Visual Instincts

I first saw the show Characterful & Joymonger, in its edited version on the ABC, over a week ago. I assumed it would be a one off broadcast of a live show by one of my favourite comedians, Adam Hills. Imagine my joy when a search on the ABC site for information about the program, revealed that it was out on DVD.

Adam Hills is an Australian comedian, best known for his work on the music trivia show, Spicks and Specks. Not only is Adam a big hearted, good natured comedian, unafraid of diversity, watch any of his DVD’s or TV’s shows to witness the fact [and how much he actually loves people], he is also “Deaf Aware”.

He often has a sign interpreter at some of his shows. Characterful & Joymonger [the DVD] not only features a sign language interpreter, whom we see often, but…… but Adam incorporates her into his show, drawing the audiences attention to her, giving the audience a bit of Deaf Awareness, publicly showing his appreciation of her work, and making her repeat signs for the rude words. Yes, I know it is the usual Hearing thing to be fascinated by linguistic differences in swearing, but Adam is a big hearted guy who does it in a genuine spirit of curiosity and good natured humour.

As with any DVD, there are extras, and they are worth viewing. Especially the backstage shenanigans that feature the said sign language interpreter, and asking an elderly member of the audience of she was OK with his swearing. Her blithe reply was, “She’s heard worse.” Summat like that. AND the exchange with someone he thought was Deaf but turned out to be another sign language interpreter.

But what sets Characterful & Joymonger apart from the plethora of captioned and subtitled DVD’s, is the use of invision [ I think I got that right. Correct me in the comments, if I got that wrong] to bring up the sign interpreter in a separate window. I was gobsmacked to see this feature. I would have been content with the captions, as I love watching this guy.. but the addition of invision raised my estimation of him.

I hope he continues to make all his work as accessible as possible.

This is a double thumbs up for the man! Now go buy the DVD. HERE!

During October 2008, 17 to 31, New South Wales Association of The Deaf [NSWAD], staged a Deaf Arts Festival, during what has become National Week Of Deaf People [NWDP] – if I got this wrong, you can correct me.

The Deaf Arts Festival has been running for a few years now, and its focus is the visual arts. Admittedly, I went along with the expectation of something big and exciting. This is not to say I was disappointed, but, yeah, I was expecting more.

Still, two works blew me away. The first one [can't help but catch your eye as you walk into the exhibition] a mural of the Auslan Alphabet.

Too big for such a small space. It really needs to be out there where the public can see it. Such as this. To give you some idea of its size, here’s a picture taken at the opening:

The other work was a short film by Phillip Debs [whom I know from years back] a photographer and filmmaker. The piece that was submitted is called “Torture”, and according to a friend, was filmed using a mobile phone.

I’m trying to get hold of the original footage, and maybe samples of his other work [which, if are as good as this, we are looking at a Deaf Tarantino!]. Where many Deaf are content to explore themes that stay on the nice side of the visual experience, “Torture” is sharp, taut, aggressive and in your face [perhaps that's why it appealed to me].  Which is a nice contrast to all this nicety that threatens to overwhelm.

I know there are many talented Deaf artists out there, but Phillip Debs, is the first [in a long time, that I've seen] that pitches his work, both stylistically and intellectually on par with Hearing artists.

I would have loved to present you with more photos from the exhibition, but alas, my lazy arse prevented me from giving into my motivation! But I managed to salvage two more decent images from the NSWAD newsletter Silent Messenger.

PLEASE NOTE:

All images by NSWAD, and were extracted from the newsletter Silent Messenger [which was in PDF form].

I’ve finally finished reading Deaf Sentence by David Lodge, and I have to say that I enjoyed reading it very much.

I admit that I approached this book with much trepidation, expecting yet another one of those awful whinging, existential ridden angst about the disabling plight of hearing impairment commonly found amongst the unenlightened [that is, hearing people] and other pseudo liberals and intellectuals who tend the vegetable patch in the town village.

The story is essentially about:

..one man’s effort to come to terms with deafness, ageing and mortality, and the comedy and tragedy of human lives. When the university merged his Department of English with Linguistics, Professor Desmond Bates took early retirement, but he is not enjoying it. He misses the routine of the academic year and has lost his appetite for research. His wife Winifred’s late-flowering career goes from strength to strength, reducing his role to that of escort, while the rejuvenation of her appearance makes him uneasily conscious of the age gap between them. The monotony of his days is relieved only by wearisome journeys to London to check on his aged father who stubbornly refuses to leave the house he is patently unable to live in with safety.

Of which the central character’s, Desmond, deafness is but a minor detail. The best way to approach this book, is to ignore any publicity blurb that portrays its own juvenile posturing on deafness as an affliction:

But these discontents are nothing compared to the affliction of hearing loss — a constant source of domestic friction and social embarrassment, leading Desmond into mistakes, misunderstandings and follies. It might be comic for others, but for the deaf person himself, it is no joke. It is his deafness which inadvertently involves Desmond with a young woman whose wayward behaviour threatens to destabilize his life completely.

Publicity that comes complete with some rather lame jokes, “Come again? You don’t have to be hard of hearing to enjoy David Lodge’s latest novel,”

I don’t want to dwell on the shenanigans that arise from being Deaf/deaf in a hearing world. Those are familiar enough to us who are actually Deaf or deaf. Or the lame jokes about deafness [and not hearing], that the mainstream publicity machine churns out, of which some of us Deafies [and deafies?] can actually write better ones. Which even David managed in Deaf Sentence, with much wit and panache.

If it wasn’t for the deafness theme, I don’t think I would have bothered to read any of David Lodge’s books, which for some reason I was avoiding, even though I have four of them: A David Lodge Trilogy: Changing Places – Small World – Nice Work and Therapy. In this case, a familiar topic or theme served as an introduction to a good writer and good writing.

Without the central character’s deafness, the story would be a run of the mill tale about one man’s effort to come to terms with deafness, ageing and mortality, and the comedy and tragedy of human lives. In this book, deafness gives the reader a different perspective through which to view life, ageing, and mortality.

What the hearing reviews have ignored [the ones that I have read] is the culpability of the hearing response to the central character’s deafness. By blaming deafness for the breakdowns in communication, misunderstandings, and changes in relationships, the issue of hearing people’s own unwillingness to adapt to deafness [in a loved one or otherwise] is conveniently sidestepped.

Yet while David dramatises deafness as the cause of personal and social estrangement, and makes some rather illuminating observations, his solutions are technology, shouting to make oneself heard, or the clichéd lipreading classes, he inadvertently illustrates quite starkly, how hearing people can be quite unwilling to adapt to the changes demanded by deafness, and how the responsibility for resolving the “problem” of deafness is solely that of the person who is deaf. So, it is the deaf person who has to wear the hearing aids, it is the deaf person who has to make the greater effort at communication, it is the deaf person who has to attend lipreading classes, it is the deaf person this and it is the deaf person that, and it is the deaf person who is taken for the fool in communication breakdowns and misunderstandings.

The unfortunate thing about Deaf Sentence, is that it does not explore the issue of deafness beyond the clichéd and stereotypical. It is content to wallow in the shallow waters of assumed knowledge [pandering, but never challenging]. It is David’s story, and he is the author, and the choices are his to make. But it would be interesting to see if deafness is a one off theme, or if it will feature in his future work.

Further Reading:

• BOOK: Deaf Sentence – David Lodge P2
• BOOK: Deaf Sentence – David Lodge
• The Tree Of Life, The Fruit Of Knowledge, Of Good & Evil
• The Tree Of Knowledge
• The Idol-Maker: David Lodge – Deaf Sentence
• David Lodge: Deaf Sentence (forthcoming book)
• Whose Story is It Anyway?