On the Line

"The clatter was more mechanical, as if somewhere deep beneath the waves someone was pecking out a memo on a manual typewriter."

That is Elizabeth Kolbert writing in The New Yorker about the sounds of sperm whales in her piece “Can We Talk to Whales.”

. . .

“Another fighter jet - more feedback than clear engine sound - arcing over the north against the forces of gravity - eight geese make low pass towards the sea. Strandline - a child's summer shoe - Frozen. Always Frozen.”

That is an example of the fragmented, stream-of-consciousness writing that fleshes out the beautiful, dreamy illustrations of Maxim Peter Griffin’s elegant book Field Notes: Walking the Territory.

. . .

“The vibration started within the movie but is only translated to sound outside the diegesis. To whose physical universe does it belong?”

That is Graeme Cole on the “leaky concept” of diegetic sound in film.