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Eavesdropping | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 STEPHEN KUUSISTO Eavesdropping Norton And Company 186 pages Eavesdropping is a travel book written by a blind poet. His memories and thoughts on sound provide a fascinating journey into the world of 'creative listening'. Kuusisto's book begins as a long answer to an unsettling question he was asked by a recently blind woman: Why travel anywhere if you can't see? What can be gained from going anywhere. Kuusisto examines this question closely. Growing up blind in rural landscapes in the 50's and 60's has helped him explore the intense isolation that this woman was just discovering. His book is dense with descriptions unlike most of us will ever have imagined. He explains how the wind in a certain intersection in New York can made objects disappear, reappear and move. He listens to crows with such detail it will make anyone rethink the lazy language sighted people use to describe bird calls. Though this is hardly a how-to book of listening, people interested in sound and recording will devour Kuusisto's ideas about sight-seeing by ear. By following his instincts and trusting his guide dog, Kuusisto uncovers rich, temporary soundscapes. His resolve is to find joy in these soundscapes and feast on them in same ways sighted tourists do. Kuusisto's exile from visual culture enhances the world he experiences rather than diminishes it. Kuusisto believes the core of visual pleasure is the way the mind translates huge amounts of visual information into analogies or metaphor. 'It is the thing we think we see that thrills us' he says. He replicates this method with sound, by slowing himself down to reach the same equilibrium where stimulus and reverie are aligned. Often it is this stillness, this quiet that generates understanding of our surroundings which is impossible when overloaded with visual stimuli. Review by Mark McLaren
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