Voice of Hearing

P.J. Kemp was a journalist living in Brigham, Quebec.

Voice of Hearing is an alleged attempt to present “a viable alternative to existing programs of social research.” Author Darroch’s writing seems concerned mainly with vague musings about a unicorn and a red, ape-like beast. It’s a free-flowing narrative, heavily footnoted with an array of impressive sources, in which Darroch attempts to overcome the paradox of experiencing and expressing life without the filtering effect of words.

Of course it doesn’t work. In fact, Voice of Hearing is a mess: self-indulgent to an annoying extreme, and lacking any discipline of thought and organization. As John O’Neill unwittingly notes in the introduction, “The writing is unbearable....” Before one attempts to write on philology and/or social research, one should a) have some idea of what one wants to state; and b) be literate enough to state it. A third requisite might be not to have the gall to charge $10 for what should have remained in a private journal.