Family Let me begin by saying I am already pretty obsessed with this book. So obsessed, I am writing about it at 12:45 on a Sunday night when I have appointments from 9-630 for myself tomorrow including conducting cognitive testing with an 8 year old boy who may have ADHD (hold on to your hats people). But this book just stays on my mind! It brings up some interesting and emotional ideas. It is also really long - so I am going to split this book up over several posts.
I am reading this book for the theme family and have been wanting to read this book since I listened to the author on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I once read in a newspaper for academics that to be a researcher you have to really love your research because it's likely that no one cares about it and above all, Terry Gross will never want to interview you, or something like that. I found it very hilarious and true at the same time. But, point being, this guy WAS interviewed by Terry Gross and I was pretty instantly hooked to his idea. I recall telling several people about it that day. But I didn't pick up the book until months later, and though it was on my list, it was pretty random that I did pick up the book when I did. So glad that I did now.
Chapters: Son, Deaf & Dwarves
The first chapter of this book, Son, sets out the premise of the book. The author outlines this with his idea of "vertical" and "horizontal" identities. Vertical identities are those we inherit and share with our parents, often these are also plainly visible. For example, race is a vertical identity. In contrast, horizontal identities may or may not be heritable but are likely NOT shared with your parents. For example, being gay or congenitally deaf. These conditions may have some heritability or genetic basis but it is pretty uncommon. There is also a lot in the first chapter about the author's own life and his context for writing this book. I could have lived without a lot of that stuff. Given that I had heard about this book on NPR I often found myself thinking, "let's get to the good stuff" while reading this chapter.
The second chapter is about being Deaf. This chapter very sensitively explores the Deaf identity and culture. I found the history of Deaf education quite remarkable and alarming. Not-so-fun-fact, not teaching Sign language early on in favor of an "oralist" only education can actually be a form of preventable mental retardation (intellectual disability is the preferred term now but the book used mental retardation specifically in that passage). I found this fact as well as some of the other ideas in this chapter quite profound in illustrating how much being social is part and parcel of our species. So much so that not being able to communicate could cause an intellectual disability. This really fits with a lot of recent research on human evolution, that is our ability to form groups and care for one another that allowed us to increase our cognitive capacity so rapidly. It also made me think of my dear cousin who has a severe developmental disability that has made her unable to ever talk (or Sign), I had always thought of how she is trapped within her own mind and though it had crossed my mind before that her inability to communicate slowed her down I never really painted out in those stark letters that it was part of WHY she is intellectually disabled.
This idea - of cognitive impairment because of inability to communicate - also really struck home the social isolation that being Deaf and isolated from language also would entail. A continuing theme of this book and one very present in the Deaf chapter is how pre-natal screening could "eliminate" this culture and way of being and is that for the better or for the worse. In the case of the Deaf community this is very interesting because this culture is SO developed. They have invented their own language for goodness sakes! Yet one cannot argue that being without hearing is not a significant obstacle, even if one that contributes to positive growth. It made me think about cultural evolution/revolution in general. How many cultures over time have been lost? Thousands I am sure (anthropologists please weigh in). Many of those were lost unfairly, such as many Native American cultures in the US purposefully eradicated. Yet some were lost through "normal" passage of time, the author gives the example of Eastern European Jewish, Yiddish-speaking immigrants of his father's generation in New York. It also made me think about the assumption that all cultures are valuable. I am not questioning the value of Deaf culture, especially given the history of Deaf culture's role in advocating for the education of Deaf people. But there are certainly some cultures that could do to evolve, for example our own culture very much tolerates violence against women (and lots of others), would we really miss that? But what else would change if that did? Surely that tendency doesn't exist in a vacuum.
The third chapter, the chapter I completed this evening, was about Dwarfism. I am still digesting this one a bit and dwarfism is striking in how much public "comment" it unwittingly invites upon those who are dwarves because of it's visual nature. The name itself is interesting - dwarf is in this case a medical condition and used in literature as a name for a small, magical person. Many people who would have this medical condition prefer the term Little Person and that is what is mostly used in this chapter. Little People face a different conundrum as their "disability", a somewhat contended issue, is almost purely physical. They think the same, share the same emotions, etc and in some ways this almost makes the physical conditions worse because they can be felt that much more acutely. There is also the tension of the "disabledness" of being a Little Person, most of the problem of daily living is environmental and thus can be adapted to/with so is it a true disability? However, one cannot dismiss the true LIMITATIONS of small stature and often associated orthopedic, respiratory, and neurological difficulties. Especially in this chapter the personal growth achieved by the parents of Little People was striking - so many of these parents faced up to the challenge and felt they were better for having done it. Which I think is quite profound, part of the human condition AND probably true of any parent in some way.
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