"Too fast, my head spins. And why so much noise?"
--Umberto Eco, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana.

Noise as a cover.

Noise. Why do we submit ourselves to be held in thrall by Noise ?
From our living rooms (Our 24X7 news channels, shows, movies and music) to our places of worship, our streets and office rooms to the depth of our own self we are assailed by noise.
Is this a ploy devised by us to avoid reality ?

Noise as a cover, censorship, is the argument Umberto Eco puts forth in his Essay, Censorship and Silence, (Lecture given by Eco during the conference of the Associazione Italiana di Semiotica, 2009/ Inventing the Enemy, essays on everything, Vintage Books)

One of the ethical problems we are facing today, according to Eco, is how to return to silence.

Today Veline means Noise.

During Fascist regime, veline were  sheets of paper that the government department responsible for controlling culture sent to newspapers to keep quiet about and what they had to print.

“The veline that we know today-the television showgirls-are, however, the exact opposite…”

“If the old- style velina used to say, “To avoid causing behavior considered to be deviant, don’t talk about it,” the velina culture of today says, “To avoid talking about deviant behavior, talk a great deal about other things.” Here Noise becomes a cover (to silence what is important with trivial information).

Eco reminds that it is in silence alone that the only truly powerful means of information becomes effective-word of mouth.

“And one of the semiotic problems," he suggests, "we might consider is the closer study of the function of silence in various aspects of communication, to examine a semiotics of silence: it may be a semiotics of reticence, a semiotics of silence in theatre, a semiotics of silence in politics, a semiotics of silence in political debate-in other words, the long pause, silence as creation of suspense, silence as threat, silence as agreement, silence as denial, silence as music…I invite you to consider, therefore, not words but silence.”



-----------------------------ends