I’m in the middle of reading Harriet McBryde Johnson’s essay collection Too Late To Die Young. I’m enjoying it; Johnson’s an excellent writer, and one of the essays included in this book, “Unspeakable Conversations,” would certainly make my “desert island” list if I had to pick ten essays rather than ten books. (By the way, Johnson’s novel, Accidents of Nature, is due to be released tomorrow).
But man, does the most prominent quote on the back cover suck. Here it is as it appears on the back cover (you can read the full review on the book’s Amazon page):
There is a small but discrete literature by writers who have experienced personal or family tragedy: William Styron on his depression, Reynolds Price on his paraplegia, Kenzaburo Oe on his brain-damaged son… To read these stories can deepen everyone’s humanity. Too Late to Die Young can proudly take its place among these other important books.
Let me just say: Oh, vomit.
If there’s any single point Johnson’s book makes, it’s that her disability is not a “tragedy.” And to say the stories of her life “deepen everyone’s humanity” is condescending in a way that reminds me of the Jerry Lewis Telethon (and Johnson makes it clear that she loathes the Telethon). Contrast the back-cover quote with this one, from Johnson’s introduction:
Because the world sets people with conspicuous disabilities apart as different, we become objects of fascination, curiosity, and analysis. We are read as avatars of misfortune and misery, stock figures in melodramas about courage and determination. The world wants our lives to fit into a few rigid narrative templates: how I conquered disability (and others can conquer their Bad Things!), how I adjusted to disability (and a positive attitude can move mountains!), how disability made me wise (you can only marvel and hope it never happens to you!), how disability brought me to Jesus (but redemption is waiting for you if only you pray).
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.
It’s not really in keeping with the spirit of Johnson’s book to have a back cover quote selling it as a Hallmark Inspirational Narrative ™, is it?
I realize that authors don’t get to control what the publisher puts on the back cover. But I wonder what Johnson herself thought of it. Did it piss her off? I suspect it did. Or did she think “well, maybe the people drawn in by that quote are exactly the people who need to read my book”?
By the way, this post is part of blogging against disabilism day. Follow the link if you’d like a list of other participating blogs to browse around.
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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Josh, I very briefly responded to her Slate essay in this post .
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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.