Sonic Assault to Massive Attack: touch, sound and embodiment

Abstract

In Dorothy L. Sayers novel, The Nine Tailors (2003)the man whose death is being investigated by Lord Peter Wimsey is killed by sound. Accidentally locked in a church bell-chamber during a celebration New Years change-ring of fifteen thousand, eight hundred and forty Kent Treble Bob Majors (p. 12), the man dies in agony under the sonic assault of nine huge bells. Wimsey realizes what has caused the mans death when he finds himself in the bell-chamber during a short emergency peal and suffers a breakdown. Sayers description of the dead man makes it clear how traumatic his death has been, as Jim Thoday who discovered the body recounts