[stylist] A New Member

Sat Dec 27 18:56:10 UTC 2008

Donna:

I think this discussion is splitting into two wholly different areas.

For writing and getting published, the point is that the benefit of writing
blind material has nothing to do with there being a "market" for such
material, such as the blind population itself being the base for such
titles.  Yo0u had argued that maybe there was a benefit to writing deaf
material because the deaf community, as you thought, is bigger and so
creates a market.

So I was trying to point out that the blind or deaf communities are not a
factor at all here.  Neither community is large enough for each group's
small percentage of buying readers to constitute any kind of "base."

The benefit of writing blind material is that it would stand out among
mountains of the same old, same old.  You ever read through hundreds of
submissions?  You wouldn't believe how much most of them resemble one
another, even down to the characters' names and color of hair and the
dreadfulness of dialogue and the sheer predictability of the plots.  Almost
all writers think they're writing something original, but most of them are
not.

So that's where your unique experiences and perspectives can help you.  

Now, the superstars thing.  It hardly has anything to do with whether or not
the general readers will be interested in something or not.  There have been
many, many, many novels with blind or deaf main characters that have made
the bestseller list.  But they are by sighted and hearing writers.  They are
professionals, and they knew what they were doing when they decided to use a
blind or deaf character--because it's different, because it's a good
variation, and it's very interesting.  That's why I find it incredible those
blind and deaf writers, who would be able to do this BETTER, wouldn't do
this!

About society not finding blind women appealing, oh but it does.  There is a
long list of films with blind women.  But yes, they're not always portrayed
as empowered women.  Deaf women have the same problem.  Beautiful helpless
victims.  Until Marlee Matlin and Shoshannah Stern came along, most deaf
women roles were played by hearing women, such as Ronald Reagan's first wife
in Johnny Belinda.  I am not sure about blind women in movies, but I
remember watching several as a teenager and there was only one in which I
was SURE the actress was really blind.

One thing you can do about something you are sick and tired of is to, well,
do something about it.  Write a novel with a blind woman who is strong and
empowered.  Create the opportunity for a blind female superstar to emerge.
I am reminded of the example of Nicola Griffith.  She wrote a fine novel
called Ammonite, about a planet populated entirely by women.  She was sick
of the stereotypical women in movies and literature, and she classified such
typecasts in her afterword to the book, and I realized how right she was,
that indeed there tends to be only a few certain types of women portrayed in
popular media.  By writing about a world where there are only women, she was
able to portray all sorts of women, ranging from the nice to the mean, the
strong to the weak, the beautiful to the ugly, the smart to the insane.  The
book was a bestseller and is still in print today.  It's a cool book.

What Nicola Griffith did was to make her "difference" as a strong woman
helps her write something different, unusual, and endlessly entertaining.
She did not cater to anyone.  She didn't worry about what the mainstream
would think.  She just did her thing.  It worked.

But perhaps one important thing in writing from a different perspective is
that you embrace it.  If you are uneasy with your "different" identity, then
I can imagine it being difficult to write in line with that.  But I love
being deafblind, and it is the greatest, so cool and so fun, so it is really
easy for me to write as a deafblind person.  What the mainstream reader
might think is of no concern to me.  I frankly don't care what they think,
what notions they have.  I only care about writing well, and everything else
will take care of itself.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Donna Hill
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 10:33 AM
To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member

John,
Perhaps not, but that has more to do with the fact that musical 
superstars are traditionally more popular than acting superstars.  
Furthermore, we haven't had a new blind American superstar since Jose 
Feliciano and Stevie Wonder, both of whom attained their status decades 
ago when the emphasis on needing to be a sex symbol in addition to being 
a musician had just begun to emerge.  I think you have also missed the 
point that blind women are not part of the American mainstream culture 
at all, whether they are accepted in the blindness community or not.  
The existence of female representatives of minority groups has 
accompanied a change in public acceptance of their minorities.  So far, 
the public doesn't find blind women that appealing.
Donna

-- 
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Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind
www.padnfb.org

John Lee Clark wrote:
> Donna:
>
> Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
>
> In my post, I did emphasize that it was not about writing "about"
blindness,
> but just BEING blind in your writing.  The blindness need not be the point
> at all, but it would certainly give you a gold mine for creative twists on
> the same old, same old.  If you want to write a mystery novel with a
> detective, why, go ahead and make the crime the main point, but it would
be
> a most delightful read if the detective is blind.  
>
> I had to smile when you mentioned Marlee Matlin.  The signing community
> doesn't consider her as one of its own--just as much rejected as Heather
> Whitestone is.  If you want to learn the complicated reasons why, I'd be
> glad to oblige.  But at any rate, Marlee Matlin is hardly the superstar
that
> Stevie Wonder is!
>
> I doubt that the deaf community is larger.  It is certainly more close
knit.
> Deaf people have their own culture, traditions, and distinct values.  They
> don't consider deafness to be a disability at all.  There are many, many
> people with hearing loss who do not sign or are not members of this world.

>
> I think that the greatest difference between deaf people and blind people
> are that culturally deaf people use a different language.  And it is a
huge
> blessing, because a different language means society has more trouble in
> sending its demeaning messages to them.  True, they have limited access to
> the mainstream, but the mainstream, in turn, has only limited access to
> them.
>
> Anyway, there is no such thing as a deaf consumer base that sustains a
> "market" for deaf-related material.  There is a market for sign language
> textbooks, because ASL is the second most popular foreign language, next
to
> Spanish.  But for Deaf literature, the main market is the general reading
> public.  So this has nothing to do with the difference in the number of
deaf
> readers and blind readers buying titles by their own.  It has to do with
> intriguing and entertaining the general readership with something new,
with
> fresh material that stands out.
>
> What do you think?
>
> John
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Donna Hill
> Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 5:46 PM
> To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
>
> John,
> I understand your perspective and I am writing a novel with a blind 
> character, but having grown up trying to be sighted and being taught to 
> be sighted, I have information from that world as well and have written 
> some fiction with non blind characters, simply to avoid having the story 
> be about blindness, when the real point is more complicated as well as 
> universal.
>
> I also can't help wondering, especially reading this particular post, 
> about the difference between the blind and deaf communities.  If the 
> blind community were as large, independent and self-integrated as the 
> deaf community and if blindness were as socially acceptable as deafness 
> -- i.e., Marly Maitlin is a superstar and the only blind woman anyone 
> knows is Helen Keller who died over fifty years ago, well, perhaps there 
> would be a market for blindness-related literature.
> Donna
>
>   

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