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

Prochnik, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385528884 ISBN 13: 9780385528887

Publisher: Doubleday, 2010

Synopsis

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 context to our increasingly desperate sense that noise pollution is, in a very real way, an environmental catastrophe. Listening to doctors, neuroscientists, acoustical engineers, monks, activists, educators, marketers, and aggrieved citizens, George Prochnik examines why we began to be so loud as a society, and what it is that gets lost when we can no longer find quiet. He shows us the benefits of decluttering our sonic world.

As Prochnik travels across the United States and overseas, we meet a rich host of characters: an idealistic architect who is pioneering a new kind of silent architecture in collaboration with the Deaf community at Gallaudet University; a special operations soldier in Afghanistan (and former guitarist with Nirvana) who places silence at the heart of survival in war; a sound designer for shopping malls who ensures that the stores we visit never stop their auditory seductions; and a group of commuters who successfully revolted against piped-in music in Grand Central Station.

A brilliant, far-reaching exploration of the frontiers of noise and silence, and the growing war between them, In Pursuit of Silence is an important book that will appeal to fans of Michael Pollan and Daniel Gilbert.

About this title

Review:

"Elegant and eloquent."--"New York Times

""[A] genial and informative study of the noisiness of modern life."--"The New Republic

""An adventure of profound listening."--"The New Yorker

" "Fascinating."--"Salon

""A global quest to find those who still value silence."--"NPR

""Sometimes alarming and often charming, it sings the praises of quiet and reports the uncertain progress in the war against noise."--"The Dallas Morning News

""Compelling."--"Bookforum

""Smart... Silence is good for falling asleep, but Prochnik's attentive take on noise keeps us wide awake."--"Publishers Weekly

""Elegant and understated, this thoughtful look at rarely considered aspects of everyday life reveals an often unrecognized cost of modern living.--"Booklist

""A lucid, balanced appreciation of silence's solemn tonic."--"Kirkus
"

"Elegant and eloquent." New York Times
"[A] genial and informative study of the noisiness of modern life." The New Republic
An adventure of profound listening. The New Yorker
Fascinating. Salon
"A global quest to find those who still value silence. --NPR
Sometimes alarming and often charming, it sings the praises of quiet and reports the uncertain progress in the war against noise. The Dallas Morning News
Compelling. Bookforum
"Smart... Silence is good for falling asleep, but Prochnik's attentive take on noise keeps us wide awake." Publishers Weekly
Elegant and understated, this thoughtful look at rarely considered aspects of everyday life reveals an often unrecognized cost of modern living. Booklist
"A lucid, balanced appreciation of silence's solemn tonic." Kirkus

"

About the Author:

GEORGE PROCHNIK is the author of Putnam Camp: Sigmund Freud, James Jackson Putnam, and the Purpose of American Psychology, a New York Times “Editor’s Choice” pick and winner of a 2007 Gradiva Award. He has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Playboy, and Cabinet magazine, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn.

www.inpursuitofsilence.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0385528884
• ISBN 13: 9780385528887
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 342