Scott comments: > I belive it was because the aliens communicated with music, and these > gestures are standard elementary school music material. Why the aliens > would understand them (and they seem to when Truffaut uses them) I have no > idea. As I recall, the notes are supposed to correspond to a mathematical series that allows entities to communicate without language as such--a pretty old idea in SF literature, with mathematics as a literally universal "language." Don Larsson ---------------------- Donald Larsson Minnesota State U, Mankato [log in to unmask] ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama.