GR translation: demolition man

[Paul Mackin]

On 11/8/2012 2:02 AM, jochen stremmel wrote:
> I think what Pynchon refers to here is more general, not only in the
> context of WW II or the high and low contact. It's about "a repetition
> high and low", low like the malignant pun a filthy, mocking scoundrel
> might make and high like a sympathetic magic.
>
> It's about playing with words and images, similes, metaphors. Like the
> demolition man and the Trembler he sees in a spoon between a glass and
> a plate, if he has to do the dishes.
Going beyond the specific examples, we might want also to note that this 
superstitious and magical thinking is meant to exemplify impurity, the 
opposite of what the second level is supposed to produce or demonstrate?

Thinking that contact of the spoon with the cup might produce an 
explosion--or that a coffee brand name by mere name association will 
bring forth a cruel lady--are pollutions of thought. (of course in this 
case there IS a cruel lady)

And outside the Kabbalistic framework, the interrelatedness of all 
things for the paranoiac is suggested.  To the paranoiac everything is 
connected.  At least in Pynchon. Not sure how that applied to Pudding, 
but still . . . .

P
>
> 2012/11/7 Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net>:
>> Jochen is correct about “demolition man” in  general, but in a WWII context
>> I think it means Explosive Ordnance Disposal,  someone who *disarms* bombs.
>> A “trembler” is a vibration-sensitive switch, its central tongue (an
>> electrical contact) closing the circuit if it touches either the “high”
>> contact above or the “low” contact beneath.
>>
>>
>>
>> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
>> Of Mike Jing
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 2:22 AM
>> To: Pynchon Mailing List
>> Subject: GR translation: demolition man
>>
>>
>>
>> P234.35-235.4  In the second antechamber is an empty red tin that held
>> coffee. The brand name is Savarin. He understands that it means to say
>> “Severin.” Oh, the filthy, the mocking scoundrel. . . . But these are not
>> malignant puns against an intended sufferer so much as a sympathetic magic,
>> a repetition high and low of some prevailing form (as, for instance, no sane
>> demolition man at his evening dishwater will wash a spoon between two cups,
>> or even between a glass and a plate, for fear of the Trembler it implies . .
>> . because it’s a trembler-tongue he really holds, poised between its two
>> fatal contacts, in fingers aching with having been so suddenly reminded). .
>> . .
>>
>> What is the "demolition man" mentioned here?  Why the fear of tremblers?
>> What is a trembler anyway?
>>
>> Also, what is the meaning of "high and low" in "a repetition high and low"?