Imagine: Ear vs. Eye. Eyeth vs. Earth. Eyeth is an Utopian planet designed for easy visual access where the majority are deaf. It’s a myth… but how would you design accessibility for a hearing visitor on eyeth? 

…amazing think-tank nourishment. 

The first half is SO GOOD!! Raises issues. Raises awareness. Educates. Empowers.

Second half… well, I was waiting for continued education and further insight…some depth… Instead, this novel …raises more issues… but it merely paints a thin first coat over everything and never finishes the paint job—never digs any deeper into any of these issues, just plops them angrily on the table in a justified teenage outrage, and then moves on to the next issue…as if all discussion, any sort of compromise, the possibility of increasing understanding, and the chance of working towards resolution would all be an offence to those involved with or touched by the issues. Unfortunately, that implies that the one raising the awareness on these important issues would prefer to be left clinging defensively to the issues, using them as a shield against interaction that might bring reconciliation and comprehension, against anything that might promote equality for all participants and conditions for an equitable life in this unfair world. In a way, she cuffs the hands (potential voice) of everyone else at the table... 

To <i>choose</i> silence is preferable to having silence thrust upon you. However, the <i>way</i> science and hearing people have gone about ‘helping’ —even with their best of the best intentions—is more the problem than the actual science of creating possibilities to hear where hearing is absent. But in the novel, some characters hint that as a Deaf/deaf/hard of hearing person, they’d prefer never to have hearing than to have partial hearing or to have science restore their hearing in any way. Is this true…? I asked my hard-of-hearing father and he says he’d much rather have his hearing restored. But then he’s only been small-d deaf for half of his life and never learned ASL or how to cope without his hearing aids. He just constantly says “pardon?” like a mantra, often before you even finish your sentence cos he hasn’t noticed you’re talking to him till halfway through. Now, I can certainly understand how anyone would prefer silence over being subjected to cult-obsessed freaks pouring hot oil in their ears or the tinny headache-inducing side effects of cochlear implants(!!!). But if there’s a way that science could improve hearing which didn’t involve pain and humiliation…? Is there no chance for it ever being accepted…?

In the novel, she compares a hearing family disappointed by the birth of a deaf child—and doing all they can to provide a life without additional struggle for their child—to a family with a history of deafness disappointed by the birth of a hearing child and several members rejoicing with relief when baby girl loses the little hearing she’s born with. Something just doesn’t sit right with that…I can appreciate having special empathy because of a shared condition/situation or a similarity. Doesn’t mean I wish a disadvantage on anyone so they can understand any kind of thing I’ve experienced.

The author opens many cans of worms and lets them wriggle all over the table until they become a blended mess of issues and no one can tell where one begins —and no resolution is available. I think, maybe, that might be kind of her point: to beg that everyone just please leave it all a ‘mess’ (she does admit to messes) and stop trying to fix things, stop trying for resolution. Okay. I can live with the ‘stop fixing stuff’ cos that’s a problem Wealthy Able-bodied Westerners tend to have: the guilt-laden sense of obligation to fix the ‘problems’ of the world they perceive beyond their doorstep (yes, ignoring the ones under carpets in their own homes). But how do we <i>all</i> adapt? Public adaptation is necessary, and needs to happen—accessibility is not even a question, it’s a must—but how do we live in a global community without returning to the segregation of 100 years ago (what Alexander Graham Bell was fighting <i>against</i>; he fought <i>for</i> the inclusion of blind-deaf people, that they be recognised and accepted as contributing members of society rather than ‘freaks fit for the asylum’ as was the common treatment in his day, sad to say—no doubt Bell made mistakes and tripped over his own good intentions under scrutiny, but it was with good intentions according to the knowledge he possessed at the time that he made the effort—see Helen Keller’s biography. Everything has a context. We can’t judge the people of history on the knowledge we’ve discovered and acquired since their time…)? This novel, on the back of harsh criticism of Bell, seems to promote a wilful return to the segregation of deaf community. Maybe I’ve misunderstood, cos that just doesn’t sound at all like the right idea in a world where we’re doing our best to <i>break down<\i> barriers and find ways to reconcile and live in harmony—no one should be left on the fringes. 

I have a lot more to say, but will just finish with: this is a GOOD NOVEL. I want to put it on my Grade 11 curriculum; it’s teeming with discussion points and life-lessons and flexible moral grey areas. BUT she’s tried to squeeze too much into this one novel… way too much in far too few pages. In order to do justice to each of these important intersectional issues, we need more—far more—otherwise they are reduced to a simple head nod to a massive issue—and in that way they are reduced to a tool, something ‘used’ in order to boost ratings. Cringe. Cos that sounds... well, <i>reads</i>—not good. And yet, she’s raised the issues and created awareness. So, that’s a positive where knowledge might potentially have been previously lacking.

Alllll this to say I think she had (has??) a series of really good stuff on her hands (Kayla, February’s story, others) but seems she was coerced into jamming it all into one average sized novel (I’m blaming an editor). I want SO MUCH MORE out of this—and ugh! it’s like reading a magazine article summarising The History of Civilisations when what you want is the Masters level degree course…this feels like the bare-bones introduction…

Gimme more!! If we’re reading this novel, we’re ready for it!!