The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want: A Book About Noise

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Overview

Noise is usually defined as unwanted sound: loud music from a neighbor, the honk of a taxicab, the roar of a supersonic jet. But as Garret Keizer illustrates in this probing examination, noise is as much about what we want as about what we seek to avoid. It has been a byproduct of human striving since ancient times even as it has become a significant cause of disease in our own. At heart, noise provides a key for understanding some of our most pressing issues, from social inequality to climate change.

In a journey that leads us from the Tanzanian veldt to the streets of New York, Keizer deftly explores the political ramifications of noise, America’s central role in a loud world, and the environmental sustainability of a quieter one. The result is a deeply satisfying book—one guaranteed to change how we hear the world, and how we measure our own personal volume within it.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Examining noise as a social barometer of sorts, this book covers a wide spectrum, from revolution to religion. The author neatly handles a symphony of facts and ideas, offering frequent summations like "The history of noise abatement is to a large degree about dividing space into noisy and quiet areas" and "The combination of flatness and proximity to water complicates as well as exacerbates certain problems of noise" that demonstrate his passion for the subject. A sophisticated thread woven through the many genres and locales reveals not only subtle sonic connections but also the author's Achilles' heel. Addressing the importance of human cooperation over selfishness and isolation, Keizer offers that people "need to love... their backyards with the same particularity as they love their own children - not to the total exclusion of other children, which would ultimately hurt their own children, but with the passion and partiality that are of the nature of love." This is but one of a cacophony of platitudes that the book falls victim to so that by the end, an unquestionably important perspective is smothered under a lot of preaching. (May)

Dwight Garner

…[Garret Keizer's] shrewd new book…explores the social aspects of noise in our lives, and every page is packed with crackling observations.
—The New York Times

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Kirkus Reviews

The history of six millennia of human-produced noise and an examination of its political and cultural implications today. Harper's contributing editor Keizer (Help: The Original Human Dilemma, 2004, etc.) cites the Epic of Gilgamesh as the first recorded instance of humans being too noisy for their own good-civilization's uproar was so unbearable to the gods that they decided to destroy it. Using anecdotes and stories gathered from individuals, as well as insights from such experts as physicists, engineers, musicologists, physicians and psychologists, the author ranges wide in his exploration of the phenomenon of noise. It is, he argues, a defining force in our world. Often dismissed as a "weak" issue, a minor nuisance, noise is often an expression of power, and it is the lives of the weak, or powerless, that are affected most. The din of the developing world, writes Keizer, is greater than what the richer nations will ever experience. However, "[i]f we equate noise with power and clout . . . America is the loudest country in the world today, probably the loudest that has ever existed. And yes, I love my country, even as I also love midtown Manhattan, my chainsaw, and the Rolling Stones." A wind farm near Mars Hill, Maine, a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D., a jazz festival in Newport, R.I.-all are examples of what may be a lovely sound to someone and unbearable noise to another. Although Keizer focuses mostly on the United States, he also looks abroad, citing examples of noise and its control in the Netherlands, Ireland, Japan and other countries. In addition to extensive notes, the back matter contains a glossary, decibel ratings of common sounds, a list of organizations that deal withnoise and a section offering strategies for handling noise disputes. Keizer casts a broad net, gathering data from numerous sources in time and space, but his take-home message is simple-for a better, more pleasant world, tone it down.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781586485528
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Publication date: 5/4/2010
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 379,119
Product dimensions: 6.40 (w) x 9.30 (h) x 1.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Garret Keizer

Garret Keizer is a free lance writer, a contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine, and a recent Guggenheim Fellow. He is the author of six books, including the critically acclaimed Help and The Enigma of Anger. His essays and poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, The New Yorker, The Best American Essays, and The Best American Poetry. He lives with his wife in northeastern Vermont.

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