[nfb-db] New Member

[John Lee Clark]

Haben:

The DB anthology I am working on includes writings from all periods--the
earliest writer is Sanzan Tani from Japan, followed by Hieronymus Lorm from
the Czech Republic, and the first American is James Morrison Heady.  All
kinds of writing, but it has to be relevant to the writers' DB experience.
Most of the materials are poems and memoirs, though there are some
fascinating letters and diaries.  No fiction.  Heady, Lorm, William Amos
Miller, Margaret Montague, Leneru, Freida Le Pla, R. C. Scriven all wrote
fictional works, but none of it had anything to do DBness, no DB characters,
not even an allegory of it, except for some Lorm stuff but that's a stretch.


But that's not to say there aren't DB characters in fiction.  There are
plenty, but all created by hearing and sighted authors.  I am about one
thirds into or near halfway through with another project, a collection of
critical essays on those characters and addressing some common themes shared
by many of the works--the characters being talismans, possessing special
powers; their encounters with sex; overdramtizing of disability; and so on.

You may wonder at my having so many projects at once.  That's necessary,
because research is often interrupted or halted.  I am to get some grant
money in July that will help finish the DB anthology.  Translations are in
progress, so I have to wait for them.  Waiting to get word frorm certain
rare books dealers on some elusive titles.  Need two trips to two different
libraries to get into noncirculating materials.

So if I was on only one project at a time, it would take me forty years to
finish all the projects I am on right now.  The one farthest from completion
will maybe take seven more years to finish.

Yes, my presentation has to do with DBness, but also applies to any minority
community.  My audience for that will be mostly sighted Deaf, the faculty
and students at NTID.  But it doesn't really matter which world is the
"second" world.  The basic principles are the same, though I will make them
very clear to my audience by using Deaf and DB stories as illustrations and
discuss Deaf issues to point out classic problems and to share about their
solutions.  It should be fun.  My presentation style is very interactive, so
much so that you'll see people getting up on stage with me two minutes after
I start, and the audience will continue all kinds of participation all the
way through.

Wow, I didn't know Monica Lewinsky went to LC!  That immediately got me very
tempted to make several jokes, but I will hold them back out of respect for
you--you're a brand new friend, and I don't want any suspicious presidential
stains splattered here.

Tell me, what would you like to do after school?

John











 

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