Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives

by Jane Brox

Overview

From the author of the “dazzling epic”* Brilliant, a compelling history of silence as a powerful shaper of the human mind—in prisons, in places of contemplation, and in our own lives

Through her evocative intertwined histories of the penitentiary and the monastery, Jane Brox illuminates the many ways silence is far more complex than any absolute; how it has influenced ideas of the self, soul, and society. Brox traces its place as a transformative power in the monastic world from Medieval Europe to the very public life of twentieth century monk Thomas Merton, whose love for silence deepened even as he faced his obligation to speak out against war. This fascinating history of ideas also explores the influence the monastic cell had on one of society’s darkest experiments in silence: Eastern State Penitentiary. Conceived of by one of the Founding Fathers and built on the outskirts of Philadelphia, the penitentiary’s early promulgators imagined redemption in imposed isolation, but they badly misapprehended silence’s dangers.

Finally, Brox’s rich exploration of silence’s complex and competing meanings leads us to imagine how we might navigate our own relationship with silence today, for the transformation it has always promised, in our own lives. 

*Time

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544702486
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	01/15/2019
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	172,888
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

JANE BROX’s most recent book, Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, was named one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2010 by Time.

Table of Contents

Part I Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, 1829: Experiment in Silence

1 Man of Sorrows 3

2 Benjamin Rush's Vision 12

3 "Good by Discipline" 28

4 John Haviland's Star of Solitudes 39

Part II The Monastic World: A History of Silence

5 In Proportion 53

6 Speech and Silence 69

7 Thomas Merton: Silence and the World 79

8 Measures of Time 89

9 The Voices of the Pages 99

10 The Great Silence 105

Part III Philadelphia: Darkening the Dark

11 Night in Stone 115

12 "I Get Up and Hammer My Leather" 122

13 Punishment Within Punishment 134

14 So Thai It "May Uplift" 150

15 Time Again 159

Part IV The Silence of Women

16 Silencing Silence 173

17 "Or Perhaps the Women …" 187

18 Monastic Women: More Shadow Than Light 196

Part V The Ends of Silence

19 Thomas Merton: Questioning Silence 211

20 The Monastic World: What Remains 228

21 The Prison Cell in Our Time 235

22 Intervals of Silence 245

Coda

In Ruins 257

Acknowledgments 265

Bibliographic Note 267

Notes 271

Permissions 300

Index 301

Editorial Reviews

Brox writes beautifully about the silence woven through daily tasks and between prayers in the medieval monastery…Silence for her is a force of nature, awe provoking, like lightning, capable of electrocuting us and of illuminating the night. But her tone is also elegiac.

The New York Times Book Review - Gal Beckerman

12/03/2018
The latest from Brox (Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light) is a gently meandering meditation that juxtaposes monastic and prison silence and solitude to explore silence’s positive and negative aspects, both of which provide “a path to inner life, to beauty and observation and appreciation.” Prison silence and solitude were intended to disorient and discourage community, Brox writes, and many prisoners in solitary confinement suffered mental health consequences, while others noted improvements in concentration and recall. Monastic silence, on the other hand, was meant to emphasize the majesty of the Catholic Mass and shrink attachment to ego. Yet hermit monk Thomas Merton explicitly acknowledged silence could be a tool of fear, control, and hatred, and chafed against his religious order’s command to refrain from publishing. Where one might expect a neat binarism between restorative and punitive silence, Brox skillfully resists depicting one as all good and the other as all bad, showing instead how silence designed to reform and redeem might instead oppress, and how silence designed to strip away attachments to ego and to temporal goods might also distill and reveal one’s character. Brox’s elegant, thoughtful survey of social deployments of silence introduces to readers the continuum of its potential harms and benefits. Agent: Cynthia Cannell, the Cynthia Cannell Literary Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

“Brox writes beautifully . . . Silence for her is a force of nature, awe provoking, like lightning, capable of electrocuting us and of illuminating the night."
—New York Times Book Review

"Silence: A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives couldn’t come at a better time.  A wonderfully evocative writer with a knack for the illuminating detail, Ms. Brox explores the history and cultural meaning of silence through the story of a prison and a monastery: Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia and the Abbey of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky. It is an unusual and useful approach . . .  Ms. Brox’s engaging book offers readers an opportunity to explore a few crucial moments of that history and, in the process, to ponder what silence—or its absence—tells us about the world we are making every day.”
—Wall Street Journal

[A] meditation that juxtaposes monastic and prison silence and solitude to explore silence’s positive and negative aspects… Where one might expect a neat binarism between restorative and punitive silence, Brox skillfully resists depicting one as all good and the other as all bad, showing instead how silence designed to reform and redeem might instead oppress, and how silence designed to strip away attachments to ego and to temporal goods might also distill and reveal one’s character. Brox’s elegant, thoughtful survey of social deployments of silence introduces to readers the continuum of its potential harms and benefits.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
 “With each skillful shift in her narrative, Brox reveals how easily silence has been woven into society, where it is used alternately as weapon and balm. Her ability to juxtapose prisons and monasteries, fear and peace is remarkable, and her graceful prose, which appears effortless, draws upon a wealth of research. This is history at its most effective: elegant, essential, and provocative.”
—Booklist
 
“The nuances and complexities of silence. Brox moves from the openness and space found in her earlier, well-received books on farms to places far more confining. This poignant and somber book is as much about solitude as it is silence...A perceptive and subtle meditation about a ‘true reckoning with the self.’”
 —Kirkus Reviews
 
“It is the great wit of this thoughtful book to juxtapose the silence of punishment with the silence of spiritual life and, in so doing, to deepen our understanding of each.”
—Lewis Hyde, author of The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World
 
“In her stunning new book, Silence, Jane Brox has once again taken a seemingly familiar subject and made it the focus of her laser-like attention and lyrical prose, bringing readers along on a journey of investigation they will never forget. Working from two extremes—silence as solace to the contemplative spirit, silence as punishment for the rebellious or merely unlawful—Brox uncovers a history that both shocks and soothes. Silence is an uncommon book on an increasingly uncommon phenomenon, a gift to be treasured in the din of daily life.”
  —Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast

From the Publisher

2018-10-02

The nuances and complexities of silence.

Brox (Creative Writing/Lesley Univ.; Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, 2010, etc.) moves from the openness and space found in her earlier, well-received books on farms to places far more confining. This poignant and somber book is as much about solitude as it is silence. It's also a social history of buildings and people who inhabit them, primarily prisons and monasteries, and the silence, whether imposed or invited, that inhabits those within. The author begins with the history of Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary. Built in 1829, it was largely inspired by Founding Father Benjamin Rush's belief in a "new kind of justice," the "silent and separate incarceration of criminals." The plan was to make prisons "as forbidding and repellent as possible." Throughout, Brox intimately imagines its first prisoner, Charles Williams, an 18-year-old black farmer, personally experiencing the horrors and sufferings of prison life. The author then transitions to a historical examination of the monastery and the monks who chose a life of voluntary imprisonment as a means to achieve a more spiritual life. Silence, monastic chants, and prayers were an integral part of their daily lives, as was community, something Williams was forbidden. A large part of the book explores the austere life and writings of the famous Trappist pacifist monk Thomas Merton and his life at Kentucky's Abbey of Gethsemani. Brox touches on many diverse topics, including the lives of nuns in monasteries and the horrific World War II bombing of the Monte Cassino monastery, and invokes many voices, including Dickens, Thoreau, Eugenia Ginzburg, a prisoner of Stalin's Great Purge, author Doris Grumbach, and Brox's "own most profound encounter with silence." She concludes that silence can be many things, from an unwelcome punishment or a "lifelong commitment" to a "deliberate inquiry" or a "last resort."

A perceptive and subtle meditation about a "true reckoning with the self."

Kirkus Reviews

02/01/2019

In this study, Brox (nonfiction writing, Lesley Univ.; Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light) examines the role and effects of silence in penitentiaries and monasteries over many years. While silence was once imposed on prisoners as a punishment, it was freely accepted by those entering monasteries as a means of deepening their spiritual lives. Nineteenth-century prison founders believed that isolation and silence would lead to convicts' redemption but failed to see potential dangers in such practices, including a loss of contact with reality and risk of insanity. In contrast, monastic silence was not absolute but intermingled with chanting, reading aloud, and limited conversation. Thomas Merton is cited as a monk who thrived on silence and solitude, although he continued to speak out in his writings about the secular world's concerns. Silence and isolation are now gone from most American prisons and many monasteries are closed, their silent life vanishing in an increasingly noisy world. Brox's balanced account shows both the positive and negative aspects of silence and points out the need to be attuned to our inner voice in a world of constant distractions. VERDICT Will appeal to readers interested in the effects of this alternative to the noise of modern life.—Denise J. Stankovics, Vernon, CT

Library Journal

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