Sir, - Methinks Ursula Hough-Gormley (December18th) doth protest too much at the nuisance of phones in concert halls, theatres and cinemas.
Objectively - and that means resisting the temptation to indulge in technophobia - they are surely no more disturbing than a persistent cough, besides being less of a health hazard and generally much quieter. And, once inadvertently let off, they can be silenced.
Robert M. Pirsig's 1974 book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance discusses how technology - high and low - everywhere becomes feared and despised. And yet, as Pirsig remarks: "The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower."
Love it and it won't bother you so much. Truly. - Yours, etc.,
Andrew Robinson, Marlborough Road, Dublin 4.