Kat's review
Seeing Voices
by Oliver W. Sacks
Kat,
Thanks for bringing Sacks' book to my attention. I first encountered his work when I was doing research on the "Awakenings" movie years ago and was fascinated by the same topics. There seems to be an ongoing dialogue/debate in academia about the primacy of language, whether thought can be prelingual, to what extent visual thinking can precede or vie with verbal thinking. I'm increasingly impressed by the role of the visual imagination, what might be called our "inner screen" (in contrast to Vygotsky's notion of "inner speech"), in critical and creative thinking. Please let us know if you come across any good books on this topic.
I think that he should change his name to Sax because it is a more melodic word, conjuring up an instrument and sounding less like something you carry home from Whole Foods. Other than that, on a serious note, I think that he has an awesome imagination and a rare ability to cogently impart info on scientific and medical research in a way that is never dry, arcane, or boring. One of the few Renaissance people in our midst who remains accessible, affable, humorous, and indefatigable. I'm still in the middle of this particular book, thanks to Kat's good prompting
years ago, i had an opportunity to work with deaf teenagers and was amazed at the 'deaf' culture. it is not 'just' a language but an entire way of being in a predominantly hearing world. unlike other disabilities, deaf people function in with their own language, have their own 'accents'... that blew me away.
There is also a strong movement not to integrate into the hearing world with technology like cochlear implants. so fascinating.
can i borrow this book from you if you have it?
I'm especially occupied with thoughts of how deaf people are not disabled at all when functioning within their own communities and how drastically this fact reverses when a deaf person is isolated in the hearing world. I can't think of anything else in life that is similar to this. I can understand not wanting to integrate into the hearing world and imagine that if I were deaf, I would want to live in a deaf nation. This reality is only sad for the hearing members of the family who are not part of that world.
Kat's review
Seeing Voices by Oliver W. Sacks
Kat's review
rating:
The subtitle of this book is: "A journey into the world of the deaf". Written in three parts at different points in Sacks' exposure and familiarity with deaf culture, it's filled with the perfect mixture of his pure human curiosity and his neurological expertise. It feels as if the reader is meant to learn along with Sacks as he explores the topic. He writes about the history of the treatment and education of deaf people, explaining how the non-deaf world's view of deafness and sign language has impacted generations. I was interested to learn about the advancement in educational and sign language opportunities for the deaf that came about at the turn of the century (inspired by a religious person’s desire to preach to and ‘save’ the deaf) and then shocked to learn about the terrible reversal in those opportunities that followed (and still follows, in a way, today). I really enjoyed reading about how hearing loss affects language development and a lot of the book is Sack...more
Kat,
Thanks for bringing Sacks' book to my attention. I first encountered his work when I was doing research on the "Awakenings" movie years ago and was fascinated by the same topics. There seems to be an ongoing dialogue/debate in academia about the primacy of language, whether thought can be prelingual, to what extent visual thinking can precede or vie with verbal thinking. I'm increasingly impressed by the role of the visual imagination, what might be called our "inner screen" (in contrast to Vygotsky's notion of "inner speech"), in critical and creative thinking. Please let us know if you come across any good books on this topic.
I think that he should change his name to Sax because it is a more melodic word, conjuring up an instrument and sounding less like something you carry home from Whole Foods. Other than that, on a serious note, I think that he has an awesome imagination and a rare ability to cogently impart info on scientific and medical research in a way that is never dry, arcane, or boring. One of the few Renaissance people in our midst who remains accessible, affable, humorous, and indefatigable. I'm still in the middle of this particular book, thanks to Kat's good prompting
years ago, i had an opportunity to work with deaf teenagers and was amazed at the 'deaf' culture. it is not 'just' a language but an entire way of being in a predominantly hearing world. unlike other disabilities, deaf people function in with their own language, have their own 'accents'... that blew me away.
There is also a strong movement not to integrate into the hearing world with technology like cochlear implants. so fascinating.
can i borrow this book from you if you have it?
I'm especially occupied with thoughts of how deaf people are not disabled at all when functioning within their own communities and how drastically this fact reverses when a deaf person is isolated in the hearing world. I can't think of anything else in life that is similar to this. I can understand not wanting to integrate into the hearing world and imagine that if I were deaf, I would want to live in a deaf nation. This reality is only sad for the hearing members of the family who are not part of that world.