Karl Kraus, the poet and satirist, wrote at the beginning of the 20th centuryabout how loud everything gets. Kraus referred to literal and metaphorical shouting. What are we to do today, when everything has become even more cacophonous, with the urge to block everything out? What do we even want to hear at this point in time? And shouldn’t we be acting instead of listening? Author George Prochnik addresses these questions in his acclaimed books The Pursuit of Silence (2011) and Stranger in a Strange Land (2017). In conversation with Paul Holdengräber, he explores the limits and enduring possibilities of listening at a time when the unhappiness and noise of the world threaten to overwhelm our senses.

Participants

George Prochnik lives and works as a journalist and writer in New York and London. He has taught English and American literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the author of books on silence, Stefan Zweig and Gershom Sholem. His books have been recommended as Editor’s Choice by the New York Times.

The intellectual Paul Holdengräber was the founding director of Onassis Los Angeles. Previously, he led a formative cultural series at the New York Public Library, where he held talks with renowned personalities such as Patti Smith and Werner Herzog.