The artificially engineered amusica virus is speculative, but the condition “amusica” is, unfortunately, a real one—the musical analogue to the language-impairing condition of aphasia. Subjects with amusica typically lose the ability both to make and appreciate music. I read about this condition in Harold L. Klawans’ fascinating book Toscanini’s Fumble (Headline, 1990). Like the case studies presented by Oliver Sacks, Klawans’ medical stories often seem more science fictional than any real SF, and are as addictive as any collection of short stories.
Simon Singh’s very readable The Code Book (Fourth Estate, 2000) provided much useful background on the history and workings of the Enigma machine.
For general information on the music of Floyd’s era (which isn’t quite the same as the music of our 1950s) I relied on Jazz: The Ultimate Guide by Ronald Atkins (Carlton, 1996), and the splendid five-CD supplement to Ken Burns’ Jazz: The Story of America’s Music (Sony, 2000). The Gitanes series of “Jazz in Paris” CDs also proved very useful.
For useful discussions, and general help with stupid questions, I am indebted to Tony Ballantyne, Barbara Bella, Bernd Hendel, Peter Hollo and Christopher Priest. Any mistakes, needless to say, are entirely my responsibility, not theirs.
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