Hush

“Mack Hagood retunes the field of sound studies, boosting the prominence of environmental and ambient sounds—rain, heartbeats, the hum and whir of white noise—that can now be mobilized as electronic tools. Hagood offers a series of riveting case studies for what he calls orphic media, which ‘fight sound with sound’ to sculpt personal space. The first book to foreground these astonishingly pervasive technologies of sonic self-control, Hush inserts sound into critical debates about affect, ‘filter bubbles,’ and productivity apps. By the end of the book you wonder how sound could have previously been so overlooked in these arenas.” - Mara Mills

“Steering a path between ethnography and history, Hush considers the strange status of sounds to be heard but not listened to. Throughout, Mack Hagood wonders at the affective power of sound as a presence or absence and as a tool for listeners as they negotiate their embedded existence in the world with the social demand to be autonomous, self-managing subjects. Hush is challenging and imaginative; read it and you will learn to think differently about sound, noise, silence, and meaning.” - Jonathan Sterne

“A fascinating study of our efforts to control sound and, through it, our emotional and political lives. As Mack Hagood shows, the sonic and the social are never far apart and are best thought together.” - Fred Turner

"Hagood points out that we now often talk about personal freedom in terms of what we don’t have to listen to, and he focusses, in the book, on our efforts to navigate sonic nuisances, and also the paradox of combating sound with more sound, in a world that has become loud enough to damage our health. . . . The stakes of Hush might seem small . . . But, once you begin to think about the relationship between the sound waves that constantly pass through us and the potential loss of self, you become more attuned to all the beckoning noises of modern life." - Hua Hsu, The New Yorker

"Hush is provocative and insightful." - Stephen Phillips, The Wire

"Hagood leaves us rethinking media theory, sound studies, and the definition of media." - John F. Barber, Leonardo Reviews

"Hush is an important addition to the emerging field of sound studies. . . . Scholars of sound studies, digital media, broadcast media, disability studies, and those interested in the intersection of gender and race with media will find this book insightful." - Jennifer Hyland Wang, Journal of Radio & Audio Media

"Hush gives readers interested in sound studies a lot to chew on. Some readers may be interested in it primarily as a rich trove of fascinating media-historical detail; others may prefer to focus on its thoughtful ruminations of the ideological underpinnings of 20th- and 21st-century media technologies; and others, again, may welcome it primarily for its efforts in rethinking conceptualizations of media and information." - Alexandra Supper, Journal of Sonic Studies

"What is intriguing in Hagood’s book is the nature of the media he’s examining but also his attempt to raise our awareness towards the orphic aspects of all media. Where his book is highly noteworthy but may also pose as challenging is the varied and interdisciplinary synthesis of theories, concepts and frameworks he draws on to examine orphic media. At the same time, though, this poses as a major strength as it demonstrates the multiple implications this book and topical area can have for various fields and disciplines." - Katherine Marazi, European Journal of American Studies