected feces, but used them for fertilzer. Life still stank, but they didn't have the disposal problem as much.

It makes me look at all those neat, clean medieval fantasy novel and wonder where the you-know-what went.

Around the 1600s they started having these decorated boxes to hide the chamber pots. Did you realize that until Victorian times people didn't consider going to the toilet (which they didn't have) not to be a private matter? People had chamber pots in the dining room and people dining would use them in full sight of everyone!

Toilets are wonderful inventions. I'm so glad I was born after they were invented.

This was an interesting and fun read. I highly recommend it.

[Guera25 · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for scholarly erudition, this isn't it. However, it's a fun, goofy, snort-inducing look at the history of the toilet, rife with anecdotes and bawdy poetry. I found myself laughing until I cried in the library.

[Todd Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

This history of toilets and the related acts of defecation and urination are the topic of the book. Horan relates the evolution from early humans simply finding places in the outdoors to relieve themselves near bushes or in bodies of water, to the development of chamber pots and privies, to ultimately the modern toilet facilities we enjoy. She works in a good deal of exploration of public attitudes toward the topic, as well as cultural differences in various parts of the world. An interesting study on a topic most give very little thought to, but something that is a daily occurrence.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly an interesting read. However, it is a bit all over the place in terms of structure (chronologically and geographically) which leaves holes, could do with footnotes on sources, uses certain outdated sources uncritically, and some chapters are just lists of unsourced tidbits the author clearly doesn't know where else to put.
Although it's not a history, I would recommend The Big Necessity by Rose George on the same topic.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned on page 23 of 209. This is not a social history of the toilet. It is a selection of random statements that the author has collected and stuck in chronological order. Nothing has been fact checked. So we are told “Ring around the roses” is based on the plague which is a myth. Nowadays this would have become a vaguely humorous website.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm tempted to state that this book was a lot of crap but I do not want to offend anyone so I will not do that. It was a relatively interesting book but then again, I like historical writings. I was telling a librarian and close friend of mine that I liked history and historical novels. This is the book she got for me. Thanks

[Kasi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is not a technical read but it does provide a nice framework for someone who wants to know about the history and a base to build up your study. Gives a good summary of the history but is not factually accurate about many ideas.

[Andrew W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a lot of misinformation and urban legend rather than facts and historical accuracy.
The later chapters are better, but still wouldn't recommend.

[Caroline Kelemen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The history of the toilet was interesting, but I think her writing on cultures that were French, British or American was pretty disrespectful

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly enough this book is actually better as a bathroom reader than a regular book due to the fact that it is constructed mainly of vignettes and historical antidotes as opposed to a more standard history or history-esque book. That's not to say it was bad it just didn't weave its story along all to great. As one would expect things went mostly chronological and the back bit of the book contained short asides on things like toilet paper and military sanitation. It managed to be tasteful in a way considering the subject manner and even tried to bring in non-Western history (although it was very much a US/England centric work). For all of the information presented I was really disappoint in its bibliography section...it could very well be just perpetuating a collection of quirky hey-did-you-knows but I don't know enough about the subject to better advise on this trait. It also proved to be a great conversation starter for nearly everyone I encountered while reading it in public.

[Sarai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Product Description
Elvis died on one, and Charles V was born on one. Although we use them every day, most of us know very little about toilets. This unique history contends that civilization began, not with the written word, but with the toilet. As the ultimate bathroom book, The Porcelain God offers an amusing diversion.

I picked up this book because Sandy was reading it to use for book talks during school visits. Filled with all kinds of wonderful useless trivia, this book is entertaining, informative, and a fast read.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very unusual history, but a great read.