In Pursuit Of Silence: Listening For Meaning In A World Of Noise (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I had really high hopes for this book and made it through the fairly interesting 20-page introduction ready to move on. I didn't get much further before finding myself annoyed at various writing weaknesses that hampered my appreciation. At first, it was hard for me to pinpoint, but over several pages close together, I found three types of problems that added up to not wanting to finish the book. Ah, well. Here they are:-On a walk in the dark: "The deep silence was instantly broken by the squitch, squatch of boot tread on snow. 'Feet, stop making so much noise,' I thought." Really? Way too self-focused, and I was jolted by hearing an echo of Stepin Fetchit's famous movie line, "Feet, don't fail me now." It utterly broke the mood for me.-Weak reference: "The monks noted that God had created his people in the desert, and it was to the desert that he'd brought them after their sin in order, in the words of Hosea, to 'allure her, and speak to her tenderly.'" Her? I don't like to have to stop reading in order to figure out to whom a pronoun is referring--especially to find in the end that there's no one.-"In the early twentieth century, Dr. Frazer, an American anthropologist, went off to study the so-called Silent Widows of a tribe of Australian Aborigines." Doesn't Dr. Frazer have a first name? If I want to know more, should I really have to try to find the author before I can even look up his/her work? Shoddy.He seems rather worldly to me than and comes off as more of a whiner about a noise than a true seeker of silence. Interesting premise. I found Prochnik's descriptions of the loud places (e.g. as he tours an Abercrombie & Fitch with the woman who designed the obnoxious sound system, and his stint at a loud car audio contest) almost as unpleasant as actually being in those places myself, which is testament to his writing. His description of his stint at the Dubuque, IA, New Melleray Abbey caused me to yearn to go there and see for myself. We'll see. His exploration of Deaf Space at Gallaudet was fascinating, too. As an avowed introvert, I like quiet. A LOT. And I already have some of it in my life. This book made me resolve to seek even more.
What do You think about In Pursuit Of Silence: Listening For Meaning In A World Of Noise (2010)?
3.5 stars. Fascinating survey but the execution was lacking something I can't quite figure out.
—wojohoski
Slow going for the first 50-80 pages. A good amount of interesting information and history.
—shane
Fascinating study of the role of silence in our lives and the lack of it nowadays.
—Potter
