Editing Pulp Fiction (section)

==== The bathroom ====
Much of ''Pulp Fiction''{{'}}s action revolves around characters who are either in the bathroom or need to use the toilet. To a lesser extent, Tarantino's other films also feature this narrative element.<ref>{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Mike |last2=Thompson |first2=Mike |name-list-style=amp |work=Cashiers du Cinemart |title=Tarantino in a Can? |url=http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives/issue_2/2_toilet.asp?IshNum=2&Headline=Tarantino%20In%20The%20Can |date=Spring 1995 |access-date=2006-12-31 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211214336/http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives/issue_2/2_toilet.asp?IshNum=2&Headline=Tarantino%20In%20The%20Can |archive-date=2012-02-11}}</ref> At Jack Rabbit Slim's, Mia goes to "powder her nose"&nbsp;– literally; she [[Cocaine#Insufflation|snorts coke]] in the restroom, surrounded by a bevy of women vainly primping. Butch and Fabienne play an extended scene in their motel bathroom, he in the shower, she brushing her teeth; the next morning, but just a few seconds later in screen time, she is again brushing her teeth&nbsp;– vigorously, after having given Butch "oral pleasure." As Jules and Vincent confront Brett and two of his pals, a fourth man is hiding in the bathroom&nbsp;– his actions will lead to Jules' transformative "moment of clarity". After Marvin's absurd death, Vincent and Jules wash up in Jimmie's bathroom, where they get into a contretemps over a bloody hand towel.<ref name="Den" /> When the diner holdup turns into a standoff, "Honey Bunny" whines, "I gotta go pee!"{{sfn|Fraiman|2003|p=15}}

As described by Peter and Will Brooker, "In three significant moments Vincent retires to the bathroom [and] returns to an utterly changed world where death is threatened."{{sfn|Brooker|Brooker|1996|p=239}} The threat increases in magnitude as the narrative progresses chronologically, and is realized in the third instance:

# Vincent and Jules's diner breakfast and philosophical conversation is aborted by Vincent's bathroom break; an armed robbery ensues while Vincent is reading on the toilet.
# While Vincent is in the bathroom worrying about the possibility of going too far with Marsellus's wife, Mia mistakes his heroin for cocaine, snorts it, and overdoses.
# During a stakeout at Butch's apartment, Vincent emerges from the toilet with his book and is killed by Butch.

In the Brookers' analysis, "Through Vince&nbsp;... we see the contemporary world as utterly contingent, transformed, disastrously, in the instant you are not looking."{{sfn|Brooker|Brooker|1996|p=239}} Fraiman finds it particularly significant that Vincent is reading ''Modesty Blaise'' in two of these instances. She links this fact with the traditional derisive view of women as "the archetypal consumers of pulp":

<blockquote>
Locating popular fiction in the bathroom, Tarantino reinforces its association with shit, already suggested by the dictionary meanings of "pulp" that preface the movie: moist, shapeless matter; also, lurid stories on cheap paper. What we have then is a series of damaging associations&nbsp;– pulp, women, shit&nbsp;– that taint not only male producers of mass-market fiction but also male consumers. Perched on the toilet with his book, Vincent is feminized by sitting instead of standing as well as by his trashy tastes; preoccupied by the anal, he is implicitly infantilized and homosexualized; and the seemingly inevitable result is being pulverized by Butch with a Czech M61 submachine gun. That this fate has to do with Vincent's reading habits is strongly suggested by a slow tilt from the book on the floor directly up to the corpse spilled into the tub.{{sfn|Fraiman|2003|loc=p. 14: Fraiman's identification of the submachine gun as a [[Škorpion|Czech M61]] matches the description in the screenplay: Tarantino (1994), p. 96. Visual evidence suggests that a different gun was actually used in the film, possibly a [[MAC-10]] or similar model}}
</blockquote>

Willis reads ''Pulp Fiction'' in almost precisely the opposite direction, finding "its overarching project as a drive to turn shit into gold. This is one way of describing the project of redeeming and recycling popular culture, especially the popular culture of one's childhood, as is Tarantino's wont as well as his stated aim."{{sfn|Willis|1997|p=195}} Despite that, argues Fraiman, "''Pulp Fiction'' demonstrates&nbsp;... that even an open pulpophile like Tarantino may continue to feel anxious and emasculated by his preferences."{{sfn|Fraiman|2003|p=15}}