To Listen More Hearingly
The New York Times (here) said that Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century is one of its ten best books of the year. It's his history of the century past as heard through the century's "classical" music. I have no complaint, by the way–I like Alex Ross' writing and the book sounds quite interesting and deserving. But that's not the point.
In fact, I quite enjoyed reading the New York Times' review of the book, the review written by Geoff Dyer ("Century's Playlist", 28 October 2007). It was a delightfully written review that was fun to read and, I'm sure, gave me an accurate impression of the experience to had from reading the book. But that's not the point.
It was the final paragraph from Mr. Dyer's review that tickled my fancy:
It would be unfair, though, to dwell on omissions when so much has been included. “The Rest Is Noise” is a great achievement. Rilke once wrote of how he learned to stand “more seeingly” in front of certain paintings. Ross enables us to listen more hearingly.
In: All, Books, Common-Place Book, Such Language!