Re: [microsound] novels with sound

[Stephen Hastings-King <roachboy@xxxxxxxxx>]

i think r. murray schaeffer's book "the tuning of the world" opens with an
extended survey of the place accorded sound in european fiction--if i
rememebr, he focusses quite alot of attention on rabelais and proust--i
remember the rabelais sections better as they involve the chapter from book
4 on frozen words, which is most lovely....

more recvently, iain sinclair's psychogeographies have interesting stuff on
sound here and there: check out "london orbital" for example.

cage was quite fond of thoreau on listening/sound--you can find riffs based
on sections from thoreau in "silence", "x" and other writings/interviews.

joyce is quite cool for sound stuff as well, particularly "finnegans
wake"--i like cage's roratorio, but not particularly as an actual reading of
fw.  the book is much more interesting.  it is also really rough reading in
places.

in general, there is a problem with writing about sound--how do you do it?
if you name the source, you collapse the description--if you dont name the
source, it is quite difficult to say anything.  language is a fixed medium
and it fixes what it describes.  sound is otherwise.  what do you say about
sound?  do you imitate it?  do you desribe your reactions to it?  do you
desribe the waveforms, teh acoustic environment and their interactions?  how
do you write about sound?

stephen