GRGR: "sound-shadow" (when the roaring of the sun stops), 695, 711;

[Paul Mackin]

Yes I think maybe Jill's quote can well remind us of Sound
Shadows. Those ingeniously-invented-by-Pynchon Sounds from the Sun
represented the possibility of messages from the "other side." These are
sounds They of course do not want Us to hear.  Neither did the German High
Command want  Peenamunders to hear the radio messages from the
Soviets--also the "other side."

		
			P.
			

On Thu, 14 Sep 2000, jill wrote:

> Oh hey, if you can get a copy of Peenemunde to Canaveral /Hutzel read it.
> It is eerie the things that connect with what TRP wrote in GR to what a
> person who was there, Hutzel, reports about it. Both take place in the
> eerie chapter of Death of Peenemunde. Sorry if everyone has already talked
> about this and I was not paying attention.
> 
> The first quote's context is likely to be around February of 1945, during
> Germany's basically hopeless losses, and the engineers there listening to
> the radio:
> 
> "Apparently the Russians had a powerful beamed transmitter and an announcer
> completely familiar with German and possessed of quick wit and
> intelligence. He would listen to the German newscast and immediately
> broadcast his comment back on the same wave length. There was never
> anything sophisticated about the interjections. It was simply the voice of
> doom. No promises of liberation were offered, only predictions of defeat,
> death and destruction.
>   The German government countered this tactic by having the newscaster read
> his broadcast so fast thre was no time for interjections. This was
> unpleasant to listen to, but effective, until the Russians began firing
> their vocal salvos in between pieces of music or during any other moment of
> silence. Eventually, a transmitter was set up which received, amplified and
> rebroadcast the Russian message, but phase-shifted half a wave length, thus
> canceling out their transmission."
> 
> The second quote's context is the recently carpet bombed Peenemunde as
> launching spot and the move to Bleicherode, speaking at a time when most of
> the operations had been packed up and taken there.
> 
> "The last days began to unwind from the dwindling spool. Hartmut and his
> family weere now gone, relocated with his unit in Bad Sachsa. I completed
> my own plans, finished packing my essential possessions, not too many now,
> and eliminated everything else. I waited for instructions.
> 
> Subconsciously, I would listen for the distant growl of a test taking place
> at P-7, a sound that never came. The uneasy stillness of a death watch had
> settled over Peenemunde."
> 
> Do these quotes seem to remind anyone else of sound shadow?
>