Zero Decibels: A Book Review

The kind folks at Scribner recently sent me a copy of Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence by George Michelsen Foy. I requested a review copy because my ear whooshing problems have given me a renewed interest in the good old hearing mechanism displayed on the cover of the book. Silence? I'm in.

Foy, bless his heart, lives in New York City. So one day, he nearly has a mental breakdown while waiting for a screeching train. Hello? Been there, done that. Thus begins his search for complete silence. It's an interesting and complicated journey. A journey that involves a sound meter that measures the decibels of everything around him, including his own breath.

So he's off! He visits Joseph Pulizer's "silent vault," which is totally fascinating. He heads over to Paris to check out the catacombs. He goes just about anywhere that is deemed to be a "silent" location. Does he ultimately find what he's looking for? You will have to read the book yourself to find out, but here are some of my favorite bits...

Talking to Lakota Native American David Nighteagle:

"Lakota children, he says, are taught by their elders to be silent and to listen. 'My grandfather taught me to listen to what people say--analyze, weigh it, think about it.' Anglos, Nighteagle continues, 'do what I call talking-breathing, they must keep talking, never breath all the way, just enough air to get thoughts out, short, gaspy breaths. There's no time for absorption.' Whites, he says, 'don't listen, they don't pay attention to what a person is saying. Instead they build their own defense."

OMG. Guilty as charged. That's all I can really say about that. I'm totally going to remember Mr. Nighteagle the next time I am in a long conversation about something.

Foy also spoke with Keiko Torigoe from Tokoyo, Japan, who had this to say about silence:

"'When it comes to sound culture we have to consider not only the sounds we create or hear, but also the sounds of which we are not conscious, or which we think we do not or cannot hear. Sounds of the past, sounds of the future, sounds of our memories and dreams--all these . . . should be included.'"

I love that. The sounds of my memories and dreams--how wonderful. This makes "sound" easier to tolerate, no?

There are many eloquent passages on how this modern life is so noisy. Foy details the evidence that we are getting louder and less happy with all of this noise around us. Personally, I've worked quite hard to lesson the NOISE around me. Now that I live out in the country, the loudest sounds I hear are as follows in this order:

• Cars going by on the highway
• The neighbors' dogs barking
• The sound of my own typing
  
• The incessant (yet truly wonderful) sound of birds chirping
• Gretchen the cat chirping and twittering at the birds, or just talking to herself
• Webster the cat purring in my lap
• The air conditioner going on and off
• The refrigerator humming
  

These are the sounds of my daily life. Well, those and the never-ending pulse of my own heartbeat in my ear. I left it off my list because it's not an "outside" sound. But that inside sound? Foy talks about that, too:

"If the [sound I heard] was the actual pumping system of my heart, I reflect, then what I heard, in the most perfect silence I have ever sampled to date, was the engine of my own life: the thump and rhythm that are me, my very speed and timing."

I'm hopeful that some day, I can think about my own "engine" in a lovely, romantic way. For now, it's just insanely irritating. And putting myself in complete silence would only make it louder. Thank goodness for all this NOISE!