Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #246506 in Books
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Fascinating overview of Deaf Culture
Oliver Sacks, the author of Awakenings, presents an overview of deafness and deaf culture. The book is written in three parts. Part 1 covers a history of deafness with the first deaf schools in France. The history examines the controversy between the oral method and sign language.

Part 2 extensively looks at sign as a distinct language with its own syntax and grammar.

Part 3 is an excellent synopsis of the 1988 uprising at Gallaudet University over the selection of a new president.

This book offers a fascinating overview of deaf culture by a talented writer.

Very insightful book
I loved this book by Oliver Sacks. He did an excellent job of introducing the deaf community and their fight for recognition. A must have for anyone in this field.

The Importance of Language
Seeing Voices gives a clear answer to the question, "Which comes first? Language or thought." The answer, "Language." As Sacks retells stories of the profoundly deaf deprived of "language" into early adulthood, the pattern emerges: Without language there is no abstraction, no ability to achieve love or communication, and all life becomes an inarticulate groaning to have basic needs met immediately. There is no sense of time - life becomes an eternal present. The discovery of language leads to intense sadness as one realizes the lonely prison they have been in. In a long life of reading, this is the first book I immediately re-read on completing it the first time.