books: in pursuit of silence

the actual long winded title - for someone so concerned with silence, mr. george prochnik sure can be wordy - is "in pursuit of silence: listening for meaning in a world of noise." full disclosure here, i didn't actually finish reading this book. not out of lack of interest but rather because the book became ruined in a tragic food prep accident. i was transporting some skyline chili that my kind mother had sent via care package in some washed out yogurt containers to enjoy for dinner at work and apparently they didn't quite seal as nicely as i would have hoped. chili everywhere, the main casualty being literature. hence the photo above.

anyways, i was almost done and felt like i had realized enough of mr. prochnik's pursuit to get the general idea. this book had been on my reading list for awhile. i think at the time i was invested in a genre of music simply referred to as "noise" and was curious about a sociological survey on quiet and its opposite. to me noise can be quite beautiful, especially in a musical context where it provides texture and subtle melody. how it can overwhelm your senses and trap you in a moment, to deny your brain its constant prattle and force you to focus on just this one thing even if it is simply the loudness of the moment (and then to pick up on those finer details - the chord changes, the underlying rhythm, the propulsion of the drumbeat). it's hypnotic. and there was a good deal in the book that supported this (and then complained about it). mr. prochnik delivers sound and silence as both opposites and partners. they can have similar isolating effects but through dramatically different means.

the book goes through both philosophical and scientific examinations of sound. the more practical bits i found a bit boring - going to soundproofing conventions, talking with car sound system enthusiasts - but there were sneaky insights in even these sections. for example how an obsessive house soundproofer was distressed to find that a fully soundproofed home only bolstered the annoyance of normally buffered out sounds like the hum of a computer fan or footsteps in the hallway. or how, in the absence of sound, the bones in your ear that enhance the volume of sound will vibrate so rapidly in the effort to detect any sort of noise that they become noise themselves.

ultimately though i found the ying and yang relationship of quiet and noise to be the most interesting part. like shadow needs light, quiet needs sound, and vice versa. there was a segment on music and how the brain spikes during the quiet spots in anticipation of the sound that will happen next. noise, at one point, is described as a vehicle for quiet - that sound actually accentuates quiet moments, or rather quiet is our natural state while sound/noise creates time and movement. in the end mr. prochnik offers up what is probably the most sane advice in regards to any form of consumption and that of course is a balanced diet. a healthy mix of the two and all that comes with it - isolation, self-reflection, energy, elation, etc. - is just as important as mixing veggies and fruits in with your fatty foods and sweets. not to mention the impetus on society to promote a more healthy sound diet.

while i can't say that it was everything i was hoping for in a book - a bit too light maybe - it was interesting while it lasted. the chili on the other hand didn't reheat very well and was a bit of a disappointment, which made the whole the all the more tragic.