(Reproduced from my original review on Goodreads, June 28, 2010.)
Seeing
Voices was originally published in 1989. That was a big in-between year
for the deaf. In 1988 Gallaudet students successfully pushed for a deaf
president of the university. And in 1990, the Americans with
Disabilities Act would be signed into law.
As for me, in 1989 I was three years old. I had not yet been
diagnosed with my own hearing loss. I had no idea who Oliver Sacks was,
what "deafness" means, where Gallaudet is, or what American Sign
Language is. Two years later my worried parents and grandparents would
hear that I have a progressive sensorineural hearing loss, which began
as a mild loss and has since progressed to a severe loss in one ear and a
profound loss in the other.
Since I was "mainstreamed" as a child - educated without special
education classes in a typical public school environment - I essentially
knew nothing of other deaf people except Helen Keller. It was only when
I began to take American Sign Language courses from the local community
college (to avoid having to take two years of a spoken foreign
language, which just confused me) that I learned of a Deaf culture, a
Deaf identity, and the struggle that Deaf people have faced over
hundreds of years. In that class I watched videos and read books and
learned about the culture from my Deaf professor. And I learned American
Sign Language.
ASL is an interesting language. Although it is functionally very
beautiful, with flowing hands and a rhythm all its own, it can be
off-putting to people not used to it. The gestures can be forceful
(depending on the meaning behind the sign). Facial expressions are
exaggerated along with the signing. Deaf people can be pushy: putting
themselves directly in your line of sight, smacking you on the arm to
get your attention, waving their hands all up in the air. So it was kind
of uncomfortable at first. But there is something about sign language
that draws you in. It feels right when you sign, even if you are
hearing. It feels like you are just learning another skill, not another
language.
I picked up this book because I've read Oliver Sacks' books before
and never realized he'd published one about Deafness and Sign. And
because I have a blog, Hearing Sparks,
and wanted to write about this book for it, so that people know if they
ought to pick it up. I think I will publish both this review and some
more in-depth blog posts about the subjects touched upon by the author
there.
Sacks splits his book up into three parts, which were all written at different times.
Part 1 is a cohesive and very readable history of deaf people as
well as information about deafness (both medical and cultural) and
Sacks' own introduction to the world of the deaf. We learn in school
about history from the point of view of American colonists (if we are
American) and slaves, basically. Reading about decades passing from the
viewpoint of the deaf introduces not only a third viewpoint but the idea
that there are many other viewpoints from which history could be told.
In this chapter, Sacks draws a line between prelingually and
postlingually deaf. The postlingually deaf are relatively often the most
successful deaf people, because they have the memory of spoken
language, grammar, sentence structure. Prelingually deaf people face
challenges distinct to them, and forcing spoken language on them can
lead to unforeseen consequences.
Sacks' position on oral vs. signed education for the deaf is subtly
introduced in this part. He isn't forceful or annoying with his
position; he simply lays out the way Sign is beneficial for the deaf,
particularly prelingually deafened individuals. He closes with a visit
to Martha's Vineyard, where nearly one in every family on the island was
affected by deafness and every single individual knew Sign, deaf or
not. (The knowledge of Sign drifted away as Martha's Vineyard became
focused on tourism.)
Part 2 is a systematic view of American Sign Language itself and the
way people naturally create grammar and syntax from essentially
nothing. This is the longest chapter, and unfortunately suffers from an
excess of footnotes and a rather dry tone. As usual, Sacks shines when
writing about individuals, and the case studies he recounts in this
chapter are very interesting. He quite easily demonstrates that American
Sign Language is a full-fledged language in its own right, and
demonstrates how languages are developed.
Part 3 was the most interesting chapter for me. Sacks details the
1989 student revolt at Gallaudet for a deaf president. He was there, and
his writing about the sense of community at the college and the fervor
the students felt is very interesting. The protest culminated in the
appointment of King Jordan, whose resignation in 2005 would lead to
further controversy when the board tried to appoint someone who was not
fluent in ASL - only this time the protests also occurred online.
Overall, although parts of Sacks' books are now quite dated, it's
still a very interesting read. Sacks does a good job of bringing
together a lot of viewpoints, a lot of individuals, and a lot of ideas,
and making them all fit together.
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