The Spirit of Silence: Making Space for Creativity

I absolutely loved Lane's 'Timeless Simplicity' and it is a book I regularly re-read. So I was looking forward to reading this book. However, I don't think it is quite as good. While the premise is an interesting and important one - how in the modern world we have lost an interest in the importance of silence and what it can do for us - the book doesn't really do a great job of explaining why it is important. Rather, it seem to be a conceit to gather together the potted biographies of people Lane admires. While some do have a relation to silence, others don't seem to have much to do with silence at all and you are left wondering why they are in this book.[return][return]I am also disappointed that Lane used many examples of people who retreated from the world who could achieve this only because they lived in positions of privilege - Dickinson, Virgil etc. - and didn't discuss the fact that you don't need to have parents who provide you a house or an independent income to be able to 'take a break' from the outside world sometimes. ( )