Silence
Item No. 23
“Silence, of course, is the absence of noise… And we don’t hear it anymore, really. What is the sound of the absence of noise?”We don’t mean to be snarky (snarky meaning sarcastic, sharp or cheeky) here, but, we’re entering Silence in The (Death of a) Thing: The Last Catalog and we don’t think we’ll even need to write much of a catalog entry to explain why it is here.
We’ll do this instead.
Stop reading this close your eyes and listen. Name the first three noises that you hear.
We hope they’re pleasant noises. But we’re sure that if you’re hearing a noise that you are not hearing silence. If you’re somewhere public, chances are there is some sound being piped in to the room. Quiet just isn’t the natural state nowadays. It can seem almost creepy in our modern, busy, world, full of notifications and the hums, whirs, and buzzes and other acoustical sounds of our creations.
Silence, of course, is the absence of sound.
It is the absence of noise.
It is the absence of hums, whirs, buzzes and acoustics.
It is the nothing (see catalog entry for Nothing) for our ears.
And we don’t hear it anymore, really. What is the sound of the absence of noise?
We live in a noisy world.
We’re guessing you heard some noise when you closed your eyes and opened your ears?
What do we lose when we lose silence? What is the cost to us? What price do we pay?
We lose the sound of nothing.
We lose discomfort. Ever sat in a room with a lot of people who are saying nothing?
Who are silent?
It’s uncomfortable when there isn’t any noise. When we’re left alone with our own thoughts to think.
Perhaps lack of this sort of discomfort is a loss to us.
Consider this reflection by technology writer L.M. Sacasas: “And as I read more and more of Picard [philosopher/writer], silence increasingly took on a certain solidity. It felt more and more like a presence and not an absence at all. It is, ultimately, a benign presence, but, in truth, it can often feel threatening and unsettling. For, as Picard puts it, ‘Man does not put silence to the test; silence puts man to the test.’ And we do not enjoy being put to the test, however much we might need to be put to the test and would be better for having sustained it.”
So indeed, perhaps we are put to the test in silence when we agree to experience it.
And when we lose silence, don’t we also lose a void that reminds us of the infinite somehow?
Again, here, perhaps Sacasas reflecting on philosopher and writer Max Picard says this best: “Silence contains everything within itself. It is not waiting for anything; it is always wholly present in itself and it completely fills out the space in which it appears.”
Perhaps silence it isn’t a void after all.
Other Specifications:
Specifications for silence?
What if so many machines weren’t always quietly running?
What would we hear?
Would we hear ourselves think again?
See catalog entry: Nothing.