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

George Prochnik

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Apr 6, 2010 - Social Science - 224 pages

An "elegant and eloquent" (New York Times) exploration of the frontiers of noise and silence, and the growing war between them.

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. Traveling across the country and meeting and listening to a host of incredible characters, including 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.

Contents

• Introduction: 3
• CHAPTER: 21
• CHAPTER: 51
• Why We Are Noisy: 69
• The Soundtrack: 89
• CHAPTER FIVE: 106
• Silent Interlude: 116
• CHAPTER SEVEN: 125
• CHAPTER EIGHT: 155
• CHAPTER NINE: 170
• CHAPTER: 200
• CHAPTER ELEVEN: 233
• CHAPTER TWELVE: 269
• Acknowledgments: 295
• Notes: 303
• Authors Note: 331

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise
• Author: George Prochnik
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010
• ISBN: 0385533268, 9780385533263
• Length: 224 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Personality; Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness; Social Science / Sociology / Social Theory