Voices, Voices

There's a dense thicket of religious allusions here, a collection and co-grouping of the spiritual and the technological that rivals the Beatles Tomorow Never Knows, a tune released about the same time The Crying of Lot 49 first appeared on bookshelves, in that odd religious instant we now know as the Summer of 1966, the last moments when LSD was still Legal. Take a close gander at the religious/spiritual terms on this page, how close this constellation swirling around the Revelation in progress all around her aligns to the nascent Hippie Movement:

. . . .a hieroglyphic sense of concealed meaning

. . . .a revelation also trembled just past the threshold of her understanding

. . . .an odd, religious instant

. . . .with movements stylized as the handling of chrism, censer, chalice

. . . .voices, voices, the music, its message, surrounded by it, digging it, as were all the faithful it went out to

. . . .all reflected in this Map of the Transistor Radio's Circuit Board, a map that somehow matches the Visible Landscape of the Infected City. Note how messages are constantly distorted throughout The Crying of Lot 49. The mode of distorted communication for the revelation in progress all around Edna Mosh being the Pocket Sized Portable Transistor Radio, a media revolution very much analogous to the emergence of the Talkies in the late '20's, and the current [2007] I-Pod. All these major shifts in audio media have their own distinct sonic qualities, a distinct Sound akin to a musical instrument's Timbre.

Typical AM Radio Sound hardly exceeds 3,000 Hertz -- with audio fidelity that is typical of a telephone line connection -- perhaps ideally suited for news and talk program formats, however not for programing high quality music formats. Many receiver manufacturers intentionally reduce audio bandwidth in their product offerings, to decrease interference from closely spaced AM stations. Another reason for the super narrow audio frequency response is the high frequency noise caused by the disregard for any R.F amplifier stage. Dropping this R.F amplifier stage contributes to further cost savings in the product. Restricted audio bandwidth causes "muddy" music to be reproduced. It is not the medium, it is these lackluster radio designs that are to blame for this muddy sound

We are led to understand that while Mucho is aware that there is some sort of revelation in progress, it is a revelation that Mucho Maas is not yet privy to. As of this moment in the book, Mucho is not a 'believer' in that movement, but things can always change, see page a; 117, b; 143 She Loves You.

Note as well the echo of Rilke contained on this page:

Voices, voices. Hear then, my heart, as only

saints have heard: so that the mighty call

raised them from the earth: they, though, knelt on

impossibly and paid no attention:

such was their listening. Not that you could withstand

God’s voice: far from it.