Angels and Outcasts : An Anthology of Deaf Characters in Literature

Muted Voices

• Muted Voices • ML1fed Voices by 6L1gene Relgis EDITORS' PREFACE In this chapter from Relgis' fictionalized autobiography, we see Miron (Relgis' stand-in) experiencing the first day in the world as a deaf person. The prose reflects the disorientation that one experiences with the loss ofhearing. Miron's former friends, seeing him acting in a strange way, begin to attack him as beasts of prey would a wounded game animal, and it is Miron's reaction to his torment that provides the high point of this chapter. Miron reacts in a way that is similar to the reactions of other deaf characters included in this anthology, be they fictional or biographical characters, and in a way that we have pointed to consistently-it is the reaction of proud and angry defiance. From the story at the beginning of the book by de Musset, where we find some sense of defiance toward the feelings of isolation and frustration of exclusion from so many things , to the story of the talking horse near the end of the book, where Abramowitz rebels in the end to set himself free, from start to finish and everywhere in between there is defiance-the refusal to buckle under, the upwelling of human dignity, the choice of freedom over victimization. Arguing for defiance is the one most consistent theme in the book, and the reaction that all authors seem to point to as the solution to affliction of all sorts. As Hemingway has pointed out, man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated . It is this rebellious spirit that we find in Gerasim, in Gargan, in Ballin, in Wiggins, in Kitto, and in Relgis (via 307 • From DeafAuthors • Miron). Miron is taunted, physically abused, is down on the ground, his head in a swirl, tears in his eyes, caught in a nightmare of horrors, yet he rebels defiantly, stands and walks away with his head in the air. It is this spirit which is the salvation ofall deafpeople (Defoe's deafhero Duncan Campbell had it in large measure as does Sampson Trehune, the deaf detective in The Acupuncture Murders). It is this spirit that modern authors see as the salvation ofall people living in our time, and it is for this reason, perhaps, that deaf characters have grown so numerous in the last quarter century. FROM MUTED VOICES • THE TEARS OF REVIVAL • From the threshold ofthe door Miron gazes into the street. Supported on one hand, his head a little bowed, he remains as though on the edge of a precipice, hesitating to go on. The street frightens him. It no longer wears its former pleasant aspect; the houses no longer have their air of familiarity with indulgent or smiling aspects; the gates seem severe, isolating the flowering gardens; the orchards heavy with fruit where together with his playmates he gave free course to his illusions and his ectasies. He 'glances to the left-and the facades of the houses seem like the dams of some dried-up, dusty canal, burying itself among other he~ps of somber masses above which the sterile hill sheds rivers ofpulverized stone. He looks to the right-and, over the street he sees the vault of the foliage of chestnut-trees. A green confusion; the jumbled sensation becomes irritating when his glance settles upon the large waves of the beech-wood, beyond the horizon; and the forest seems hostile to him. 308 • Muted Voices • Things are no longer animated by the fervent imagination ; his glances no longer probe to their core; his childish senses no longer drink from thousands of springs. Everything rests immobile beneath the triumphant sun. Throughout the serenity of his convalescence the same irritating sensation whispers: Why is the street dull and the forest void of lure? A faint odor of slow decay emanates from all sides. How distant does his life ofyester-year seem to him! However, he recalls nothing precisely. It was as though he had strayed across enchanted lands; the picture of happiness fell away like golden motes falling among rays. Remnants of dreams vaguely palpitated in his breast. Scarcely comprehended calls vibrated within him, but he no longer sees them in surrounding things. Why does everything seem to him passive, exhausted, enigmatic? And the sun pours down its torrid heat. A crushing silence reigns over all; the very air seems to grow heavier and heavier and with its overheated miasmas it seems...