Dear all:
I think this last post indicates to me at least that the official debate
has reached a logical or illogical conclusion. Thanks to all who allowed
(or tolerated) us to carry on this exhange for so long. I only hope that
it was of some use to the majority on the list.
At 10:00 PM 10/24/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>Lennard wrote:
>
>>First, on the de-contextualized quotation. I made the point in the opening
>>of Enforcing Normalcy: People commonly have seen disability as an
>>either/or...either you are disabled or you are not. I then spent the
>>entire book trying to disprove that generally held notion. You took the
>>line "either you are disabled or you are not" and said that I "suggested"
>>this as a viable statement. This is like taking the statement "Many Nazis
>>thought all Jews should be killed" and saying Davis suggests that "all Jews
>>should be killed." I don't know how to make this clearer. Perhaps at
>>least my point will be clear to other folks on this list. And since you
>>performed this act of decontextualized quotation in your book "Deaf and
>>Disabled" I still await a public apology for what can only be seen as a
>>serious and damaging distortion of the basic point of my book.
>
>Pardon? Are you demanding 'public' apologies of others who critique your
>work that is in the public domain. Am I so 'unaware' as an academic and a
>scholar, that somehow I've got lost in my understanding of academic study
>as being largely concerned with the business of scholarship and the
>critique of scholarship. Certainly, I'm not 'aware' of any critique that
>reproduces the whole text of someone else's work in order to retain the
>context and doesn't add any rejoinders. If you choose to critique my work,
>that's fine by me. However ...
>>
>>The problem here is that this list is incredibly underrepresented with Deaf
>>people. Are there any on this list who are sign-language users? You then
>>have come to represent and "explain" the politics of D/deafness to the rest
>>of list. You need to come clean on a couple of points. First, you need to
>>explain that your opinions are fairly eccentric (in the sense of being out
>>of the center) of mainstream Deaf activism. Therefore, you cannot
>>correctly convey the opinions of the majority of Deaf, activist sign
>>language users. Your subject position, as I understand it, is formed by
>>being a non-native signer. In addition, you are not profoundly deaf. I
>>may be wrong on this.
>>
>>Given the above, you've formed a position that is anti-Deaf (BD) as it is
>>defined by many influential Deaf writers, thinkers, and activists.
>>
>etc.. etc.
>
>... I will not dignify this with a response, except to suggest that you
>search the archives of the mailbase, and re-read Deaf and Disabled, where I
>have been very explicit about my self-identification and some of my
>background, and to say that the vast majority of deaf (SD) people inside
>and outside the Deaf (BD) community are non-native signers, being born to
>hearing families, and are not 'profoundly deaf'. Since you want levity (?)
>... my lawyers will be in touch!
>
>Best wishes
>
>
>Mairian
>
>
>
>
>Mairian Corker
>Senior Research Fellow in Deaf and Disability Studies
>Department of Education Studies
>University of Central Lancashire
>Preston PR1 2HE
>
>Fax +44 [0]870 0553967
>email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
Best,
Lennard J. Davis
Professor and Graduate Director
Department of English
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13902
607-777-2770 Fax: 607-777-2408
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|