Visual Instincts

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?

For someone who has lived with deafness all my life, I found myself in two frames of mind when I was writing The Idol-Maker: David Lodge – Deaf Sentence, [originally for All The Young Dudes]. I was, still am, in agreement with David Lodge’s descriptions of his deafness and the shenanigans resulting from misunderstandings, not hearing certain sounds, and communication breakdowns. However, upon reading The following pronouncement:

However, deafness restricts and thins out the supply of new ideas and experience on which the novelist depends to create his fictions. That former nun’s life story might have been priceless “material” and I regret its loss. I miss opportunities to eavesdrop on humanly revealing conversations on buses and in shops and to keep up with new idioms, coinages and catch-phrases that give flavour and authenticity to dialogue in a novel of contemporary life. Living under a deaf sentence

my eyes turned bloodshot, and I began to metamorphose into a raging fiend. All I needed was a full moon and the transformation would have been complete.

I have grown up with deafness, and I can refute this statement. As an artist, who has grown up with deafness, I can refute this statement. Indeed, there are many more Deaf artists, who can also refute this statement.

David Lodge is a well regarded writer, critic and Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham, England. My difficulty lies with the fact that the man is experienced, talented, well read and erudite, and for all his worldly knowledge and experience, his observations are very much informed by the Hearing view of deafness. The Medical Model. The Disability Model. An unyielding, hegemonic, view that emphasises the lack of, and does not see any other possibility of being, or any other experience that is the equal of Hearing.

David’s deafness is a personal experience [as it is for the rest of us] and his journey is a personal one [as it is for the rest of us]. Where some people seek counselling, and others remain stoic in the face of adversity, David has chosen to explore his experience via the medium of writing [literature].

This I can understand, because one of the reasons I blog/ write, is to explore ideas, situations, and scenarios, in a private space that is unseen by outsiders, lest what I have chosen to reveal. More than an act of expression, more than an act of creation, more than an act of communication, and more than an addition to the cultural oeuvre, writing [or indeed, the act of creation], allows us, the author [artist], to understand ourselves, our world and other people better. Even come to terms with things or events beyond our control. For some of us, it is simply therapy. Vent, vent, rage and vent!

The question then is, what is the source material for an artist’s work? The source and the inspiration are varied. For many, we, ourselves, are our source. We choose our own lives, background, interests, culture, et al, as our source material. And to this end, deafness, is ripe for artistic treatment. To this end, I’m not exactly a fan of “the becoming deaf rites of passage” story. They do serve their purpose, I don’t disagree. But as a Deaf person, I crave for more, which is why I am extremely ambivalent about purchasing a copy of Deaf Sentence, thought I may cave in at some point.

For David, the exploration of his deafness, in his new book, Deaf Sentence, would be a natural progression of his work as a writer. For fans of his books, and especially those who follow his work assiduously, the subject would be interesting, regardless of which model or view of deafness prevails. Or whether the subject has been done justice. The interest is in the artist’s next book, song, record, sculpture, painting, photograph, blog post, et al.

Unfortunately, David does the craft of writing, and the act of creation a great disservice when he opines that:

“……deafness restricts and thins out the supply of new ideas and experience on which the novelist depends to create his fictions.”

If anything, life would have taught him to every ying, there is a yang, and to every yang, there is a ying. The statement betrays an ignorance that is quite breathtaking, but not unusual for hearing people to make. To be fair, unless you have experienced deafness, indeed, Deafness, how can you know otherwise.

I was there too, once! I like where I am now, better!

While deafness, does cut us off from the hearing world, or more accurately, the aural world, it does not, as David seems to believe, restrict or thins out the supply of new ideas. Far from it. The source of material, and inspiration for works, are only as limited as the limits the artist themselves impose. Yes, an artist’s chosen material presents problems and issues they must grapple with, in order to create a work that can be enjoyed, but that is different to the idea that deafness restricts and thins out the supply of ideas.

What deafness does is, it proposes a re-orientation of the world as described by hearing people. It provides insights unseen by the hearing. It provides experiences hitherto accessible. It debunks the long held belief of calamity and sorrow that befalls those who lose their hearing. And it lays down a challenge to the hegemony of one sense [hearing] over the other four [sight, touch, smell, and taste]. Pertinent, deafness [indeed, becoming deaf] presents new knowledge. From this new knowledge, comes new ideas, and new material, and new works.

David becoming deaf, does not detract from his life as a hearing person. The knowledge and experience that he has accumulated over the course of his life, is not rendered meaningless by his deafness. As I have said in the previous paragraph, his deafness presents him with new knowledge and new experiences. Indeed, new challenges, both as an artist and as a person.

And that is the challenge for David the writer [artist], and the person. Once he has expressed the angst the sea change that deafness engenders, will he remain within the medical/ disability model? Will his explorations lead him down paths hitherto untravelled? Will he come to a better understanding of deafness? Will he come to view the hearing world differently? Will he come to see alternatives other than technology for deafness? Will he come to see deafness as a viable state of being? Or will he and his artistry, languish in the echoes of a time long gone?

Further Reading:

The Idol-Maker: David Lodge – Deaf Sentence
David Lodge: Deaf Sentence