Learning to Hear - by Sarah Maslen

About the Book

Sarah Maslen uncovers tricks of the trade and forms of communal assistance for crafting largely unconscious practices to hone hearing.

Book Synopsis

As we live our lives, hearing seems to be something that we simply have, not something that we do. Yet in a wide variety of occupations and activities, people must develop their hearing skills to achieve proficiency. How do people learn to hear?

This innovative book investigates strategies and techniques for honing hearing in medicine, music, outdoor adventuring, and Morse code operation. Sarah Maslen uncovers tricks of the trade and forms of communal assistance for crafting these largely unconscious practices. She shows that hearing is far more complex than is often assumed and that it depends on competencies that extend beyond the ear. In so doing, Maslen explodes myths of genius and natural talent and the idea that certain skills are the province of particular kinds of people. Overcoming the distance between insiders and outsiders requires access to the collective support that cultivates seemingly natural sense abilities.

Learning to Hear examines vivid and varied cases, such as how doctors listen for a heart murmur, how musicians build the skills to play along with others, how adventurers sense dangers like melting ice or falling rocks while climbing, and how telegraph operators develop a feel for Morse code. A deeply original exploration of the cultivation of hearing, this book offers a new approach to embodied experience.

Review Quotes

Maslen's book is an important sociological study of both the senses and the very fabric of our embodied experience. As she demonstrates through a set of careful comparative studies, hearing is an active accomplishment. Showing how people routinely build on their embodied habits in action, Maslen pushes our understanding of embodiment in theoretically and empirically exciting ways.--Iddo Tavory, coauthor of Data Analysis in Qualitative Research: Theorizing with Abductive Analysis

At once intellectually light-footed and profound, this ambitious investigation into the achievement of hearing competency illuminates the ways people cultivate their embodied senses, revealing the workings of practices that have never before been made available as foundational knowledge. It will take a generation of research to elaborate what Learning to Hear has begun.--Jack Katz, author of How Emotions Work

Starting from the premise that hearing is an accomplishment, sociologist Sarah Maslen sought out a range of highly accomplished listeners--from musicians and physicians to mountaineers and Morse code operators--and trained her ethnographic ear on documenting their practice. This book is a source of a great many insights into the world of sound.--David Howes, author of The Sensory Studies Manifesto: Tracking the Sensorial Revolution in the Arts and Human Sciences

About the Author

Sarah Maslen is a professor of sociology at the University of Canberra, Australia.