In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise

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In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise

3.41 of 5 stars 3.41 · rating details · 197 ratings · 49 reviews

More than money, power, and even happiness, silence has become the most precious—and dwindling—commodity of our modern world.

Between iPods, music-blasting restaurants, earsplitting sports stadiums, and endless air and road traffic, the place for quiet in our lives grows smaller by the day. In Pursuit of Silence gives contextto our increasingly desperatesense that noise po...more

Hardcover, 342 pages

Published April 6th 2010 by Doubleday

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May 11, 2010 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-stuff

Eh. Not, Eh!, the very friendly goodreader, but, Eh.

I saw this book and got excited. I like silence. I believe that there isn't enough of it. I think that there is a whole lot of useless bullshit being said and noises being made. I generally sit most of the time in my apartment with no background noise, well for example right now there is a garbage truck making a beeeeeepppp beeeeeeppppp noise, and now a plane, and some engine noise off in the distance and noises like that which are almost alwa...more

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Jan 27, 2012 Aram Sohigian rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book a second time for the Noe Valley Library Book Club. I actually read it last year and nominated it and the other members decided to give it a go. I like that Mr. Prochnik starts out with a simple story and then it continually evolves and changes to be such a difficult and confusing belief system that silence is good. It really is something that I need and yet it is truly not able to achieved.

I really enjoyed the chapter on architecture designed by deaf people and Deaf Space with...more

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Apr 11, 2011 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

One man's quirky adventure into the cultures of noise and silence. As a city dweller, I understand his neediness for the unintrusive, the still, the quiet; as a suburban and rural dweller, I remember craving the frenetic, the indistinguishable mass of sound. Clearly we can't listen without both sound and silence, can't perceive without the dance between presence and absence, but in the city, the balance is tipped to the point of manic.

The book is a survey of interesting ideas about silence, som...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Tim Wood marked it as to-read

The Origin and Cultural Evolution of Silence
by Maria Popova
‘Sound imposes a narrative on you, and it’s always someone else’s narrative.’
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...

A painter friend of mine once told me that he thought of sound as an usher for the here and now. When he was a small child, Adam suffered an illness that left him profoundly deaf for several months. His memories of that time are vivid and not, he insists, at all negative. Indeed, they opened a world in which the images he...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Prochnik may not give us deep philosophy but does provide a multifaceted survey of current contemporary noise and silence issues. From the silences of the monastery to boom cars with stereos loud enough to break their own windshields to the ubiquitous earbuds he makes explicit many aspects of silence and noise we likely have not thought through: “the military and the monastery are each … dedicated to the watchful preparation for death—often in silence.” “… the centrality of silence to life in a...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Caitee Nigro rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sound, like food, water, oil, is a natural resource. It doesn't grow on trees, fall from skies or sit silently underground waiting to be discovered. But sound - like any natural resource - can starve or spoil a city.
In Pursuit of Silence awakens our consciousness of the noise around us that both invigorates and destroys a setting, as Prochnik delves into the sciences of audio, psychology, geography and even engineering. Like a research paper on crack, this book tells a story that reminds us of t...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Ken rated it 2 of 5 stars

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...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Jeff R rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, mental-health

Of course, I read every page of this book with the rumbling hum of an aircraft in my ears.

This book blends sound science, sound anecdotes, and sound philosophy in a consistently interesting mix. The writing is a hair too precious here and there, but what can I say. Some of the stuff genuinely surprised me - for instance, did you know that people eat faster, drink faster, even just chew faster, when eating with fast music in the background compared to slow music? It's not 2% faster either, it's l...more Of course, I read every page of this book with the rumbling hum of an aircraft in my ears.

This book blends sound science, sound anecdotes, and sound philosophy in a consistently interesting mix. The writing is a hair too precious here and there, but what can I say. Some of the stuff genuinely surprised me - for instance, did you know that people eat faster, drink faster, even just chew faster, when eating with fast music in the background compared to slow music? It's not 2% faster either, it's like a third faster.

Given that Prochnik is a carless progressive Brooklynite, he couldn't help but frequently cite Traffic as the uber-boogeyman in the whole de-silencing of our world. (Uh, I think he is carless). He also yearns for public policy to save the day. Eventually he pretty much throws in the towel as far as the baseline noise of our world but hopes for more oases of silence, again aided by policy ("We need more Zen gardens".)

Prochnik also quotes a scientist who wants to pin the alleged increase in Autism on a lack of silent time in the early years of a child's life. Has anyone written a book about the human endeavour in the last ten years who doesn't throw in a cause for Autism? Publishers must demand this.

I don't consider myself a silence fan as much as an enemy of loudness. I've slept with talk shows playing on the radio since I was eight years old (now I sometimes use white noise software instead), and I often have two or even three radios around the house running various talk stations. What I can't stand is loud sports stadiums, loud bars, loud anything.

Given that I'm a fan of white noise, I was hoping for a bit more discussion of white noise. Prochnik does touch on it here and there (calling white noise the "kin" of silence) but not much.

This quote from a monk early in the book probably explains my lifelong use of background radio:
"Silence is for bumping into yourself. That's why monks pursue it. And that's also why people can't get into a car without turning the radio on, or walk into a room without switching on a television. They seek to avoid that confrontation."

(less)

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Jul 04, 2010 Stephany rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am incredibly sensitive to noise. I have, on more than one occasion, walked out of a grocery store mid-trip, a half-filled cart left in an aisle (never with refrigerated items, of course), because the blaring music and announcements were too much and I Had To Leave Right Away Before I Killed Someone. My expectations for this book, then, were quite high: I wanted a diagnosis and actionable solutions for the Problem Of Noise. It was a little light on these.

In Pursuit of Silence is a style of boo...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Nisha rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a beautifully written, scientific and philosophical account of sound and meaning in our over-hyped, maximum-volume world. Prochnik has done outstanding research and great reporting, and he offers profound meditations on the Walkman, the iPad, PA systems, urban pocket parks, sound designers, Deaf Architecture, and Trappist monks, among many other fascinating (and often disquieting) topics. This book explains why. It will lead you to think about noise in a way you probably haven't ( a cop...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Bonnie Irwin rated it 3 of 5 stars

While this book has its moments, I found it disappointing overall. The author spends a lot of time talking about noise rather than silence, and advances in the sound-proofing industry are given far too much geography. The book begins and ends strongly, those sections where the author really discusses his pursuit of silence. What gets left out from the promising title, however, is "meaning." The meaning and importance of silence is just not central enough to the narrative to justify the title. Fa...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Vanessa Long rated it 5 of 5 stars

You wouldn’t believe but I actually got my first tattoo on my lower back which reads "...and the rest is silence". I to have an obsession with silence, so much so, that I have am attending Gallaudet University and am super excited to be living in a much quieter world. I of course also have a passion for Deafness and Deaf culture and plan on opening a school for the Deaf when I am graduated. Either which way, I haven’t read the book yet but I ordered it and should be expecting to receive it withi...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am huge fan of silence, or at least quiet, and noise of various kinds is my main complaint about living in the city, so I was interested in this book from the start. It's an exploration of noise and silence in our culture in general, and also a look into how and why we hear, why too much noise is not good for us even though society is becoming increasingly louder, and those sorts of ideas. I enjoyed reading it, and it was interesting to see the information the author had gathered, though some...more

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Jul 19, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, audiobook

I am often irked by excessive noise, so this book naturally appealed to me. I enjoyed the style, as well as the wide range of topics covered. The chapter on "boom cars" and the competitions was hilarious. The book also dipped into the subject of architectural acoustics, which is interesting to me. I also appreciate the author's conclusions, near the end of the book. The author found that trying to reduce overall noise in an environment is often a losing battle. So, instead of reducing noise, a b...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Heather Downs rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought that this book would be the modern version of "Walden" and in many ways it is about the need for silence and reflection in modern life. However, Prochnik instead uses this medium to explore the experience and meaning of silence. He speaks to astronauts, noise experts, car stereo fanatics, religious figures and many other noise/silence experts. At times I feel that his writing style rambles, however, he is exhaustive in his use of sources and information. His last chapter is the most co...more

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Jan 27, 2012 Melissa Earley rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you regularly find yourself wishing you could erase the constant noise of traffic, cell phones, music, TVs, car alarms, sirens, construction work, and all those other distracting noises of our modern world, and just find a nice, quiet place to sit and think and decompress, then you’ll find Prochnik’s latest book of interest. The author lives in Brooklyn, so he knows a thing or two about the unwelcome sounds of big city life, and this book chronicles his journey to discover just what all this...more If you regularly find yourself wishing you could erase the constant noise of traffic, cell phones, music, TVs, car alarms, sirens, construction work, and all those other distracting noises of our modern world, and just find a nice, quiet place to sit and think and decompress, then you’ll find Prochnik’s latest book of interest. The author lives in Brooklyn, so he knows a thing or two about the unwelcome sounds of big city life, and this book chronicles his journey to discover just what all this noise does to us, physically and psychologically, and what, if anything, we can do to combat it, or at least learn to better cope with it.
Scientists and doctors of many stripes, religious ascetics, and noise pollution activists weigh in on the dangers of modern noise levels, the latest soundproofing designs and sound measuring devices, and the overall advantages of quietness and silence. Did you know that, even after years of experiencing police sirens driving past several times a day, for instance, our eyes will still dilate and our blood pressure will go up, even if we sit quietly and the noise of the siren only barely registers? Did you realize that headphones are responsible for about 10% of all traffic accidents—because those wearing the headphones don’t hear oncoming traffic and drivers will slam on their brakes to avoid hitting them, creating the perfect opportunity to be rear-ended? Well, if you didn’t, there’s much, much more to learn about the dangers of noise, and Prochnik shares them all along the way.
On the other side of the coin, however, he also spends time with professional “boom car” drivers. Some of them compete to see whose speakers will register the highest dB levels for the longest amount of time. Prochnik rides along with them, interviews them, and their stories are interesting, even if they will probably fail to move anyone reading this book over to their lifestyle. There are also sound designers, who create “soundscapes” in shopping areas and restaurants that subconsciously encourage people to spend more or less time in a place and spend more money there as well. They cite studies that show, for example, that bars blaring music too loudly to talk over will make more money than quiet ones because people drink more, and drink more quickly, when they don’t waste all that time talking to one another. They also clear out sooner, paving the way for someone new to sit down and start drinking.
There are revelations to be found in each of his adventures, whether walking in the famed Japanese gardens of Portland, the school for the Deaf in Washington, D.C., with the boom car enthusiasts of Tampa, the architects and sound proofers of Copenhagen, or the evolutionary neuroscientists who are discovering how our earless, early mammalian ancestors “heard” via vibrations that affected tiny bones in their jaws that would later migrate and become even more sensitive to vibration and eventually develop into modern ears. All of these tales are interesting and thought provoking, although, ultimately, they are frustrating.
As his research shows, there have always been concerns about noise levels in industrial cities, and many an anti-noise society has been formed and many a piece of legislation passed to endeavor to tamper the worst of the noise and create a quieter, more peaceful environment. But further studies show that noise levels continue to go up, despite these earnest efforts, and our hearing and overall health continue to decline as a result of it. In other words, noise pollution seems to be here to stay, and ultimately all we are left to glean from Prochnik’s work is that the best we can do for our own physical and mental health is to steal away as often as we can to a cathedral, quiet reading room, waterfall or park, as a temporary, but much needed and much valued, respite.(less)

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Oct 31, 2010 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise

One recent beautiful day, I was curled up with a book outside, enjoying the change in the light and air of fall, with a fat orange cat on my lap. The baby was asleep, work was done, and it was finally a chance to relax. It was bliss. All was quiet. Quiet, until an extremely loud dirt bike, without a muffler, began doing circuits of the road below my house. I went from peaceful and content to plotting murder in mere seconds…just the whine of the engine mad...more

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May 21, 2010 Blog on Books rated it 2 of 5 stars

Though rarely mentioned, the world is getting louder. Urban expansion, media explosion, piped in muzak and ubiquitous earbuds are all adding up to a society that has become immersed in noise pollution, and often unwittingly so. George Prochnik, a psychology-based writer (‘Putnam Camp: Sigmund Freud, James Jackson Putnam and the Purpose of American Psychology’) has studied this in both its rudimentary and more advanced levels and published the results in his latest book, ‘In Pursuit of Silence: L...more Though rarely mentioned, the world is getting louder. Urban expansion, media explosion, piped in muzak and ubiquitous earbuds are all adding up to a society that has become immersed in noise pollution, and often unwittingly so. George Prochnik, a psychology-based writer (‘Putnam Camp: Sigmund Freud, James Jackson Putnam and the Purpose of American Psychology’) has studied this in both its rudimentary and more advanced levels and published the results in his latest book, ‘In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise.’

Prochnik’s research covers a wide range of issues related to both sound and silence including everything from the acoustics and physics of sound, public noise policy, antinoise activism, the science of hearing, deafness and the biophysics of the ear itself. He also engages in a host of what is best termed ‘field research’ as he takes readers to environments ranging from the world of Noise-Cons and ‘boom cars’ to the obscure ‘pocket parks’ buried inside of Manhattan.

By exploring societal norms and environmental noise factors (for example, that bars and restaurants sell more consumable products – food and drink – when decibel levels are raised on their patrons), Prochnik is also able to elucidate the antidotes for avoiding the sound onslaught that sometimes seems to be an unavoidable inevitability of today’s complex world. By shedding light on techniques from state-of-the-art soundproofing to Zen meditation, Prochnik shows the reader a way out of the sonic noise spectrum, but he stresses, it is not without its cost.

In all, ‘In Pursuit of Silence’ is not a prosaic tome (as one might presume) as much as it is a neo-scientific study; not as clinical as a text on the subject, but still focused and specific. Whether you view that as a benefit or a criticism depends on what you are looking for. If a serious study of the current state of the noise-silence continuum in the modern urban world is what you seek, this may be a book for you. If not, you might find it a bit dry.(less)

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Apr 25, 2012 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 fascinati...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Andrea rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sociology-culture, abandoned

Not news: The world is loud and it's getting louder.

Also not news: Silence has been used in many religions throughout time as a means of reverence.

Nor this: rich New Yorkers have fancy parklets with waterfalls where they can enjoy their elitism and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. Same with spas and Zen centers. But working-class tattooed dudes who drink soda enjoy adding booming bass systems to their low-riders, which perturbs and confounds rich elitists.

I think I was hoping for som...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Marc Weidenbaum added it

Shelves: sound-music

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, a...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Jane rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

As an introvert with an almost pathological need for silence, I was interested in understanding my oppressors. What is
It that makes people seek out places to eat that have blaring TVs every few feet and ear shattering music. I know why retailers do it; what I don't understand is the public's tolerance for it. I enjoyed those sections of the book--only skimmed the rest--bit I still don't get it.

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Feb 19, 2012 Nari (The Novel World) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: off-the-shelf-challenge, 2012, nonfiction

An in-depth exploration of silence in our modern community. In his pursuit of silence, Prochnik went everywhere from a trappist monastery, to a boom car convention in Florida to study the effects of noise and silence in our lives. Along with science studies about the ear, as well as history lessons of anti-noise policies developed by local and federal governments, Prochnik provides a well-rounded look at the benefits of silence, why we have to search for it, and the detriments of noise and lack...more

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Jul 31, 2011 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, nonfiction

This is a really enjoyable book. There wasn't as much waxing poetic on silence as I expected - I actually learned a lot about soundscaping, acoustics, and boom cars. The chapters about the monastery and the pocket parks - the most personal of the book - have stuck with me.

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May 20, 2010 Martin Cerjan rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is well-written and well organized. I read books about silence, but I'm not sure how many other people do! I think this would be a good introduction to people unfamiliar with the topic. The different parts of the book each have their own charm. Thought provoking.

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May 10, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

A psychosociocultural look at silence and noise. I learned a lot of interesting facts about the impact of noise and silence on the human body and the psyche. For example, neurological studies have shown the brains of people who meditate operate more efficiently than the brains of people who don't.

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Aug 30, 2012 Michelledenisenorton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent read; ranged further than I expected into an exploration of not only silence but noise, communication, philosophy, humanity + some unique people and hobbies. Definitely worth a read and some time spent contemplating the author's journey.

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Mar 07, 2011 Anne added it

Shelves: i-ll-finish-it-someday-ok-never

When one has a million books on the "to read" list and a book in hand by yet another whiny New Yorker (oh wahh, your life is soooo miserable and now you feel compelled to share your misery) something's gotta go. In this case, the whiny book isn't going to make the cut. I'll keep it on my reading list just in case I ever need some filler in some mystical future where I have some free time.

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Apr 15, 2010 Jeffrey Bumiller rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is so important! I recommend it to anyone concerned with...Hell I recommend it to everyone! Noise pollution is a complex and devastating problem, I don't believe that I am understating this fact. This book is essential.

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Jun 29, 2010 Marianna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-2010

Lots of interesting technical details about noise and why it exists. I was hoping for more of a focus on silence and where the author found it. But I suppose his underlying premise is that silence is extremely difficult to find.

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