Comments on: This is a great book, just ignore the back cover blurb.

By: Patsy Nevins

Patsy Nevins — Wed, 03 May 2006 17:58:05 +0000

I just checked last night & realized that I missed out on that wonderful blurb. That is because I ordered my book from Amazon marketplace, used, for a great price, & they sent me a proof copy. I guess I didn’t miss much.

By: Body Impolitic - Blog Archive - » Blogging Against Disablism Day - Laurie Toby Edison: Photographer

Wed, 03 May 2006 05:45:39 +0000

[...] Yesterday was blogging against disablism day. Over a hundred disabled and non-disabled bloggers from all across the globe are expressing their thoughts on and experiences of disablism out in the Blogosphere. I haven’t had begun to read all of it yet but there is some great work here. Ampersand discusses Harriet McBryde Johnson’s essay collection “Too Late To Die Young”. [...]

By: Ampersand

Ampersand — Wed, 03 May 2006 01:55:49 +0000

Josh, I very briefly responded to her Slate essay in this post .

By: Stephen M (Ethesis)

Stephen M (Ethesis) — Wed, 03 May 2006 01:21:20 +0000

For me, living a real life has meant resisting those formulaic narratives. Instead of letting the world turn me into a disability narrative, I have insisted on being a subject in the grammatical sense: not the passive “me” who is acted upon, but the active “I” who does things.

Amen.

By: laurie toby edison

laurie toby edison — Tue, 02 May 2006 23:45:20 +0000

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll read the book and I’ll be linking to this post on “Body Impolitic”

Formulaic narratives for interpreting other peoples lives are remarkbaly destructive of human understanding. And the pressure on people to make their understanding of their own lives fit the formulas just compounds the problems.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 02 May 2006 19:06:54 +0000

Amp, while you’re on H McB J, did you ever respond to her writing about Terri Schiavo? I swear, I’m not trying to start trouble, I’m curious.

By: Kell

Kell — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:26:50 +0000

I always thought the Telethon theme song was creepy - I mean who in their right minds chooses “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as a theme song for a crusade for the disabled, let alone keeps it year after year after year?

Oh, man, am I the only one now hoping the Christopher Guest & Co. will take on Gimp Du Jour Telethons as their next movie project?

Meanwhile, I confess the back blurb actually is making me smile, since I’m anticipation McBryde Johnson skewering it at her next public appearance.

By: Ann Bartow

Ann Bartow — Tue, 02 May 2006 12:47:11 +0000

I need to say with pride that she is a gradute of the University of South Carolina School of Law! See: http://www.nd.edu/~ndr/issues/ndr8/johnson/bio.html

By: Patsy Nevins

Patsy Nevins — Tue, 02 May 2006 10:28:55 +0000

I have Ms. Johnson’s book & it is excellent. I am also a disabled person, born with mild hemiplegic cerebral palsy, & I certainly agree with her about Jerry Lewis & his attitudes & his disgusting pity party. The blurb on the back of the book is a lovely piece of condescension, & I KNOW condescension when I see it, which I do every time some idiot awards me a patronizing smile & seems to stop just short of patting me on the head while telling me how “remarkable” I am & how well I do to live as “normal” a life as I do, always be out walking, etc. We are NOT tragedies, we are human beings, & we do not want pity. I have to say that I am particularly angered & sickened by Mr. Lewis’s belief that disabled people are only “half-people” & another lovely quote of his: “You don’t want to be stared at when you go out in your wheelchair? Then stay inside.” Ah, yes, Jerry, if we have any kind of disability & do not meet your image of perfection, we should spend our (poor, pitiful, miserable, tragic) lives inside, hiding, so as not to offend the “normals” or, more likely, to remind you that all human life is unpredictable & that an able body is a fragile thing & that anyone can become disabled at any time in his life. I have faced condescension, I have faced ridicule, abuse, rejection. What I see is fear, the fear that if it can happen to me, it can also happen to the person who is doing his damnedest to ignore my reality. And I see, as does Harriet MBryde Johnson, the attitude in this ablest “Just Do It/find your inner athlete” culture, the belief that no one who is not strong, able-bodied, & athletic could ever have any kind of worthwhile & meaningful life, a total refusal by many to see us as complete human beings, & most especially a refusal to ever sex us as sexual human beings, capable of loving & being loved & having lives just like everyone else’s.

The idiot who wrote that book deserves to be standing on a street corner collecting for Jerry’s Kids. He has that kind of mentality & certainly a complete misunderstanding of who MS. Johnson is & what her book is saying. My advice would be, before you write a blurb for a book, try actually reading it & understanding the message.

By: Tapetum

Tapetum — Tue, 02 May 2006 05:57:19 +0000

I always thought the Telethon theme song was creepy - I mean who in their right minds chooses “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as a theme song for a crusade for the disabled, let alone keeps it year after year after year?

Nobody wants to be squished into the role of feature player in someone else’s narrative. Unfortunately for people with disabilities, people try to do it to them all the frickin’ time.

By: FeministBlogosphere

FeministBlogosphere — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

05/02This is a great book, just ignore the back cover blurb.

By: feminist blogs

feminist blogs — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

“Unspeakable Conversations,” would certainly make my “desert island” list if I had to pick ten essays rather than ten books. (By the way, […] Continue reading at Alas, a blog … posted11:13 pm at Alas, a blog