Deafness

Hearing loss, deafness, hard of hearing, anacusis, or hearing impairment (a term considered derogatory by many in the deaf community), is a partial or total inability to hear.

American Sign Language is naturally big and expressive. But some officers mistake it as wild or aggressive. ~ Nyle DiMarco

Father Mulcahy: Dear Lord I know there must be a reason for this. But what is it? I answered the call to do your work. I've devoted my life to it, and now how am I supposed to do it? Lord, what good am I now? What good is a deaf priest? I've prayed to you to help me and every day I get worse. Are you deaf too? ~ Alan Alda, Burt Metcalfe, John Rappaport, Dan Wilcox & Thad Mumford, Elias Davis & David Pollock, Karen Hall, Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen", M*A*S*H

Quotes

• Father Mulcahy: Dear Lord I know there must be a reason for this. But what is it? I answered the call to do your work. I've devoted my life to it, and now how am I supposed to do it? Lord, what good am I now? What good is a deaf priest? I've prayed to you to help me and every day I get worse. Are you deaf too?
  • Alan Alda, Burt Metcalfe, John Rappaport, Dan Wilcox & Thad Mumford, Elias Davis & David Pollock, Karen Hall, "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen", M*A*S*H, (February 28, 1983).

• Pozzo:  [suddenly furious]  Have you not done tormenting me with your accursed time!  It's abominable!  When!  When!  One day, is that not enough for you, one day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you?  [calmer]  They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.
  • Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Act II (1952).

• Like the majority of deaf people, I don't like blind people much.
  • Luis Buñuel, My Last Sigh.

• When the imagination sleeps, words are emptied of their meaning: a deaf population absent-mindedly registers the condemnation of a man.  … there is no other solution but to speak out and show the obscenity hidden under the verbal cloak.
  • Albert Camus, Reflections on the Guillotine (1957); later included in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1960).

• I figured I could get a job at a filling station somewhere, putting gas and oil in people's cars.  I didn't care what kind of job it was, though.  Just so people didn't know me and I didn't know anybody.  I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.  That way I wouldn't have to have any goddamn stupid useless conversations with anybody.  If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me.  They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life.  Everybody'd think I was just a poor deaf-mute bastard and they'd leave me alone.
  • Holden Caufield]], in J. D. Salinger, Chapter 25 of The Catcher in the Rye (1951).

• Il ne voit que la nuit, n'entend que le silence.
  • He sees only night, and hears only silence.
  • Jacques Delille, Imagination, IV.

• Now, as a cadet, your training barely covered the importance of how to interact with America's one million Deaf citizens.
• American Sign Language is naturally big and expressive. But some officers mistake it as wild or aggressive.
• Many Deaf people can't read or write English fluently because of 'language deprivation.
  • Nyle DiMarco, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, ((January 30, 2019); qtd. in Monica Hunter-Hart, “Samantha Bee's "Deaf Lives Matter" Segment Addresses A Problem That’s Often Overlooked”

• Deaf people reading lips is an impossibility. There's no way. It's something hearing people dreamt up. It's too easily misunderstood.
  • Opal Gordon, [[Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, ((January 30, 2019),qtd. in Monica Hunter-Hart, “Samantha Bee's "Deaf Lives Matter" Segment Addresses A Problem That’s Often Overlooked”

• None so deaf as those that will not hear.
  • Matthew Henry, Commentaries, Psalm LVIII.

• Who is so deaf as he that will not hear?
  • George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651).

• God:  Moses, this is the Lord, thy God, commanding you to obey my law.  Do you hear me?
  Moses:  Yes, I hear you, I hear you...a deaf man could hear you!
  God:  What?!
  Moses:  Nothing, forget about it, Oh Lord!  Why have you chosen me?  What would you have me do for you?
  • History of the World: Part I (1981).

• Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
  • Isaiah 35:5.

• The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex, if not more important, than those of blindness.  Deafness is a much worse misfortune.  For it means the loss of the most vital stimulus — the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man.
  • Helen Keller, letter to Dr. James Kerr Love (1910), published in Helen Keller in Scotland: a personal record written by herself (1933), edited by James Kerr Love.  Paraphrasing of this statement may have been the origin of a similar one which has become attributed to her:

Blindness cuts us off from things, but deafness cuts us off from people.

• See also FAQ at Gallaudet University

• He cannot hear the skylark sing,
  The music of the wild bee’s wing;
  The murmur of the plaining bough ;
  A gentle whisper fairy low;
  The noise of falling waters near—
  All these have left his mournful ear.
  • Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 (1831), 'The Deaf Schoolmaster'

• After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means "Be opened!"). At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. "He has done everything well," they said. "He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."
  • Book of Mark, 7:24-30 (NIV).

• Cha vel fer erbee cha bouyr, as eshyn nagh jean clashtyn.
  • Manx proverb
  • Translation: None is so deaf as the one who will not hear.
  • Moore (1971). The Folk-lore of the Isle of Man. S. R. Publishers. p. 259. 

• In rage, deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act I, Scene I

• Pleasure and revenge
  Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice
  Of any true decision.
  • William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida (c. 1602), Act II, scene 2, line 171.

• O, that men's ears should be
  To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!
  • William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date uncertain, published 1623), Act I, scene 2, line 256.

• They never would hear,
  But turn the deaf ear,
  As a matter they had no concern in.
  • Jonathan Swift, Dingley and Brent.

• Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow
  What you need is someone strong to guide you
  • Tool, "Opiate," Opiate (1992).

• It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world.  My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.  If one can only see things according to one's own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind.
  • Robert Anton Wilson, in "Robert Anton Wilson : Searching For Cosmic Intelligence" - interview by Jeffrey Elliot (1980).

See also

• Hearing
• Silence