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An 18th C. Style Plea For The Restoration Of The Art Of Listening

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A quick word of warning: this is a work of entertainment, filled with hyperbole, and is not intended to be taken in complete seriousness. With that in mind, enjoy!

Tempus tacendi, et tempus loquendi.

It has long been an Observation of mine that our World is little occupied with the Practice of Listening, and upon much Reflection, I have decided that there is a Moral Obligation for myself to expound on this most pressing Problem. In each Place, each Mode of Discourse, each Matter of Importance, I cannot help but be made aware of the Clamour created by a Miriad of Voices, each Shouting in a vain attempt to be heard above the Din of Others; not One realizing that their own Voice is simply Another Part of the Cacophony. Sirs, we seem to have lost the Art of Listening, and whereupon, our Manners and all things which proscribe to our very Humanity. As each Voice, each Opinion, each Insight piles ever higher upon the very Heap of Garbage that is swiftly accumulating within the Great Sphere of Literature, its Wretched Reak begins to overpower and obscure the Heart and Centre of this Great Tradition which has so unfortunately inspired the Multitude of Individual Response. With all my Heart, I urge and implore Each and Every One of Us to Refrain from all but the most Pure and Innocently Inspired Impulse to discover whether our own Humble Scribblings belong alongside those of our Betters. After all, it is only as a Society which can run as a well-oiled Machine, each Citizen accepting his Role and the Machine accepting each Citizen, that we can ever realize our Pretensions of being worthy of the Name: Human.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 24, 2010 at 12:12 AM

    My sense is that this piece should be read in the context of the phenomena you examined in your post entitled "Why do we write?" where more visitors to TOT's site go to the submission guidelines page than to the current issue page.

    To translate (and degrade a little) your eloquence, then, in the hope of perfect clarity: writers need to start reading; we need to stop just "yelling" our words indiscriminately and trying to reel in publication after publication. Street cred only gets you so far. My advice, to build on the general thrust of this timely plea, is to return to a time when literary style and attention were privileged over the capitalist mindset of "MORE MORE MORE"

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