Volume Control: Book Review
Book by David Owen, Riverhead Press
Book Review by Herb Rubenstein
Introduction
Volume Control presents David Owen’s three great gifts as a writer:
• His ability to guide the reader with the great flow to his writing
• His great research skills and effort
• His ability to make a real contribution to those who read his work
For well over a century, researchers, and practitioners in the field of human performance including F. M. Alexander of the Alexander Technique have documented how “civilization” has caused a significant loss of “sensory perception.” The great subtitle to the book, Hearing in a Deafening World is an excellent guide to the content of the book but tells the reader only a small portion of what to expect in the book.
As expected from the subtitle, the book documents how industrial production, loud music, gun fire, chain saws and woodworking tools, and many other tools we use in life, usually without ear protection, all contribute to the large-scale hearing loss occurring across modern civilizations. But this in anything but a one-dimensional book. David Owen has himself experienced hearing loss and this book benefits from the keen insights he shares about his own life and how it has been affected by his hearing loss.
The Science of Hearing Aids
There are chapters on the science of hearing aids and new over-the-counter technology that enhances people’s hearing, on sign language, and on new breakthrough medical research and surgical procedures to help cure hearing loss. There is also a chapter on the stigma associated with “hearing loss. This stigma is not only associated with the reluctance in society to wear hearing aids, but also the reluctance in society to wear hearing and ear protection when people are subjected to very loud noises on their jobs, in their hobbies, and in life, itself. What is so tragic about this stigma is that not only keeps people from getting a hearing aid or hearing assisting devices, this stigma (like all other types of “taboos”) keeps people from even being willing to have their hearing tested, from even admitting they do not hear as well as they used to, and, of course, keeps people from using hearing assisting technology to help them hear better.
The book also has a chapter on how the hearing aid industry and the large companies that have ruled this industry for decades has operated. It documents how scientists, entrepreneurs, start-up companies, and innovators have had to overcome huge obstacles to bring progress and innovation into this sector. This chapter is one of the most hopeful chapters in this overall hopeful book as it documents that innovation is finally winning and the growing population with hearing loss will have many new, less expensive, excellent options on how to improve their hearing.
Conclusion
Finally, this book tells the story of many individuals’ challenges in their lives caused by their hearing loss. The book will not make you hear better. However, reading it has made me listen better. And, for this hearing aid wearer, that is not bad at all.
This book is a solid contribution to helping all of us become more aware of the complexities and dynamics of this growing problem of hearing loss. The only thing that is missing in this book is a solution to the stigma problem discussed above. But, that is no fault of the author. It will take a real societal transformation to eliminate the stigma associated with hearing loss and the use of hearing aids and hearing assist devices. As this book clearly demonstrates, this transformation cannot come a minute too soon.