[stylist] What you experience verses What you read?

[helene ryles]

Hi John,
Thanks for the incouragement.
Their are a few books with blind characters that I like. For example
'Annerton Pit' about an independant blind boy who goes with his
brother who is being held captive by eco terrorists. The blind boy in
that is really mobile and independant.

However, for deafness, it doesn't seem like their are any mainstream
books with deaf characters since most writers seem to portray the deaf
even more as sad characters then the blind do and their isn't too much
about deafblind at all. There is nothing at all about a deaf person in
a fantasy setting. Which is why I felt the need to fill the nich.

"A deafblind girl" is differant in another way too. Part of it is set
in Darthrilia. A country that is run by Dragons. In the fact the
opening scene is described from the point of view of a dragon. He over
hears this wizard making a curse to make his ex wife and all her
future generations deafblind and female so their are actually several
female deafblind characters in the novel.

Helene

On 19/04/2009, John Lee Clark <johnlee at clarktouch.com> wrote:
> One reason I keep on encouraging writing about blindness is because, right
> now, there is not much precedence in English language for describing the
> blind experience.  True, the lexicon is rich in words and phrases related to
> sounds and music, and hearing blind people certainly have a lot to draw from
> if they want to express and describe voices and things like that, but
> there's very little for tactile stuff and other aspects of blindness.  This
> is a wonderful opportunity to do truly creative writing and make significant
> contributions to English literature as a whole.  Not only the content is
> cool and interesting because it's different, but your breaking new ground
> will help sighted people appreciate things they have never noticed
> before--you're giving them a new language and a new way to understand
> themselves and the world around them.
>
> So, no, it's not easy writing.  But if it was easy writing, your work
> probably would be less significant, less original, and more like many, too
> many other books.
>
> One possible technique is to use common verbs and nouns but in new contexts.
> Take the word purr.  Most people would use that for a cat, maybe a car.  But
> you can use it in a tactile context for something totally new.   Or take the
> word sing.  Most writers would use that strictly for music, but maybe a few
> other things.  But if, for example, you have a sex scene, you can say that
> one body sang to the other.  You can even play with color words but not
> actually to describe color.  For example, there is this great bit in Himes's
> classic novel If I Holler Let Me GO: "His tongue tasted brown."  Nothing to
> do with the actual color of his tongue, but everything to do with the
> connotations of the color brown previously established in literature but
> this time used in a new way.
>
> One good rule is not to overdescribe.  Understatement is great.  Just a
> touch and move on with the story.
>
> John
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