Schopenhauer: On Noise

[paeng]

Posted by the Rock Blogger:

http://www.therockblogger.com/schopenhauer-on-noise/

[gveranon]

Schopenhauer lived in a rooming house, and in a famous incident he threw a seamstress down a flight of stairs when she refused to stop chattering on the landing outside his door. I don't approve of the violence, but I certainly do understand the impulse. Schopenhauer was ordered by a court to make a monthly payment to the woman for the rest of her life, as compensation for her injuries.

My nerves are also abraded raw by other people's noise. I have lived in either dorm rooms or apartments for all of my adult life. At least Schopenhauer didn't live in a time when pounding stereos from adjacent apartments (and from vehicles in the street outside) are a routine fact of life.

"Evil is what distracts." -- Kafka

[Ilsa]

About noise I also found this article by Ray Brassier:

TLASILA Blog: Ray Brassier: "Genre Is Obsolete" (from <i>Multitiudes</i> No. 28, Spring 2007)

i personally cherish silence and i already realized that my aim is living in isolation - in the mountains ( just like Heidegger in his kleine Hutte in Todtnauberg...ihihihih )

There have been many thinkers who wrote about modern metropolis, Ernst Juenger is one of the first names that comes to my mind when I think about this topic...then Guénon, Evola...

[gveranon]

Quote Originally Posted by Ilsa

i personally cherish silence and i already realized that my aim is living in isolation - in the mountains ( just like Heidegger in his kleine Hutte in Todtnauberg...ihihihih )

I'm not sure I would ever give up the comforts, conveniences, and security (such as it is) of living in town. But I envy those who are bolder, and suspect that I'll be missing something essential by never even trying to escape into rural isolation and solitude. Here is an example of a bold escapee, the famous mathematician

Alexander Grothendieck

Alexander_Grothendieck

, who disappeared in 1991 and is "now said to live in southern France or Andorra and to entertain no visitors."

Thinking about living in town in the midst of other people's noise, I'm reminded of a hilarious paragraph from Nabokov's Pale Fire:

"A methodical man, John Shade usually copied out his daily quota of completed lines at midnight but even if he recopied them again later, as I suspect he sometimes did, he marked his card or cards not with the date of his final adjustments, but with that of his Corrected Draft or first Fair Copy. I mean, he preserved the date of actual creation rather than that of second or third thoughts. There is a very loud amusement park right in front of my present lodgings."

[ClarencePJ]

Schopenhauer were located in a rooming residence, as well as in a popular automobile accident he or she used a new seamstress decrease a new airfare associated with stairs whenever the girl refused to avoid chattering within the obtaining external his or her entrance. My spouse and i do not accept on the assault, but My spouse and i absolutely perform comprehend the behavioral instinct. Schopenhauer was ordered by a the courtroom to manufacture a monthly payment for the girl for your remainder associated with the woman's lifetime, because compensation on her injuries.

[miguel1984]

What?

[ToALonelyPeace]

I can definitely understand Schopenhauer's sentiment. There are days where I want to burst my eardrums so I can't hear the noise my neighbors make (I live in an apartment with thin walls ) If I do that, I won't be able to hear music though...

[Revenant]

I'm not sure which is worse, the irritating sound of muffled voices through a wall, or the inane conversations you can hear word-for-word.

[Speaking Mute]

I'm odd. Insofar as human sounds go, I'm with Schopenhauer.

Mechanical noises - particularly the reverberations from vents, refrigerators, and fans - and the sounds of traffic and radio static actually relax me. I even enjoy harsh sounds - booming engines, scraping metal, belt drives, pneumatic bursts, and so forth. Sonically speaking, my favorite job was working in an electronics factory surrounded by industrial presses and cutting machines.

From this standpoint, here's my favorite counterpoint to Schopenhauer:

The Art of Noise: Destruction of Music By Futurist Machines: Luigi Russolo, Francesco Balilla Pratella: 9780983884231: Amazon.com: Books

 

The Art of Noise: Destruction of Music By Futurist Machines: Luigi Russolo, Francesco Balilla Pratella: 9780983884231: Amazon.com: Books

Albeit, Russolo's explanation doesn't actually apply to me - I grew up in a fairly remote farmhouse where only a few cars would pass a day.

[gveranon]

Up and Down
Stevie Smith


Up and down the streets they go
Tapping tapping to and fro
What they see I do not know

Up and down the streets they hurry
Push and rush and jerk and worry
Full of ineffectual flurry

Up and down the streets they run
From morning to the set of sun
I shall be glad when they have done

I shall be glad when there's an end
Of all the noise that doth offend
My soul. Still night, don cloak, descend.