cyborg_girl's Reviews (46)

How do I put this? There are little free libraries in my city and I grabbed this book thinking it was going to be a cute little adventure novel or something. No, no, it wasn't that. Alright that's fine, sometimes books aren't what you expect. Like, I read Orbital expecting an Apollo 13 type of story with a dash of science fiction - it wasn't that. I still found entertainment and value in the novel. So please do not assume that my very negative review is simply my poor reaction to reading something unexpected. It seemed like a conduit, a strange orientalist conduit, for the authors personal philosophy. Which more or less can be summarized as simply if you want something the universe gives it to you. Is that a philosophy I personally agree with? No. Is the overly simplistic philosophy the reason why I'm giving it a poor raiting? No. It's the delivery. It's overly saccharine and preachy.

It will be returned to the little free library outside, and it will not have a place in my personal collection.

Overall a very good book and it offered some interesting perspectives I never considered before, for example the the benefits of having disabled astronauts. I think this overall is something that any abled person should read especially if they're in the business of trying to provide technological solutions to the disabled populace. I also am inclined to believe that the parts discussing amputation are very accurate since the author herself has personal experience and the chapter on autism/neurodiversity I believe is pretty consistent with what my autistic friends have told me and my own experiences with ADHD. Unfortunately, I know a lot about being profoundly deaf and the experience of using a cochlear implant, which makes me a hard audience to write for regarding this stuff because I will look for and find inaccuracies. 

That being said, the only two negative points I can cite are; 
1. Referring to Hearing Happiness as a source on the matter of Cochlear Implants. Please see my review on this book, which will eventually have an essay attached breaking down the inaccuracies presented in the epilogue. However, I am thankful that the author cited Novic's True Biz which is an novel that is critical of Cochlear Implants, but provide criticisms that are very much factually accurate and rooted in reality!

2. Stating that congenitally deaf individuals do not experience motion sickness in reference to the Gallaudet 11. The fact is, all but one were deafened by spinal meningitis which took out both their cochleas and their vestibular system. On the other hand I was born deaf, and recently found to have a normal functioning vestibular system (I got to do a battery of *fun* tests) and I do rarely at times experience motion sickness.

Please excuse any typos as I wrote this on my phone.

As a Deaf reader this is a very interesting book and I know the author would absolutely hate my name sign (which was given to me by an elderly Deaf woman mind you). If anyone is interested in the linguistic and cultural context of name signs... Along with what is the platonic ideal of a name sign in AMERICAN Deaf culture is... This book is an excellent cursory overview. That being said, please keep in mind that other Deaf communities globally may veer to the more descriptive than the formula of "initial in their alphabet + a location on the signers upper body", and even the modern Deaf community doesn't follow those strict conventions. That being said the book does convey that a small segment sign names in American Deaf culture are descriptive.