“It’s a Lovely Peaceful Gentle Soothing Sound, Why Do You Hate It?”

Abstract

This essay examines tinnitus in Samuel Beckett’s Embers as a hidden audiological disability that informs the core soundscape of the radio drama. Henry’s tinnitus as an invisible condition replaces his voice and transforms into a dramatic and personal anchor, one that parodies conventional radiophonic narratives by explicating how the tics of his ears propel his sonic narrative. Henry’s radiographic quest for silence is not betrayed by the phantom sound or the tic in his ears, or his troupe of phantom characters, but rather by his failure to appreciate, reveal, and prove his disability to his hearing audience. To this end, the article assays and expands key concepts in social understanding of audiological disabilities such as ‘dysconscious audism’, and ‘impaired consciousness’, to address a phonocentric culture that either suppresses or normalizes such otological disorders by disregarding them as invisible personal matters rather than a debilitating handicap.