Introduction

Abstract

During the late seventeenth century, French philosophers were beginning to think seriously about hearing. If an individual could hear with a moral purpose in mind, society as a whole could not fail to remain good. At this stage in history, hearing was about connecting to another reality, one of higher purpose. Perceiving another person’s words was not enough. Hearing was about focusing oneself on moral transformation, rising above the bad emotions associated with the dangerous voices of an increasingly secular world. Only then could society be improved. In Francois Fénelon’s 1699 epic novel, Les aventures de Télémaque, for example, the hero encounters a number of different sounds on his voyage to become king.¹ At the beginning of the story, Fénelon deposits Telemachus, accompanied by Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, in the guise of his tutor Mentor, on the isle of Calypso. Here he confronts his first listening challenge. Calypso lived in a wonderful grotto, scooped out of the rock in arcades abounding with pebbles and shell work, extending into hills and clouds like a great garden. In need of refuge and kindness, the vulnerable Telemachus hears the murmuring fountain, the song of birds and the sound of the brook. Calypso’s nymphs begin to sing, and Calypso starts to speak. Telemachus succumbs to his passions. Another voice, however, warns him of possible deceit: “Take care how you listen to the soft and flattering speeches of Calypso, which will glide like a serpent under flowers; dread that concealed poison; be diffident of yourself, and never take any resolution without first waiting for my advice.”²