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A great opera can be loud but not overbearing. That's not the case in many restaurants and other public spaces, where increasing noise has deadened our senses, writes blogger Fred Plotkin.

The numbing effects of our everyday lives have been brought into the theater, writes Fred Plotkin. As a result, "most opera audience members do not activate their eyes, ears and other senses to fully take in the experience."

Garret Keizer takes a look at noise—all the unwanted sounds we’re bombarded by every day, from barking dogs to wailing sirens to thumping music coming from next door. He explores the class issues and political ramifications of noise, from Tanzania to New York, and the environmental sustainability of a quieter world. In The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want, he shows that noise is as much about what we want as about what we’re trying to avoid.