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249
auricula
that this silence was probably
the first of its kind. In 1931 he
added, in reference to the
French undertaking of ten
years earlier, that it would
probably also be the last,
excepting of course that one.
Nonetheless, no one who has
considered the subject can
entirely avoid the thought
that a like silence could occur
at any time. However, the
1915 silence left traces that
very few people were in a
position to discover, despite
the fact that these traces
appeared on the scene within
the same rather short space
of time, namely the following
summer, for their appearance
occurred in so many different
parts of the world that no
p o s s i b l e
f o r m
o f
documentation could account
for what actually was the
case. The events encompassed
by the 1915 silence must have
included sexual liaisons, not
too many, perhaps, but
considering the enormous
territory under discussion a
number, probably a few
thousand by all accounts.
Every one of the billions of
sperm that on September 7 at
4:09 p.m. soundlessly
campaigned for a much more
limited quantity of eggs in a
modest number of women
were doubtlessly effected
during those epochal seconds
before they either withered
away or fulfilled a purpose
their progenitor did not
necessarily intend, by the
aforementioned silence. In
the blink of an eye, when
silencehappened, immediately
following those thousands of
ejaculations, hearing heard
itself almost metaphorically,
and this exorbitant listening,
impotently directed at its own
device, probably had little to