How to disappear

The homes are eternally wounded, covering up their lesions with ever more drapes and veils. A man passes his whole life within them concealed behind walls, until, one day, a distant sound comes to his ears, a sound that flows through all these obstacles, overleaps and is channeled through them. How did this sound make it in here? he ponders, silently, searches for the chink through which it entered and stops it up. The waves of sound, its unseen frequencies, spread out about him and wheel at supernatural speeds, reflecting back of certain rooftops and penetrating others. The sound waves from without tangle with those already present within and they swell and gather and flow out in all directions. For an instant, everything vanishes before these joyous waves.

"If this book had been titled something like 'How to listen' or 'How to be all ears,' the title would have been appropriate to the content and directly explained the book's focus. Why, then, does the title prefer to obscure its subject rather than reveal it, running counter to a title's traditional function? The reason is that this book is grounded in the experience of the unseen listener. Speakers are seen when they speak, whereas listeners recede into the background of the scene dominated by speakers. Listeners spend a long time listening to that around them, and hope to maintain their wallflower position when they speak—their speech having no need to take front row or appear in the spotlight. The title of this book conceals its subject in a desire to protect the listener from returning to the spotlight once he or she has left it."