Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller PDF
Preview Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller
Blind Rage 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 1 6/29/06 1:10:22 PM 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 2 6/29/06 1:10:23 PM Georgina Kleege Blind Rage Letters to Helen Keller Gallaudet University Press Washington, D.C. 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 3 6/29/06 1:10:23 PM Gallaudet University Press Washington, D.C. 20002 http://gupress.gallaudet.edu © 2006 by Gallaudet University All rights reserved Published in 2006 Printed in the United States of America ISBN 1-56368-295-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kleege, Georgina, 1956– Blind rage : letters to Helen Keller / Georgina Kleege. p. cm. ISBN 1-56368-295-8 (alk. paper) 1. Keller, Helen, 1880–1968—Miscellanea. 2. Kleege, Georgina, 1956– —Correspondence. 3. Blind-deaf women—United States—Biography— Miscellanea. 4. Blind—Psychology—Miscellanea. I. Title. hv1624.k4a3 2006 362.4'1092—dc22 [B] 2006014539 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, aNSI Z39.48-1984. 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 4 6/29/06 1:10:23 PM As always, for Nick 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 5 6/29/06 1:10:23 PM 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 6 6/29/06 1:10:23 PM Contents A Note to Readers ix Acknowledgments xi part oNe Consciousness on Trial 1 part two Full Body Contact 45 part three Working the Pump 93 part four The Hand’s Memory 157 A Note on Sources 209 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 7 6/29/06 1:10:24 PM 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 8 6/29/06 1:10:24 PM A Note to Readers I wrote this book to exorcize a personal demon named Helen Keller. While most people revere Keller as a symbol of human fortitude in the face of adversity, to me she always represented an example I could not hope to emulate. She was both totally blind and profoundly deaf but managed to graduate from Radcliffe College, to publish numerous books and articles, and to travel the world as an international spokesperson for the blind. I am blind too, but not as blind as she was, and I have enjoyed many educational opportunities and employment advantages that were only dreams for her. Since I was a child, I have heard her name invoked as a reminder that I should be grateful for how lucky I was. I resented her for this, and sus- pected that her life, especially versions that appeared in my school books and in popular entertainments like The Miracle Worker, were too good to be true. As an adult, I began to investigate her story more fully. I read her auto- biographical writings and the many biographies published about her. I dis- covered many events and relationships that seemed at odds with what I had always been led to believe. But there was also something missing. It was as if her need to be an inspirational icon made it impossible for her ever to express any rage, fear or sorrow, even when her experiences would have prompted these emotions in anyone else. By turns, this baffled and infuriated me. I found myself conducting lengthy interior dialogues where I would question her at length about the thoughts and feelings I sensed she must have had while these events transpired. I describe them as dialogues, when in fact no answer ever came back from her. But she had become a very real presence in my imagination, defiant of my attempts to put words in her mouth, and eloquent in her silence. This book re-creates these conversations through a series of letters. It is a one-sided correspondence that invites the reader to inhabit Keller’s ix 00 kleege fm i-xiv.indd 9 6/29/06 1:10:24 PM
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