Morse Code V.

[James W. Horton]

On Wed, 9 Nov 1994 LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu wrote:

> 
> jwhorton writes:
> "Morse code, believe it or not, has its own rhythm.  The three dots and a dash
> remind me of the four opening notes of the main theme of Beethoven's
> fifth, which, I understand, is supposed to be about fate, death, or the
 devil--I can't remember which.  Either one seems appropriate though "

> You're not the only one!  The opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth were constantly
> used by the Allies in WWII to represent "V for Victory."  The musical phrase
> became so much of a cliche (like Rossini's "William Tell Overture" and 
> THE LONE RANGER) that it's taken a few generations to shake off the association.
> 
> BTW, where's the period?
> 
> --Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN
> 


Don't worry too much about my saying something unoriginal on the Pynchon
hotline.  THEY already found out about it and what THEY did to me I still
can't talk about.
	As for the period, I have a lot of ideas about that, and anyone 
who wants to know can consult my recently published three volume work on 
the topic:

VOL 1:		V. and the Period of Uncertainty: Is This the End?

VOL 2:		Pynchon's Phallic Period: What's the Point?

VOL 3:		The Fundamentals of Punctuation in V. and their Relationship 
			to the Colonial Period


but seriously, in terms of Morse code at least, the period doesn't make a 
lot of sense.  In Morse, a period is as follows: (.-.-.-).  This  could 
be seen as three "A"s in succession (A is .-).  VA means "out" as in "I 
am signing off now," but VAAA doesn't mean anything at all, unless one wants 
to really stretch the interpretation and imagine the radio operator is 
saying testily, "I am REALLY signing off now, this time for GOOD".




jwhorton		VA