Category: silence

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Promoting silence

Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton is trying to designate Hoh Rain Forest (in the Olympic National Park in Washington State) the first National Quiet Place in the U.S.

Hempton is touring the country promoting his book, “One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World.” From an article in The Peninsula Daily News. His blog is One Square Inch.

How did Hempton come to such a calling?

A scare drove Hempton to take up his mission with fresh fervor five years ago. His hearing started to disappear for reasons his doctors couldn’t name. It was as if he were foreshadowing Beethoven, about to be robbed of his symphonies.

Hempton has his suspicions as to the triggers of his hearing loss. He worked on a loud train-recording project and has had infections — but never learned the cause of the problem that turned out to be temporary.

He regained 100 percent of his hearing after several months.

“I am thankful every day,” he said.

Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary.

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Appeal of silence

An article in the Independent titled “Holidays: the Appeal of Silence” summarizes the growing interest in retreat settings:

Monasteries and convents are reporting a surge in enquiries for their “tester” long weekends, where spiritually-hungry visitors can sample a life of silence. Secular retreat centres are also booming. And on the internet, would-be hermits can now book solitude by the week.

Mentions Father Cyril, novice master of the Carthusian St. Hugh’s Charterhouse in England and Canadian Anglican priest Cynthia Bourgeault.

URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/holidays-the-appeal-of-silence-1631232.html

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Zerzan on silence

John Zerzan maintains an “anti-civilization” view often identified as primitivism, derived in part from anarchist thought (Zerzan edits the journal “Green Anarchy”).  His essay “Silence” calls on classic authors from Heidegger to Picard to describe the place of silence, noise, and technology in the modern world. The opening lines:

Silence used to be, to varying degrees, a means of isolation. Now it is the absence of silence that works to render today’s world empty and isolating.

URL: http://www.greenanarchy.org/index.php?action=viewwritingdetail&writingId=666.