**spoiler alert** This play is set in the mind of James Leeds, an idealistic speech therapist working at a School for the Deaf. He falls in love with **spoiler alert** This play is set in the mind of James Leeds, an idealistic speech therapist working at a School for the Deaf. He falls in love with Sarah Norman, a proud Deaf lady working at the school as a cleaner.
Their relationship is volatile as they clash over many things: He’s hearing, she’s Deaf; he is a speech therapist and wants her to speak but she refuses to speak or lip read; he is overbearingly paternalistic while she is fiercely independent.
It’s a difficult play to read - more than most theatre scripts as there is a large visual component to this play.
Sarah only communicates in sign language and at times other characters use sign language. So for the benefit of the audience, there’s nearly always somebody, usually James, doing a voice over of the signed dialogue. On the written page this often means reading the dialogue twice. Also there are times when two separate things are happening on the stage at the same time.
It is also a complex play, characters say things but their silent actions say something else. This is often seen in James’s narration or justification for his behaviour. He believes he does things altruistically, but if you think carefully you’ll see how selfish he is being. He will ask Sarah to do things and say it is for her benefit, when it’s really for his own benefit. Also Sarah will repeatedly insist that she is perfectly happy on her own, but her actions silently show that she needs to connect to other people.
A more subtle example: Sarah believes her father left her and the family because she was deaf. But we are given clues that her mother forced the decision for Sarah to leave the home and go as a boarder to the School of the Deaf and that this upset her father so much that he cried all night on Sarah’s last night at home. It was shortly after Sarah had gone away that he left Sarah’s mother, presumably in disagreement. I can see Sarah getting her pigheadedness from her mother.
The play also shows how the education system fails deaf people. Another deaf character called Orin has to bring in a lawyer to force the school to consider giving him a job. A telling moment is when the headteacher says that he is not prepared to be told how to do his job by deaf people, thus revealing his superior attitude.
The key scene is at the very end. Sarah has now left, the final straw being when James forced her to use her voice against her wishes. They are having a clear the air conversation. Earlier in the play, Sarah explained to James that for her deafness is not the absence of hearing, rather “it’s a silence full of sound” and that nobody has ever met her in that place. Now at the end James admits to Sarah that “Your silence frightens me. When I am in that silence, I hear nothing. I feel like nothing.” Sarah replies that they “would have to meet in another place; not in silence or in sound but somewhere else”.
The play is better than the film. For me, the film failed to show the richness of sign language and how a Deaf person can live in a “silence full of sound”. The film focuses too much on deaf people using speech to get on in the hearing world, e.g. singing a song to impress hearing parents. In the film, the school is not sued by a lawyer for failing its students. James Leeds is too much of a hero in the film - his controlling nature is not highlighted.
If you are interested in exploring the topics raised in this play in more depth, I recommend that you read Harlan Lane’s ‘The Mask of Benevolence’....more
Disappointed in this Dummies textbook. It could have been a contender for best intro to BSL, but I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it.
GOOD POINTS IncluDisappointed in this Dummies textbook. It could have been a contender for best intro to BSL, but I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it.
GOOD POINTS Includes a CD-ROM with videos of short BSL exchanges. Videos are much better than pictures for showing BSL vocab. The videos are translated in strict BSL order which is helpful it seeing how BSL grammar is different from English. Gives useful information on Deaf culture and history. Phrases are clearly shown in BSL order, not English. And the equivalent English phrase is given as well, allowing students to compare.
BAD POINTS I thought the illustrations were too basic and lacked clarity. I spotted a few errors: For example, a direction sign the wrong way round, & the word 'camping' was drawn differently from how it was signed on the CD-ROM....more
I'm doing a BSL level 3 course at the moment and this book was so incredibly useful. It helped to clarify and organise the larger volume of vocab, graI'm doing a BSL level 3 course at the moment and this book was so incredibly useful. It helped to clarify and organise the larger volume of vocab, grammar and BSL concepts I'm currently absorbing. To somebody doing level 1 it will be a bit of an overkill, but I am able to pick up & understand my BSL level 3 much quicker due to this book. Strongly recommended to serious students of BSL....more
As a deaf person myself, I can appreciate that this isn't your standard show biz biography. Opportunities for a deaf person to rise to the top are rarAs a deaf person myself, I can appreciate that this isn't your standard show biz biography. Opportunities for a deaf person to rise to the top are rarer than a gold ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. And Marlee Matlin deserves enormous credit for grapping hold of her ticket to Fame and making the most of it, beginning with her visit to Betty Ford's Clinic to tame her drug addiction. She could have so easily squandered her chance. But she didn't. Well done, Marlee!
Personally I enjoyed the first part of her autobiography the most where she talks about growing up deaf in a family of hearing people, as I could relate to that. The frustration. The communication difficulties. And the chapters around her stormy relationship with William Hurt were also fascinating to me as the details were so brutally honest. Then the rest of her book is about her various film and TV projects along with her various boyfriends and later, her growing family life. I couldn't relate to that part as she lives in such a different world to mine. And I'm not particularly interested in Hollywood. But if you are, then you'd enjoy this part of the book as she writes candidly about the people she meets....more
This book is primarily about Jurgen Moltmann's ecclesiology (study of church) and how Deaf people would find it useful. It isn't a practical handbook This book is primarily about Jurgen Moltmann's ecclesiology (study of church) and how Deaf people would find it useful. It isn't a practical handbook on how to integrate Deaf people into church life, although the author has obviously got practical experience of doing this.
Moltmann is an enormously influential theologican and gets quoted all the time. I've only read a couple of his books and wasn't really aware of his ecclesiology so I found Roger Hitching's book filling in a gap in my theological knowledge. And I confess, I grew to like Moltmann's ecclesiology very much. Personally I dislike the hierarchical, power-based approach of most Christians towards church life and was pleased to find that Moltmann shares this dislike, and he bases this dislike his understanding of who God is and how God wants His followers to be like.
However, I know that many Christians will disagree with the theological conclusions presented in this book. Also I found it to be too theoretical and idealistic. Though I think the author's intention was to be inspiring. I don't think there is a single church that reflects the ecclesiology of Jurgen Moltmann! As a result, I'm not sure how useful Deaf Christians will find it. If you like theology for the sake of theology, then this will be a stimulating book to read. If you're a practical-type person looking for ways of doing - or "being" - church with signing Deaf people, then you'll need to find another manual to read. And to be honest, the author says as much this in the book....more
This was a fascinating book about sign language. A linguist by training, journalist Margalit Fox writes about a study of an isolated Bedouin village cThis was a fascinating book about sign language. A linguist by training, journalist Margalit Fox writes about a study of an isolated Bedouin village containing many deaf inhabitants. Spontaneously, without any outside input, a new signed language was created, proving that the human brain has an inbuilt "language program" and that language does not have to be spoken to be a proper language that uses those parts of the brain reserved for language.
If you enjoyed Oliver Sacks "Seeing Voices", then you'll enjoy this book too. For anybody who is not sure whether the hand movements and vivid facial expressions of Deaf people is a "proper" language as opposed to gesturing and pantomime, then this book proves conclusively that sign language is an equal to spoken language.
I strongly recommend this well written book which explains academic linguistic studies in a clear way for the layperson....more
The final words of this book capture the essence of what Raymond Luczak is saying about art, beauty and deafnes“Our hearts are the best ears we have.”
The final words of this book capture the essence of what Raymond Luczak is saying about art, beauty and deafness.
This book is an easy to read, but profound meditation, on appreciating art, being creative and Luczak's personal experiences of being a deaf gay writer.
There are 139 observations - some just a sentence or two, while the longest ones are a page or two. There are no complicated artistic theories to befuddle you here. Just honest and wise thoughts. Simple at times, but not simplistic. Spoken from the heart.
I found myself agreeing with the author's emphasis on the heart of the artist & the audience. I know from personal experience that when art provokes a deep emotional response in me, I am immeasurably enriched. Being clever isn't enough, though I do appreciate skill & intellect in art.
Finally, this isn't a book just for d/Deaf people, though deafness is a common theme in it. It is for anybody interested in art, being creative and alive....more
Like Harry Potter, this is a story charting the lives of children who are different from normal society growing up at an obscure boarding school. TherLike Harry Potter, this is a story charting the lives of children who are different from normal society growing up at an obscure boarding school. There is even a white stag involved. But that is where the similarities end. This story is a distillation of how profoundly deaf children have been (mal)treated by the educational system. Its essence is based on true accounts, but it has been blended and compressed into a fictional story. If you have ever been curious about deaf education, and wanted to know what it was like being a pupil inside it, then this would be an excellent book to read. For deaf people, they will find some of their own personal experiences, or experiences of friends and family, echoed in these pages - I know I did. The icing on the cake is that the bulk of the story is set in the 1970s, and for me it provoked nostalgic memories of Star Wars, 2000AD and FA Cup finals....more
But it was a difficult read on several levels. Firstly it is a big book, even if a third of it are just Reading this book has made me a better person.
But it was a difficult read on several levels. Firstly it is a big book, even if a third of it are just notes, references and an index. Secondly I found it upsetting at times reading the pain the children and parents went through. Thirdly it covers complex emotive material that I hadn't thought much about before so I had to pause and think deeply about what I was reading.
So pleased I put the effort in though. My psychologist used to say that understanding begets compassion. What Andrew Solomon does is act as a trustworthy guide to families who are different from "normal". People who we may find reprehensible as they are so unlike who we normally meet, such as schizophrenics, transgender, children of rape, disabled. I'm deaf myself, and the chapter on deaf children was brilliant. Andrew Solomon believes that by widening our minds to empathically understand children who are different, like their parents did (in most cases), we find our hearts are enlarged to love all people better. Understanding begets compassion.
And in turn, the world becomes a better place for us all, "normal" or not.
This is why I want as many people as possible to read this heavy tome....more
Didn't know what to expect from this book. Didn't have very high expectations. Had it on my shelf for weeks. Then yesterday I had a few spare minutes Didn't know what to expect from this book. Didn't have very high expectations. Had it on my shelf for weeks. Then yesterday I had a few spare minutes and thought I'd read a couple of chapters and then return to it next week or next month. No hurry to read it all. Instead I was hooked from the very first page and didn't put it down until I finished it this morning.
It's an autobiographical account of Joseph Valente a deaf kid growing up in the U.S. completely surrounded by hearing people. But it was like reading my own autobiography. The little private struggles I had and thought no-one would ever understand was appearing in the printed words in front of my eyes written by someone from a different country who I've never met. But Joe Valente was able to go beyond what I could have written in my autobiography by using at cultural & philosophical theories to explain why he (and I) felt so oppressed.
There were so many parallels between my life and Joe Valente's that I found the book to be very emotional, bringing back my own painful memories as I read of Joe's painful struggles. But there's the release that comes from realising that I'm not all alone on the world; that there are others who feel similarly to myself; that I'm not an alien deaf person. Thank you Joe....more
[I read the older 1992 edition.] It's very helpful read for people who don't realise that the Deaf have a very "different centre" for their values, exp[I read the older 1992 edition.] It's very helpful read for people who don't realise that the Deaf have a very "different centre" for their values, experiences and expectations from hearing people. So many sincere hearing people with good intentions actually make it worse because they're using a "different centre" - imposing their own cultural values and perspectives onto Deaf people....more
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