Thoughts Laid Bare

The Chaos Walking trilogy (still waiting for book three!), by Patrick Ness, has recently intrigued me. The first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, introduces Todd Hewitt, the youngest member of a group of colonists on a futuristic planet much like earth. The settlers have been infected by a germ which has killed all the women, and left the men with an oppressive Noise. The Noise is the constant broadcasting of their thoughts. The author cleverly and convincingly depicts the Noise and the maddening confusion it causes. There are no secrets. There is no hiding. Dreams are public. The insults and rude remarks Todd would politely keep to himself are transmitted into the heads of anyone within his proximity. Everyone’s private plans are everyone else’s business. Even the animals’ thoughts are overheard.

Without rehasing the plot or even stating my opinion (although I may do that later), I want to focus on this aspect of the book alone. This is not about mind-reading, although there are some characters who are able to probe deeply into the thoughts of others. The characters in this book have no ability to prevent others from hearing them. There are rumors that another colony has discovered a cure for the germ, a medicine which quiets the noise, and which must be taken for the rest of one’s life. But the Noise is something the colonists have learned to live with, although many do not cope so well.

We find in the second book, The Ask and the Answer, that there are women in other colonies on the planet. But the women do not have Noise. They can hear the broadcast of the men’s thoughts, but female thoughts are not broadcast. In one town, the women move their sleeping quarters to a far corner of the town so they can sleep without being disturbed by the men’s Noise. In another town, loud music is played over speakers to drown out the Noise.
The sinister mayor of Todd’s town has gained such control over his thoughts that, by the second book, he has the power to hurl thoughts at people with enough force to injure them physically. The mayor’s efforts to command his own thoughts have become a religion to him. It is with prayer-like devotion that he practices his self-control, and he attempts to train others to do the same. He is disciplined and ruthless. His ability to silence his Noise, or to manipulate his thoughts give him a power no one can dispute.

There is no silence. There can never be silence. And when there is, it is terrifying and bewildering .

Imagine. If everyone knew what I thought at every moment, would I have any friends? If I knew what others truly thought of me, would I want their friendship? To have our thoughts made public would easily allow our enemies (dare I say Enemy?) to manipulate us. On the other hand, there would be no more façade. There could be no undetected lies. We might learn more about ourselves through other people’s thoughts than we do from our own self-aggrandizing meditations.

Todd’s real frustration is that it is hard to concentrate on things he wants to consider. His own thoughts are interrupted and lost amid the chaos. And really, are we so far from this? Although we do not hear each other’s thoughts, we are truly in a place where silence is terrifying and bewildering. We allow and invite Noise to such a level that we do not know what to do with silence. We do not know how to corral our thoughts when they are so jumbled in the Noise. I, for one, would have finished a half-dozen writing projects, but for the want of long, long silences.

This is fodder for discussion on so many levels!