AtDtDA(34): The Elusive "Austrian Minefield"

[Mark Kohut]

"Austrian minefield" seems to be, literally, mines in the water. (this book alludes to Austrain minefields..there are others)

Submarines at War 1914-18 By Richard Compton-Hall
 


--- On Sat, 6/21/08, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
Subject: AtDtDA(34): The Elusive "Austrian Minefield"
To: "Pynchon Liste" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Date: Saturday, June 21, 2008, 10:14 AM

"For much of that summer, Reef and Cyprian were out in search of the
elusive 'Austrian minefield.'" (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 950)


"a hundred-foot tower supporting a toroidal black antenna"

Cf. ...

Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower (1901 – 1917) also known as the
Tesla Tower, was an early wireless telecommunications aerial tower
intended for commercial wireless trans-Atlantic telephony,
broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without
interconnecting wires....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BrochureWardenclyffe_.PNG
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_946-975#Page_950


"what seemed mostly at first to be atmospheric static"

Cf. ...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sferics

sferics

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/alpha/s.html
http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=S

messages

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/alpha/m.html#messages
http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#messages


"hearing spoken words in a number of languages"

Cf., e.g., ...

tongues

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/alpha/t.html#tongues
http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=T#tongues

Pentecost

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/alpha/p-q.html#pentecost
http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=P#pentecost


"'the voices of the dead'"

The birth of spiritualism in the 19th century is seen as a reaction to
the modern and industrial age, a withdrawal from the uncertainties of
the alarming rate of progress into superstition and old beliefs.

However this was helped by the new technologies of the age, with
photography claiming to provide visual evidence of the existence of
ghosts, and radio waves being seen as a way of contacting the dead....

http://www.scansite.org/scan.php?pid=168

Electronic Voice Phenomena

http://skepdic.com/evp.html
http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/130/electronic_voice_phenomena.html
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_946-975#Page_951


Edison and Marconi

"If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical or
scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect, other
faculties and knowledge that we acquire on this Earth.  Therefore, if
personality exists after what we call death, it is reasonable to
conclude that those who leave the Earth would like to communicate with
those they have left here.  I am inclined to believe that our
personality hereafter will be able to affect matter.  If this
reasoning be correct, then, if we can evolve an instrument so delicate
as to be affected by our personality as it survives in the next life,
such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n4_v20/ai_18535410
http://thehumanodyssey.typepad.com/the_human_odyssey/2007/03/thomas_edisons_.html


"'the syntonic wireless'"

http://www.bartleby.com/61/14/S0971450.html
http://earlyradiohistory.us/1904syn.htm


"telephoning the dead"

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/phone_calls_from_the_dead.html
http://paranormalinsider.com/2007/10/franks_box.php

séance

29-30; 4-way entente: medium; control; spirit; survivor; Feldspath,
30; Overbaby, 152; "a visitation by the dead" 153; Rathenau, 163-67;
at The Castle with Blicero, 487; "other fourfold expressions" 624;
"sensitive flames" 715; Brigadier Pudding, 715

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/s.html
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=S


But what IS that "elusive 'Austrian minefield' " again? 
Help!


      
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