Unbearable chronic noise can trigger a sudden resolve to seek out silence

Evidence

But for once something had cracked the enamel coating New Yorkers must accrete to live in this town, and I kept my ears covered, cringing at the rumble that filtered through my palms; thinking, I can’t put up with this kind of noise, day in, day out, any longer. I mused, This has to damage me in some way, reflected also—because that was the other wheel of this scooter of thought—I need to find somewhere quiet. And the train rumbled slower, and stopped, and the loudspeaker blatted, “Eighty-sixth, let ’em off!” and I thought no, not just quiet; what I want now is silence. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 33

The girls labored twelve hours straight at Boott’s looms, and the noise was so great that if an accident happened—if a girl lost an arm in the carding machine, for example—no one could hear her scream. To cope with this and other problems, the workers evolved a sign language to communicate over the din of looms. When at last the machinery was switched off at the end of the workday, a guide says, the relative silence was so unnerving that some of the new girls started to scream, from shock instead of pain this time, and could not stop. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 157

But for once something had cracked the enamel coating New Yorkers must accrete to live in this town, and I kept my ears covered, cringing at the rumble that filtered through my palms; thinking, I can’t put up with this kind of noise, day in, day out, any longer. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 33

Categorization

• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 33; George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 157
• XREF: connects to: The desire for silence outlasts and exceeds mere relief from noise fatigue — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 211; Extreme near-total silence can trigger panic, disorientation, and physical illness — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 474; Extreme battlefield noise can annihilate thought and reduce a person to helpless reflex — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 424 (+12 more)

Library Connections

• Extreme near-total silence can trigger panic, disorientation, and physical illness #contradicts (0.85) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 474
• Total silence can overwhelm the mind as an alien, unbearable presence #contradicts (0.82) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 222
• People fear true silence because it threatens rather than merely rests their worldview #contradicts (0.80) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 462

Broader Connections

• Extreme battlefield noise can annihilate thought and reduce a person to helpless reflex #exemplifies (0.78) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 424
• Chronic noise conflict has driven ordinary people to lethal violence #exemplifies (0.77) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 48
• Extreme urban noise can override a person’s own self-image and defenses #exemplifies (0.76) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 32
• Creative thought requires an initial silence that clears prior mental assumptions #corroborates (0.74) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 453
• People instinctively generate noise to assert existence against overwhelming emptiness #responds-to (0.70) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 224
• Silence resets the audience’s mental frame before a performance can begin #corroborates (0.68) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 257
• The unattainable ideal of absolute silence is necessary to resist noise’s control #corroborates (0.65) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 616