GR translation: demolition man

[David Morris]

I don't think Pynchon is valuing rational over superstitious.  GR takes the
question of both quite seriously. And he also implies that both spring from
an internal mechanism that is basic to human thought.

On Friday, November 9, 2012, Paul Mackin wrote:

> 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"?
>>>
>>
>
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