Sound and Fury

What a clever little tlitle. This reminded me of the sort of documentary they'd make you sit through in health class. Maybe because it looks like it was filmed on Betamax and cut on a toaster. I imagine my 16 year old self being pretty fascinated by it and remembering it whenever I'd think about a cochlear implant.

I like the way the juxtaposed both family's decisions about the implant. It's a pretty controversial decision in general. But having that large family disagree so furiously over it was really compelling to see. Each had their point of view that was right in their eyes. Despite that last closing lines of the movie, I feel like they didn't much take a hard stance on the subject. Just let everyone speak their mind. As a viewer, though, I brought my own perspective to it and I saw in it what I wanted to see. That the hearing people were right and the deaf people were wrong.

This whole idea of it being good that you can't hear is controversial and very interesting, in general. As a hearing person, I of course am going to think that it's better to be able to hear. There are more opportunities afforded to hearing people. The world is built for hearing people. The world is easier to navigate as a hearing person. I can't wrap my head around the idea that it's better to not be afforded these opportunities. But I'm a hearing person so it's easy for me to not get it. I can get wanting to be who you are the way you were made and embrace that. You're a part of a community that you otherwise wouldnt' be. They don't want their community to go the way of the Natives and just get smaller and smaller...but it just seems too hard to have to live with. A difficulty you don't have to have.

When they got into it and they had the hearing parents where they just go ahead and get the implants for their kids and their kids don't know anything about the deaf lifestyle or identity or culture or community. That seems a little strange. That probably has something to do with the hearing parents, choosing the implant and giving their kid the opportunity to not have to learn how to sign. They use the excuse of saying a speech therapist said it was better not to learn it because they'll use it as a crutch. It seems more like they feel like it was implanted because it's bad to be deaf. I wouldn't say bad, more like different. The world handicap has such a band connotation. It's more like an impediment to all the possibilities and opportunities of the world.

Tricky subject.