ATDTDA (5.2) - Constance Penhallow

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

                     John Carvill:
                     . . . .there's a lot of photography in ATD, what with Merle 
                     and all, and photography is one of many ways into one 
                     of those nodal points where a load of thematic strands 
                     come together in a thick little knot. Where would you 
                     even start with trying to untangle it?

Note that the book moves from Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 
1893 to Hollywood in the early twenties. In between we are given 
demonstrations of the alchemy of silver, as explosives (base 
matter into light) as photography (from light back into base 
matter) and eventually as moving pictures---Movies beginning 
the technological cycles that evolves (devolves?) into TV. The 
book ends with the first glimmers of TV. These are themes explored
with a curious blend of nonchalance and detail in Vineland.

                     John Carvill:
                     In my initial reading of ATD, while I hugely enjoyed 
                     the first part, 'The Light Over the Ranges', and in fact 
                     reckon that part alone could stand as a rebuke to all 
                     the short-sighted negative reviews, I did wonder 
                     about the lightness of tone, and thought there was 
                     a certain Pynchon quality missing (there wasn't, but 
                     I only realised that later), which if pushed I'd have 
                     described as 'strangeness'. 

At the same time, that "lightness of tone" pervades Vineland. There
is much in AtD that stands as a rebuke to Vineland's critical 
non-reception, as the two novels share a tremendous number of 
concerns, in particular depicting dark places being bathed in light. The 
beginning of "Iceland Spar" section "broadcasts" much of that relation:

                     There was a "Ray-rush" in progress---light and magnetism, 
                     as well as all manner of extra-Hertzian rays, were there for 
                     the taking, and prospectors had come flooding in, many of 
                     them professional claim-jumpers aiming to get by on brute 
                     force, a very few genuinely able to dowse for rays of all 
                     frequencies. most neither gifted nor unscrupulous, simply 
                     caught up in everybody else's single-minded flight from 
                     reason, diseased as the gold and silver seekers of earlier 
                     days. Here at the high edge of the atmosphere was the 
                     next untamed frontier, pioneers arriving in airships 
                     instead of wagons, setting in motion property disputes 
                     destined to last generations. AtD 121

                     Like weather and internationally traded goods, radio 
                     propagation and RF technology do not stop at national 
                     boundaries. Giving technical and economic reasons, 
                     governments have sought to harmonise spectrum 
                     allocation standards.
                     A number of forums and standards bodies work on 
                     standards for frequency allocation, including:
                     ITU
                     CEPT
                     ETSI
                     International Special Committee on Radio Interference
                     High-demand sections of the electromagnetic spectrum 
                     may sometimes be allocated through auctions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_allocation

And you've just gotta look at this official frequency allocation chart:

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf