I’m reminded of this long digression by Italy Calvino at the beginning of a short story called The Adventure of the Poet. I won’t burden the comment section with the full page, but it begins
“In fact every silence consists of the network of minuscule sounds that enfolds it: the silence of the island was distinct from that of the calm sea surrounding it because it was pervaded by a vegetable rustling, the call of birds, or a sudden whir of wings.”
Love this piece! I find myself very sensitive to sound in general. I live in Miami, Florida. I'd argue it's as noisy as any City. Interesting to see the route of noise, nausea. When there's too much noise I do get physically nauseous! Don't get me started on the leaf blowers! They are ubiquitous. Which is funny because they are fairly pointless. What's interesting is a lot of folks feel the way I do but we do nothing about it. Sidebar, Antonia Malchick who's substack , on the commons, also writes about "the Walking Life", about her efforts to reshape the community away from roadways and favoring more pedestrian infrastructure. It all ties in! You can tell my mind is all over the place on this. Anyway ,I appreciate your writing. Thanks!
I’m reminded of this long digression by Italy Calvino at the beginning of a short story called The Adventure of the Poet. I won’t burden the comment section with the full page, but it begins
“In fact every silence consists of the network of minuscule sounds that enfolds it: the silence of the island was distinct from that of the calm sea surrounding it because it was pervaded by a vegetable rustling, the call of birds, or a sudden whir of wings.”
Love this piece! I find myself very sensitive to sound in general. I live in Miami, Florida. I'd argue it's as noisy as any City. Interesting to see the route of noise, nausea. When there's too much noise I do get physically nauseous! Don't get me started on the leaf blowers! They are ubiquitous. Which is funny because they are fairly pointless. What's interesting is a lot of folks feel the way I do but we do nothing about it. Sidebar, Antonia Malchick who's substack , on the commons, also writes about "the Walking Life", about her efforts to reshape the community away from roadways and favoring more pedestrian infrastructure. It all ties in! You can tell my mind is all over the place on this. Anyway ,I appreciate your writing. Thanks!