What's That Pig Outdoors?: A Memoir of Deafness

Foreword

Foreword walker percy Here is a remarkable book. It is the autobiography of a man totally deaf since childhood. It is also the story of a man who became a distinguished journalist. It would be interesting on either count. There are many autobiographies ofdeafpeopleandtherearemanyautobiographiesofdistinguishedjournalists . But this is the only life story I have ever read of a deaf person which is also written by a first-class writer. The only exception is Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life, not really comparable because Helen of course was blind as well. And it makes all the difference, the splendid writing. If for no other reason it would be worth reading for the entertainment, a lively tale told well—and often extremely funny. But what sets it apart and gives it its value is not merely the story of a courageous person overcoming a serious handicap—though it is this— but a moving account from a novel perspective of the universal experience , which most of us take for granted, of the human breakthrough into language. Or what should be a universal human experience. For in fact some of the beneficiaries of this book could well be not only the deaf or the teachers of the deaf or the acquaintances of the deaf but so-called normal hearing people who have still not made the breakthrough into this kind of literacy. There is a personal connection here. My daughter is also totally deaf. She and Henry are both remarkable for what they have achieved in a hearing world. But the connection is something else, someone else, an extraordinary, eccentric, and wonderful teacher whom you will meet in these pages. Kisor_Pig text.indd 9 5/4/10 1:42:44 PM A native genius, the teacher somehow had the wit—and I think Henry would agree—to go to the heart of the matter, not only of the education of deaf children but of human intelligence itself. Here is how Henry describes it. She (the Teacher, as we thought of her) arranged things with “parents placing their faces in the baby’s line of vision”—yes, she’d start at eleven months—“so that the child could associate the movements of their lips with objects and actions.” Here of course the Teacher hit upon what Helen Keller had discovered in her own way, the unique human trick of symbolizing, of putting together word and thing. Hers was, is, a revolutionary method which I think still has not received its due. It is with her help and that of many others, with his own ebullience and good humor, with good teachers, good family, good wife, and plain guts that Henry Kisor not only made it but made it in high style—in spite of the knocks, some dumb teachers of the deaf, and such atrocities as “psychological testing.” Here, among other things, you will also learn about such mysteries as how it is deaf people know when someone comes into a room and says hello behind them. And you will learn much besides, with considerable delight and a kind of smiling wonderment. x . FOREwORd Kisor_Pig text.indd 10 5/4/10 1:42:44 PM ...