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A review by colophonphile
In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise by George Prochnik
The book is more about fleeing noise than pursuing silence, at least until its end, when Prochnik makes peace with the stronger emotions that fueled his sonic quest early on.
That quest is a remarkable one. He's a curious and active reporter -- visiting a school for the deaf, a boom-car rally, a soundproof-technology convention, a monastery, a Quaker meeting room, a Japanese garden, and numerous other places, as well as speaking with astronauts, police officers, urban planners, and architects, all toward his cause of reducing the noise that blinds us (sonically) to the word and each other.
However, the conflict between noise and silence is not as summarily contained as the book's concluding paragraphs might suggest, and the book's founding thesis -- that the world is louder than ever, a state Prochnik dubs "the new noisiness" -- is not supported by enough data to make it fully convincing.
That quest is a remarkable one. He's a curious and active reporter -- visiting a school for the deaf, a boom-car rally, a soundproof-technology convention, a monastery, a Quaker meeting room, a Japanese garden, and numerous other places, as well as speaking with astronauts, police officers, urban planners, and architects, all toward his cause of reducing the noise that blinds us (sonically) to the word and each other.
However, the conflict between noise and silence is not as summarily contained as the book's concluding paragraphs might suggest, and the book's founding thesis -- that the world is louder than ever, a state Prochnik dubs "the new noisiness" -- is not supported by enough data to make it fully convincing.