[stylist] A New Member
John Lee Clark
johnlee at clarktouch.com
Sun Dec 28 05:07:13 UTC 2008
Judith:
I have never set foot on New York soil, or I should say, pavement. So I
have no firsthand experience there. But I do know that all attempts in the
past among the deafblind there to organize have failed miserably. New York
is one of only a handful of states without a statewide deafblind
organization. The others are places like Alaska and Wyoming that simply
don't have enough deafblind people to begin with.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Judith Bron
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 9:27 PM
To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
I don't think I'm going to stir things up John, New York state doesn't stir
well. They are happy living in their narrow world training people to
perform jobs that are beneath blind professionals who work in their
bureaucracy.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
To: "'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
> Judith:
>
> But blind people can drive to their clients! It is pure discrimination
> when
> the state services brass demand that they be able to drive in a specific
> manner and style or otherwise stay out. I am shocked that the reason all
> of
> your counselors are sighted is because they fit the narrow definition of
> fulfilling their duties that eliminate blind people frorm the same jobs.
> This is totally unacceptable, and all legal measures should be undertaken
> to
> abolish such unethical practices!
>
> In my father's case, he is a top administrator in the state of Minnesota's
> Division Serving the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind in the
> Department
> of Human Services. He is deafblind and heads the DeafBlind Services
> branch.
> Part of his job description is to travel to clients and branch offices sto
> check on his subordinates. He does this just fine. Maybe it's not in the
> same manner as some other employees, who get a state car and sit behind
> the
> wheel, but so what? He still goes places, shows up on time, and does his
> job.
>
> What state do you live in? I've got this burning desire to go over there
> and stir things up!
>
> John, with smoke whitsling from his ears
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Judith Bron
> Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 6:40 PM
> To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
>
> Every counsellor I've had with the commission for the blind has been
> sighted. They are required to drive to their clients. Obviously blind
> people cannot fill these roles. However, in teaching blind people to use
> adaptive equipment blind individuals do this in facilities for the blind.
> I
>
> work with other handicaps, mostly mental disabilities, but have never
> worked
>
> with a blind person in rehabilitation. Yes, we have a blind governor in
> New
>
> York State but he doesn't use adaptive equipment,, walk with a white cane
> or
>
> read braille. I just keep forging ahead with my own thing. Judith
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
> To: "'NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 6:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
>
>
>> Judith:
>>
>> Deafness is an invisible to most. Deaf people can spot a deaf person a
>> mile
>> away with the way their eyes move, but most hearing people don't know
>> anything until they'[re spoken to but don't respond, or if they see them
>> signing.
>>
>> Blindness is more visible, certainly.
>>
>> But more accepted? Maybe as objects of sexual desire, but other than
>> that,
>> there's this difference in language. Blind people speak the same
>> language
>> with the mainstream. For this reason, I think blind people have greater
>> potential for employment. However, blind unemployment is far higher than
>> deaf unemployment.
>>
>> I think blind people are in higher positions, but deaf people have more
>> jobs, just not as many in very high positions. There are several
>> "industries" suited especially for deaf people. One is the ASL teaching
>> industry. As the second most popular foreign language and the fastest
>> growing, there are more than twenty thousand ASL teachers in the country.
>> This industry includes performers for ASL videos, writers of ASL
>> textbooks,
>> tutors, etc. Then there is the relay services industry. Text relay,
>> CapTel, and most popular, video relay. This is a multi-billion dollar
>> industry and employs many deaf people in administration, training, and
>> marketing. A third source of employment is working for the states, for
>> departments of human services and commissions and social work and also
>> teaching in the state schools for the deaf. You understand, most
>> services
>> provided to the deaf are provided by deaf people, too. Not many hearing
>> people are capable or qualified to teach deaf children, give counseling,
>> train, whatever.
>>
>> But outside of these areas and other smaller businesses geared toward the
>> deaf, they don't have much headway. We don't have a deaf judge or a deaf
>> governor, but you've got blind people in those positions.
>>
>> I may be wrong but low blind employment may have to do with the fact
>> blind
>> people are not required for meeting the needs of or providing services to
>> the blind. Maybe you've got a good source of employment in vocational
>> rehabilitation, but to me, it seems there are way too many sighted
>> teachers,
>> trainers, counselors, and technicians that work with blind people. And
>> is
>> the fact that blindness is a great deal with SSDI a factor for the high
>> unemployment? Deaf people can only earn up to eight hundred dollars per
>> month if they want to keep their SSDI, whereas blind people can earn up
>> to
>> twice that. So it is more in the interest for the deaf to seek full time
>> jobs and less in the interest for the blind to do the same.
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Judith Bron
>> Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 5:16 PM
>> To: NFBnet Writer's Division Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [stylist] A New Member
>>
>> 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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