Now Out: Essay 1856 on 黙 (silent) and 5 New-Monics

Silence plays a special role in Japanese, where one must often intuit what isn’t said, but that’s just one type of silence. The essay looks at many kinds, such as tacit agreements, unwritten rules, acquiescence, clamming up during quarrels, awed speechlessness, remaining silent after an arrest, silent tributes to the dead, mutism, and viewing a disturbing sight but doing nothing about it.