Things about Silence

[tree]

I like the silence, and this is because my personality is strange. Literature is the most thing that show us this silence what i talk... In many books...appears like empty space...

[Shea]

I'm not exactly sure what you meant with the silence in books, but I like silence too. I much prefer sitting at home with a good book than going out to clubs or parties as people my age generally tend to do. If my silience must be broken, let it be broken by rain or lightening (which happens everyday anyway) ;)

[ihrocks]

I was googling around trying to find a clever bit Douglas Adams did on human beings' need to constantly make noise. Couldn't find it, but I found this and I like it much better:

When the silences are no longer awkward, you know you are around friends.
--Unknown

ihrocks

[leonthepupil]

eh,i guess you guys must have been very impressed about the SARS in China not long ago.I can exactly appreciate the meaning the silence when i recall my reading experience in that terrifying period.
At that time,my courses were cancelled for a while and some of my classmates went back home.I went to a secret garden near my dorm and read novels of Lawrence and Hardy.It's very quiet around and i can concentrate on reading very well.Sometimes the sunshine shed from the trees beside me and birds sang,i suddenly realised the situation was not that bad.I feel quite at peace and when i read,i could even feel the characters in the book were talking to me...Maybe that's
The SOUND OF SILENCE.

[Koa]

I much prefer sitting at home with a good book than going out to clubs or parties as people my age generally tend to do. If my silience must be broken, let it be broken by rain or lightening (which happens everyday anyway) ;)

*in tears* Same for me... that's why I warn people that I'm actually 85 years old, cos when they invite me to pubs or discos I always say 'Err...no thanks'... That's one reason why I feel different, old and lonely sometimes. I hate crowds. (Shame rain and lightenings can be extremely rare here in some periods).

At the same time, silence scares me... I remember afternoons reading in silence as a kid, and if I just left the book for a couple of minutes, every little noise in the distance scared me so much... At least the books filled my mind so that it felt like another world... Even at night sometimes silence makes me a bit unquiet... More than darkness lately (I'm not scared of darkness anymore thanks to my teddybears lol :D )

Is there a word that rhymes with Silence, other than Violence? I've been wondering about it for a few years now... ;)

I can't think of any books featuring 'silence' but the topic immeditaely puts 2 songs in my mind: 'The Sound Of Silence' (as quoted elsewhere ;)) by Simon&Garfunkel, and Depeche Mode's 'Enjoy the Silence'. :)

[Shea]

Mmmm, I think the only sound that I like better than silence would be my tea kettle's whistle! :D

[Lothwen]

Silence without any sounds? hmm, I love silence, but enriched into for example: spatter of rain, roar of wind, or chripped crickets :)

[AbdoRinbo]

Ahck, my mom likes it silent when we are driving. Personally I can't stand it, I like to crank the volume up and thump that tastey, tastey bass. Maybe throw on some Sigur Rós.

As far as reading goes . . . I look for sounds in words that have a certain ring to them when spoken aloud. In many works of literature (especially those of James Joyce and Arthur Rimbaud), there is a certain musical quality to their prose.

[tree]

Do you like the sounds of :o Rimbaud?
His poems?
I like them too, cos is very interesting the simbolism...
The gravity of his feelings and its horror too, they make me feel feared...but i love them.
For me there are many things in his letters, words, that carry me to tha hell, or, too, paradise...They are many word-play in diferent context...
In my opinion everybody would must have his thinkings and his way of living: leaving France and going to Utopia?...
Where di he go? At the time i dont remember it...sorry.
Security that you know it... isnt it?

[AbdoRinbo]

Do you like the sounds of :o Rimbaud?
His poems?
I like them too, cos is very interesting the simbolism...
The gravity of his feelings and its horror too, they make me feel feared...but i love them.
For me there are many things in his letters, words, that carry me to tha hell, or, too, paradise...They are many word-play in diferent context...
In my opinion everybody would must have his thinkings and his way of living: leaving France and going to Utopia?...
Where di he go? At the time i dont remember it...sorry.
Security that you know it... isnt it?

Rimbaud's poetry is very pleasing to the ear; very symbolic, too. He appeals to the senses more than the mind: Sometimes in a harrowing style, sometimes in a style that is quite gentle. But then again, he set out to make his life a nightmare at a very young age. He ate his own ****, he drank excessive amounts of absinthe, he had sex with animals, he had an affair with the French poet Paul Verlaine, and all before he was seventeen. Very peculiar.

When you ask 'where did he go?', are you referring to his leaving France or his leaving Europe? He ultimately ended his journey in Abyssinia (or what we now refer to as Ethiopia) to partake in the colonial trading circuit. At that point his recorded life becomes a scattered assortment of vague details loosely pieced together. What we do know is that he probably stopped writing poetry at the age of 19 and slowly made his way East. Perhaps he was following in the foosteps of his unknown father? Captain Rimbaud, after all, did abandon his wife and children and fled to warmer climates to seek adventure with a French Infantry Unit (just as Arthur would later abandon poetry for similar reasons). This might be the single most significant point in his life.

Are you a French native? I have read Une Saison en Enfer in the original, as well as some of the Illuminations. Very interesting, very beautiful. Tell me your thoughts on him, I am very excited to have met someone with a shared interest in this haunted poet.

Greetings,
ARinbo

[Munro]

I hate silence, especially before I actually get to sleep in bed at night (it usually takes an hour or two), it can drive me mad.

Like Koa said, when I'm reading I am disconcerted by the silence when no one is around the house, but I usually keep a heater/fan on. If I'm alone at home and not reading I keep a radio or the television on. I have no idea what it is about silence that makes me hate it...but if you think about it, it is the loudest noise of them all.

[tree]

Hello!
i am spanish person that lives now, only a few weeks more in Belfast...
It is a story very long...And now i dont want to tell you, ok?Another day, maybe.
So if you have an email, give me it, please to follow speaking about this things...I d like much...Because i have lost my dream: beeing here for more time... I must come back home again...
And there was my first time that i tripped...But it has been a great experience for me... thoug i havent learnt so English as i wanted...but i dont care.
Really i would to be friends...to talk more.
Bye,bye.

[tree]

My email is: [email protected]
If you want to say me something there is...

[Koa]

I hate silence, especially before I actually get to sleep in bed at night (it usually takes an hour or two), it can drive me mad.

Like Koa said, when I'm reading I am disconcerted by the silence when no one is around the house, but I usually keep a heater/fan on. If I'm alone at home and not reading I keep a radio or the television on. I have no idea what it is about silence that makes me hate it...but if you think about it, it is the loudest noise of them all.

On the other hand...I hate tv or radio or even people talkign when I read... If i read a book listening to the readio, it means I really dislike the book!
Even if lately I read a lot on the bus, and sometimes I can manage to isolate even in such a crowded place :o

[den]

I don't think it's strange at all to like silence. But I don't think there is ever total silence. You can still hear the blood rushing through the arteries near your ears. You can still be tormented by the voices in your head, the ones where you talk to yourself and make yourself anxious and worry and wish you could hear music. Reading makes all of this quiet, for then you are focused and distracted from your inner thoughtvoice.



I like the silence, and this is because my personality is strange. Literature is the most thing that show us this silence what i talk... In many books...appears like empty space...

[lazy cat]

I don't really like silence...i love being alone in my house but i always have music on ,even when i sleep.The only time i need silence is when i read.However if i had to choose between silence and noisy places like clubs or crowded places in general, i would definetely go for silence.The only noise that is always welcome is my cat's miaou :)