Thursday, May 12, 2005
The Arms Race of Sound
"This is what passes for civilization.
People who would never throw litter from their car will drive past you with their radio blaring. People who'd never blow cigar smoke at you in a crowded restaurant will bellow into their cell phone. They'll shout at each other across the space of a dinner plate.
These people who would never spray herbicides or insecticides will fog the neighborhood with their stereo playing Scottish bagpipe music. Chinese opera. Country and western.
Outdoors, a bird singing is fine. Patsy Cline is not.
Outdoors, the din of traffic is bad enough. Adding Chopin's Piano Concerto in E Minor is not making the situation any better.
You turn up your music to hide the noise. Other people turn up their music to hide yours. You turn up yours again. Everyone buys a bigger stereo system. This is the arms race of sound. You don't win with a lot of treble." (Palahniuk, Lullaby)
They say the books a person will find most interesting are the ones that tell you what you already know. A book will amplify or poeticize your thoughts, maybe resurface a past contemplation that never really made it to that final stage (never made it to consciousness?).
2 Comments:
You seem like an artist. A poet at least. I beg you do not stop writing! Just write and I will leave messages for you. I want to know how deep this intellect goes.
How true...
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