[stylist] A New Member
Judith Bron
jbron at optonline.net
Sun Dec 28 00:43:05 UTC 2008
There is a deaf person where I work. She reads lips so when you talk to her
you have to be careful to form each word carefully. She is a doll. I've
had a lot of conversations with Nancy. She is also in a higher position
than me. A lot of her work requires reading files and we only have one
crummy computer that is adapted.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
> Judith,
>
> I think there's something to that, but I also think it may be a matter of
> how the blind person uses body language which is easier for deaf people to
> pick up. I'm not saying there isn't a social stigma around deafness; I
> remember a story when I lived in Philadelphia of a deaf man who was
> assaulted by a bus driver, who took his imperfect speech as a sign of
> drunkenness.
> Donna
>
> --
> For my bio & to hear clips from The Last Straw:
> http://cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill
>
> Apple I-Tunes
>
> phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=259244374
>
> Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind
> www.padnfb.org
>
>
>
>
>
> Judith Bron wrote:
>> Could it be that deafness is more acceptable than blindness is that deaf
>> people don't look different? In many cases the blind person's eyes look
>> different from the sighted person's eyes. Judith
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
>> To: "NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 6:45 PM
>> 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
>>>
>>> --
>>> For my bio & to hear clips from The Last Straw:
>>> http://cdbaby.com/cd/donnahill
>>>
>>> Apple I-Tunes
>>>
>>> phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=259244374
>>>
>>> Performing Arts Division of the National Federation of the Blind
>>> www.padnfb.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> John Lee Clark wrote:
>>>> Shelley:
>>>>
>>>> Aside from my six-year run as publisher of my own publishing operation,
>>>> I
>>>> have been involved in the publishing world for twelve years. I've
>>>> worked
>>>> with many, many writers, about half of them hearing sighted and the
>>>> other
>>>> deaf sighted with a few deafblind. While the quality of the writing
>>>> always
>>>> plays a role in whether or not something gets published, the deaf
>>>> writers'
>>>> writing from the deaf perspective is always, always an advantage.
>>>>
>>>> No, I don't mean one needs to make a conscious effort to write "about"
>>>> being
>>>> deaf, in the didactic sense. Just write about life--love, crime,
>>>> family,
>>>> whatever--but through deaf eyes, drawing from the deaf writer's own
>>>> observations and sensations. Ha Jin, the well-known writer, made the
>>>> point
>>>> in his latest book that there are too many writers who write about
>>>> stuff
>>>> they learned in a secondhand fashion, and readers can pick it up, even
>>>> though they may not be conscious. The writer's describing his or her
>>>> own
>>>> genuine observations and experiences for the purpose of describing
>>>> things is
>>>> very important and lends the work with an aura of, a vibe exuding
>>>> authenticity.
>>>>
>>>> So that's one benefit of writing exactly what you know. Another boon
>>>> to any
>>>> writer is any type of outsiderhood. If you look back on the annals of
>>>> literature, those who are "different" from the establishment population
>>>> but
>>>> don't write from that different perspective don't get published often,
>>>> or if
>>>> they do, their work wears off quickly and they are forgotten. Take the
>>>> example of Thomas Caldwell, who was deaf, but wrote as if he wasn't.
>>>> Who
>>>> knows him now? Or take Richard Wright, a wonderful and groundbreaking
>>>> African American writer. All of his books are still in print, except
>>>> one,
>>>> and that was the only book he wrote about only white people.
>>>>
>>>> You understand, there are tens of thousands sighted people writing and
>>>> trying to get published. So I cannot imagine any use in adding more of
>>>> the
>>>> same types of material to that pot. There are only a limited number of
>>>> genres and plots, and they all have been done over and over again. But
>>>> if
>>>> you're blind, and you're privileged to have different sensations and a
>>>> different touch in your observations, that's quite a blessing and will
>>>> help
>>>> your work stand out amidst the awful racket of the same old, same old
>>>> that
>>>> editors endure reading through week after week.
>>>>
>>>> Now, my deaf writer friends, they all have found their most important
>>>> and
>>>> rewarding publishing credits through their deaf material. Many of
>>>> them,
>>>> before they started workring with me, wrote only mainstream stuff,
>>>> thinking
>>>> they would have a better chance. Not so. Take Raymond Luczak: He has
>>>> written over forty plays, but only twelve with deaf characters.
>>>> Thirteen of
>>>> his plays have been produced. All twelve deaf plays and one not make
>>>> up the
>>>> thirteen, leaving the rest of his "hearing" plays still collecting
>>>> dust. He
>>>> has written four novels, only one with deaf characters. No surprise:
>>>> The
>>>> three mainstream works remain unpublished and the deaf one won a
>>>> prestigious
>>>> fellowship and also a national first-novel contest and will be coming
>>>> out
>>>> soon. Raymond's "hearing" stuff is good and worthy of publication, but
>>>> the
>>>> problem is that there are so many equally good stuff these days,
>>>> because
>>>> there are so many well-trained writers from all those MFA programs.
>>>> Those
>>>> who get published are the ones with unique voices, original twists, or
>>>> those
>>>> who bring to the reader authentic tastes of different worlds.
>>>>
>>>> I once got a story from a good deaf writer. It was about the Titanic.
>>>> A
>>>> couple gets separated at the end, the woman rowed away while the man
>>>> sinks
>>>> with the ship. It was wonderfully researched and detailed. The
>>>> writing was
>>>> smooth and luminous. In all the fundamental areas, it was a superb
>>>> story.
>>>> But it was never picked up, and the deaf writer could not understand
>>>> why
>>>> not, since it was one of her very best efforts. The reason, of course,
>>>> is
>>>> that the Titanic as the backdrop for a love story has been done to
>>>> death.
>>>> It was already worn threadbare even before that movie with Leo and
>>>> Kate.
>>>> But what if the couple was deaf? They wake up because of the great
>>>> commotion outside their room sending vibrations to them. They ask each
>>>> other what's going on. Outside their room, they see people running.
>>>> They
>>>> try to get someone to write to them on a notepad, but they're all
>>>> panicked.
>>>> So they have to investigate, and gradually, from all the visual
>>>> information,
>>>> they begin to understand. A sailor tries to put the deaf woman in line
>>>> for
>>>> getting on a lifeboat, but she doesn't want to be separated from her
>>>> husband. All sorts of misunderstandings, issues, correctives, etc.
>>>> occur.
>>>> And at the end, a twist on the classic separation thing: The deaf woman
>>>> decides to sink with her husband, so strong is their bond with each
>>>> other as
>>>> they come from a small community and the deaf woman cannot imagine
>>>> venturing
>>>> out on her own amidst all those hearing strangers.
>>>> Now, isn't that a much better story? A blind couple on the Titanic
>>>> would
>>>> likewise be much better than the mainstream version and would
>>>> definitely
>>>> stand out!
>>>>
>>>> Incidentally, some of the hearing writers I've worked with but who have
>>>> connectins to the Deaf world, they also have found greater success in
>>>> publishing their work relating to the Deaf world as opposed to their
>>>> more
>>>> mainstream fare. Take Morgan Grayce Willow, an ASL interpreter. Her
>>>> biggest book credit is her work on interpreting. Her most prestigious
>>>> magazine credit is for her essay "Double Language," about her
>>>> experiences as
>>>> an interpreter. She has published other stuff, but with much more
>>>> difficulty and less compensation. Or take Pia Taavila, a wonderful
>>>> poet and
>>>> professor of English, who is the daughter of deaf parents, or a CODA as
>>>> we
>>>> call people like her--Children of Deaf Adults. She has written both
>>>> mainstream stuff and stuff having to do with her upbringing in a Deaf
>>>> home
>>>> and her continued link with the Deaf community. You guessed it again:
>>>> Her
>>>> Deaf-related poems are more readily published and get higher praise.
>>>>
>>>> It is not that they can't get published without the deaf material.
>>>> They can
>>>> and have. But it is against greater, much greater odds that they do.
>>>> Here
>>>> and there, they are able to be heard, able to be distinguished from the
>>>> rest
>>>> clamoring for the same editor's attention. And it's not that writing
>>>> from a
>>>> different perspective will automatically get you published. The
>>>> writing
>>>> still has to be good. But it is a huge advantage in arresting the
>>>> editor's
>>>> attention, curiosity, and interest.
>>>>
>>>> I don't know how the deaf writers could possibly try to write
>>>> mainstream
>>>> stuff, or how you could avoid writing as a blind writer, but I never
>>>> could,
>>>> never wanted to. It feels fake and contrived to me. It would take too
>>>> much
>>>> effort to pretend, to write about auditory things I never heard, to
>>>> write
>>>> visual descriptions of what I have never seen. I am of the opinion
>>>> that
>>>> "'catering" to the mainstream audience is self-defeating, because there
>>>> are
>>>> many writers that produce mainstream stuff and it's not like they're
>>>> "catering" but they're genuine because they ARE mainstream. I have
>>>> always
>>>> written straight from who and what I am. And I am not complaining
>>>> about my
>>>> inability to write mainstream stuff because I've been published in
>>>> POETRY
>>>> magazine twice, while there are thousands of poets who can only dream
>>>> about
>>>> ever getting there; I've been published in McSWEENEY'S, America's most
>>>> hip
>>>> literary journal; I've won all those awards; my work has been broadcast
>>>> on
>>>> radio, including on the "Poem of the Day" program on Martha Stewart;
>>>> I'm
>>>> being interviewed by someone from The New Yorker right now; I've been a
>>>> featured poet at an international cultural arts festival, flown there
>>>> first-class and with all expenses paid . . . so I guess I must be
>>>> doing
>>>> something right.
>>>>
>>>> No, that was not to brag at all. That was purely to make my point, to
>>>> make
>>>> my case for writing from a different angle, and to encourage you and
>>>> others
>>>> to try doing that. Hey, it can't hurt to try, can it?
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
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>>
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