Couple good books (Deaf-related)

Oliver Sacks is a noted neurologist, and has published some interesting books in the past. One became the basis for the movie "Awakenings" with Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro, and another I have read was "The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat" which is a collection of interesting case studies of various pathologies. I recently became aware that he also has a couple books dealing with the sense of hearing.

"Seeing Voices" dives into quite a bit of Deaf history and lends plenty of credence to ASL as a whole language. It's been a few months since I read this book, but basically he became very interested in the Deaf at some point in his life and decided to learn more and try to tackle some important issues at hand. Also describes a phenomenon likely familiar to many late-deaf people known as "phantasmic voices". An example of this is "hearing" a voice while watching someone speak, even though the voice is not really audible. Overall, it is light reading, but extremely informative for anyone interested an Deaf history and culture.

"Musicophilia" deals with the relationship between music and the human mind. Takes a case study approach and can be quite hilarious at times (how many jingles have you ever had on repeat at 3am?). A really interesting read.

Comments

Michelle said…
hey, check this guy out: http://www.stormfx.net/video.html
he's interpreted some popular songs and posted the videos on youtube also, and he's fantastic.
he doesn't caption, but he posts a link to the lyrics, so it's SOMEthing. it also sucks that my player is too slow to catch all his signs, but either way, it's very enjoyable
October 30, 2008 at 5:47 PM
Aaron said…
woh that manson one was pretty insane. need to read the lyrics a few times and watch a few more times to try to fully understand. so fast!! we should show beth =)
October 30, 2008 at 7:05 PM
Abbie said…
Thanks for these! :)
November 6, 2008 at 4:42 PM
Anonymous said…
hello, and thanks for the suggestions. I think I will have to check out the "Seeing Voices" one for sure...
=)
debcny
November 19, 2008 at 10:54 PM
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