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According to the memoir One Square Inch of Silence, man-made sound so pervades our environment that natural soundscapes are nearly extinct.
Co-written by Gordon Hempton and John Grossmann, this part-travel memoir, part-impassioned environmental essay pleads for the preservation of the rapidly disappearing places that lack man-made noise.
In particular, the book advocates for the preservation of natural silence in our national parks and wilderness areas. According to One Square Inch of Silence: "Natural quiet is not a luxury; it is a human necessity. There is quiet, a stillness in all of us. But we require natural quiet to discover it."
One Square Inch of Silence recounts Hempton’s efforts to create a place where no man-made noise intrudes. This place is known as One Square Inch and is located in the Hoh River Valley in Olympic National Park, not far from Hempton’s home.
The book chronicles Hempton’s interaction with legislators, National Park officials and the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the need to preserve the natural soundscape in this One Square Inch by eliminating airplane flyovers over Olympic National Park.
To determine the extent of the loss of natural soundscapes, Hempton embarks on a coast-to-coast road trip in search of quiet places.
The trip takes him from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state to Washington D.C. with stops in Montana, Utah, Colorado, Illinois, Tennessee, and a 100-mile walk along the C&O Canal from Willamsport, Md., to Washington, D.C. Along the way, Hempton speaks to people about quiet and the significance of quiet in their lives.
In Montana he meets with Bill Worf, founder of Wilderness Watch, and with Doug Peacock, an American naturalist now living in Montana who spent the better part of two decades alone in the Western United States observing grizzly bears.
Hempton’s companions on this trip are his ironically noisy 1964 VW Bus and a noise-level reading machine. Hempton is a professional listener - he is an Emmy-award winning sound recorder – and proves an excellent guide to our national soundscape.
One Square Inch of Silence is at its best in its description of the auditory experience, both natural and unnatural.
Here, Hempton’s expert ear proves an asset. These passages awaken the auditory awareness of the reader, who begins to hear what Hempton hears.
With this heightened auditory awareness, the reader may discover the human necessity for natural quiet and in this regard One Square Inch of Silence is successful.
Eamon Fahey manages and is a buyer for Fact & Fiction, part of the Bookstore at the University of Montana.
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