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Title: Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0-375-70407-8 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.31 (13 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Parent who used cueing method very successfully
Comment: Seeing Voices is a useful source of information on the history of sign, the Deaf community, and the development of language in children. At times, however, I found myself in a love-hate relationship with it, because for all Sacks has done, he has left much undone. The book is composed of three long essays describing, in turn: the history of deaf people, the power of sign language, and the Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University. The middle essay examines the beautiful, expressive language of Sign, which was described by Dr. William Strokes as a true language only in the 1960s. Sacks calls this essay "the heart of the book" -- his most personal yet comprehensive examination of the deaf world. As I read it, I began to mark passages that were unsupported by references or were in direct disagreement with my own experience and study. At first the marks were seldom, but by the end of the essay, they were frequent.
My problems with the book seemed to have a common theme: Having guided us this far and identified ASL as a language for people who are deaf, he veers off into the flawed conclusion that it is THE ONLY language for them.
For example, Sacks describes seperate encounters with two children, a five-year-old who cues and a six-year-old who signs. He uses different standards to evaluate their different methods of communication. In doing so, he is guilty of the same misperception he accuses much of the hearing world of having about people who are deaf -- he judges what the two youngsters know by the ease with which he can communicate with them. He evaluates the cueing child by the quality of her speech, but evaluates the signing child by his language.
It is curious that someone so experienced and perceptive could be so cavalier in his appraival of deaf communication.
Seeing Voices is an important book that makes much of the deaf culture visible to the general public. It argues convincingly that ASL is the language of that culture. But it is ultimately a love story. Sacks has fallen in love with sign language, and in his case, love is blind.
Rating: 4
Summary: Pretty good, but with evident flaws
Comment: I have to admit, I was "forced" to read Sacks' book for my Cognition class in university this past year. However, once I started getting into the book, it actually became a joy to read as Sacks poured his enthusiasm and wonder about the world of the deaf onto every page. I was soon finished and looking forward to the paper I was required to write on the book. However, as noted in many other comments, the long footnotes were incredibly distracting, many of them turning over for three pages, after which it was necesaary to go back and re-read everything you'd just finished looking at in the main article. His repetition at the beginning and end of the book also got annoying. On the whole, though, I quite enjoyed Oliver Sacks' book and am interested in reading more of his works now.
Rating: 4
Summary: A fascinating glimpse into the world of the deaf
Comment: I've read most of Oliver Sack's books and this one is perhaps my favorite. While I am not deaf myself and cannot begin to comprehend the complexities of living in a world that in so aural-dependent, I think Sacks has done an excellent job of introducing the layman to the world of the Deaf. This book is part a scientific exploration and part social history. It is probably incomplete as one previous reviewer indicated but I don't think that Sacks meant for the book to be a comprehensive history of the Deaf, nor a complete medical look at deafness. I found the book to be fascinating and , like most of the author's books, left me wanting to know more about the subject.
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Title: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat : And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0684853949 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 02 April, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0375700730 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: An Anthropologist On Mars : Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0679756973 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 February, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Migraine by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 037570406X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Awakenings by Oliver Sacks ISBN: 0375704051 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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