[stylist] What you experience verses What you read?

Mon Apr 20 22:06:33 UTC 2009

Thanks for the encouragement Tami. There is actually an entire family
of female deafblind characters in 'a deafblind girl'.  You even have a
deafblind cop. She has a distant cousin in the Darthrilian police
force who gives her a leg up.

Helene

On 20/04/2009, Tamara Smith-Kinney <tamara.8024 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Helene,
>
> Really great questions!  Through the NFB lists and other dog-related lists,
> I'm getting to know deafblind people who are really great writers!  I love
> reading their informal e-mail list stories of their daily activities and
> challenges -- usually based around how they train and use their dogs, of
> course.  /smile/  Just as I have been learning to re-experience the world
> with less and less sight, I find myself experiencing it without hearing
> through their words.  Funny how losing senses we take for granted can
> actually enrich the ways in which we perceive the world around us.
>
> I don't have any useful advice to offer, but I think your putting a
> deafblind character in a mainstream work is a great one.  Technology and the
> occasional advancement in social enlightment are breaking down the barriers
> between the "blind community," the "deaf community," et al., and mainstream
> culture.  The more we all understand and can relate to each other without
> being frightened of the differences (and that can work both ways!), the more
> enlightened we all become.  So keep up the good work.
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of helene ryles
> Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 7:00 PM
> To: Writer's Division Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [stylist] What you experience verses What you read?
>
> 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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>>
>>
>>
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