Lost Sound
Jeff Porter · University of North Carolina Press eBooks · 2016
Lost Sound is a book about a literary tradition that, while rarely studied, was a vital part of broadcast radio during the mid-1930s through the 1940s and beyond. From Archibald MacLeish to Glenn Gould, radio storytelling was a thriving acoustic art that bridged the worlds of literature and broadcast culture. In Lost Sound, Jeff Porter examines the vital interplay between sonic techniques and modernist practices in the growth of radio. Concentrating on the 1930s through the 1970s, but also speaking to the rising popularity of today's narrative broadcasts such as This American Life, Radiolab, Serial, and The Organicist, Porter's close readings of key radio programs show how writers adapted literary techniques to an acoustic medium with great effect. For a brief spell, a door opened in broadcast culture that allowed sophisticated forms of storytelling to mix with prevailing forms of popular radio. Lost Sound explores the way modernism was absorbed by radio and seeks to understand how avant-garde writing contributed to the boon in literary programming in radio’s heyday. Modernist programming vitalized radio. It elevated drama and introduced other genres to broadcast culture, such as the literary essay and narrative poetry. The movement also encouraged experiments with narrative form and provoked interest in radiophonic techniques that pushed the boundaries of music and sound effects. As a consequence, its storytelling acquired an acoustic depth and density that called attention to the nature of the medium itself.