Journal 4-4 Max Bardowell 4-27-08

Sound and Fury Revisited

After hearing that the director of Sound and Fury had made a sequel, we were asked to write a prediction of where the Artinian family would be after six years. After some thought, I found that I could write two versions of this prediction, but I fear only one of them is truly possible. In the first, the Artinian family has continued along the course that they set at the end of the movie, following their predictable divisive behaviors and reactions. In the second, they have reversed that course, coming together again as a family with both Deaf and Hearing members united by the revocation of the single choice that influenced not only Heather’s life, by the lives of all around her. I hope for heather and the Artinian’s the latter became reality. I fear that only the former version of their story is really possible.

At the end of the film, the Artinians had moved to an area of Maryland that was heavily populated by members of the Deaf community. In their words, they were driven by both their fear of inadequate schooling for their children in Long Island and by their desire to feel more accepted within their community. I believe the reality is that they, in essence, fled the judgments of their family members who were discouraged to learn that Heather was being denied the Cochlear implant. I believe part if the Artinian’s knew what they had done was wrong. They were running from guilt. They knew that if they had stayed in Long Island they would have been forced to watch as Heather’s cousin, who had been given the implant, grew up to become an individual with a foot in both worlds, and thus double the opportunities to excel. I think they feared having to atone for their short sighted decision each time they saw their brother’s son.

This tension, in a way solidified by the Cochlear given to Heather’s cousin, would be difficult to overcome. The distances the Artinians put between themselves by moving would only focus the problem. I believe they would still visit with their immediate family, the grandparents more frequently and the brother on holidays, but I believe that they will have lost that intimacy and mutual support that defined their earlier relationship. The Cochlear formed a rift within their family, a fact that I think is understated within the documentary. It is my hope that they can heal the rift, but I fear that the Artinians will never be able to recover the bonds which they broke by discussing the implant. Maybe it really was a bad thing in the end? Without it, she is still lacking sound, but her family is happy and together. I have never known such fear, or passion, that would drive me to cross a nation. Then again, I am not part of a dying culture. If this is truly genocide, would I too not fight or flee with my family to higher ground?

Heather never received the implant she desired. Her parents, in their wisdom or folly, chose to let her wait. Now, if she is twelve, her future has been irrevocably altered. Heather’s romantic vision of her being able to single handedly bridge the gap between Deaf culture and the Hearing world, is now also changed. Her dream was the product of a five year old mind, a mind free of bias or persuasion, and thus in its innocence it gained a certain focus. However, after six years apart from the hearing world, six years spent in a school for the Deaf, her dreams have changed. I doubt she has a strong recollection of her earlier plans, or a strong attraction to them. If she has been indoctrinated into Deaf culture, her hope to have contacts within both communities, embracing both worlds as part of who she is, is lost. There is also the question of the implants effectiveness. After six years of Deaf education, the implants effectiveness is severely reduced, due both to Heather’s cerebral development and her attachment to the communication techniques of the Deaf community. Due to her parent’s delays, no matter how well intentioned, Heather no longer has a voice in her future. She cannot choose for herself, because she has no options left.

This is the only future I can see for the Artinians. It is bleak and raw, and void of their earlier love and optimism. Each member of the family has recoiled into the familiar, and the one member that was ready to explore was blocked at each advance, without even knowing why. I prey they can reconnect, as their unique relationships can serve as a guide for how the two cultures, Deaf and Hearing, can interact and grow together. I prey they can reconnect, because Heather can do without the Cochlear, but she needs her grandmother and father, and her aunt and uncle. I prey they can reconcile, because all the Artinians, Deaf and Hearing, should be able to watch their family grow up together.

They are silent and they are loud, and that makes them worth fighting for.

Update

My prediction was later found to be false as, after watching the sequel, we found that Heather and her brothers received the Cochlear implant, and her family moved back to Long Island and reunited with the rest of her family. Apparently the first version of my prediction proved to be true. I happily stand corrected.

Journal 4-3 Max Bardowell 4-21-08

Sound and Fury

Answer to Last Week’s Question: There are many leading bioethicists, but most are associated with a major university, such as Pennsylvania University, which has a leading department of bioethics. They are also associated with independent medical or research hospitals, such as The Cleveland Clinic. The National Institutes of Health, a governmental organization, also has a department of bioethics.

This week we watched the documentary Sound and Fury, an in depth portrayal of one family’s struggle with accepting both Deaf culture and the Cochlear Implant, the device considered by many of the hearing impaired to be able to destroy Deaf culture. One of the most prominent issues presented within the documentary was that of belonging, and to which world, Deaf or Hearing, would the younger members of the family belong.

For Heather, a young girl at the center of the film who was considering the implant, the idea of belonging to both worlds was what drove her towards the implant. She hoped to have contacts within both communities, similar to a bilingual individual, embracing both worlds as part of who she was. Even in her five year old mind, she had this romantic vision of her single handedly bridging the gap between Deaf culture and the Hearing world, serving as both as a translator and diplomat for those ignorant members of both communities. Sometimes it takes a child’s mind, a mind free from prejudice, to truly see the correct course of action. Ultimately, I think she saw the prejudices of her parents, prejudices inherited not by choice, but by the unpredictability of nature, and she hoped to smooth them over. I think she saw the flaws in both worlds through the infighting between her family members, and she wished to spare others from the same struggle and pain. When Heather’s parents denied her the implant, I think they underestimated her perceptiveness and her resolve. They took away what she considered to be her destiny; to become one of the rare individuals possessing the gifts of both worlds. They justified their actions under the guise of being good parents, but in the end they were only selfish, clinging to their traditions in place of progress and the promise of a better future for their daughter.

You could argue that a five year old could know nothing of destiny or purpose, but then you would be denying the very prevalent truth; she was conscious of her decisions, and she wanted the implant. You could see the frustration in her face as she struggled to interact with children from the Hearing world. You could hear the longing in her small, underdeveloped voice and see the pleading in her finger movements as she signed the purpose she wished to fulfill. And, as her parents broke the news to her, you could see the pain in her eyes as they took her future, her dream from her.

Question: What happened to the Sound and Fury family after the documentary closed?

Journal 4-2 Max Bardowell 4-13-08

Bioethics

Question: Morgan Valentine^[1] Spurlock (born November 7, 1970) is an American independent documentary film director, TV producer, and screenwriter, known for the documentary film Super Size Me, in which he demonstrated the health effects of McDonald's food by eating nothing but McDonalds three times a day, every day, for one month. Spurlock is also the executive producer and star of the reality television series 30 Days.

Spurlock graduated with a BFA in film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1993. Before making the 2004 Academy Award nominated Super Size Me, Spurlock was a playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. He also created I Bet You Will for MTV.

The field of bio-ethics is a relatively new area of ethical discussion, involving technologies and circumstances unforeseen by students of ethics even a decade ago. Evolving in tandem with the rise of new technologies within the fields of biology and medicine, bio-ethics now includes several main issues:

• Right to life/ death cases involving those in a vegetative state or those with a terminal illness

• Cloning of animals or humans

• Genetic engineering

• Genetically modified foods

• Confidentiality of medical records

• Stem cell research

The goal of bioethicists is to use philosophical techniques to analyze the circumstances surrounding these issues and generate a clearer picture for those who are in a decision making position. Bioethicists draw on traditional philosophical guidelines, current laws and legislation, and religious scripture for guidance. Many bioethicists are also physicians, using the medical information they received in their educations to help influence their reports.

Question: Who are the nation’s leading bioethicists?

Journal 4-1 Max Bardowell 4-7-08

30 Days Documentaries

Answer to Last Week’s Question: Amway sells a variety of products, from cosmetics to cooking ware, but the majority of the products are related to the cosmetics industry.

One cannot help but wonder while we are viewing the 30 Days documentaries in class whether or not they would be able to submit themselves to the same challenges and come out a better person, or, at the very least, a changed person. I think it is these same motives that push me to become a foreign correspondent. I think that on some level I hope to test myself, to throw myself into the fray and experience something entirely exotic and, at times, traumatic, because then and there, when human emotions are stretched to the breaking point, just as in the 30 Days documentaries, that is where the really fascinating stories are found. Looking back, I find that this fact seems to have dictated what I plan study in college more so than anything else, except perhaps my passion for writing. Ultimately, I hope to become so completely immersed in another culture, through both language and customs, that I will be able to write the stories that another English speaking journalist would not have been able to.

It is this life that I wish to assume, that of a reporter, a storyteller for humanity. As one, I may not change the world, but at least I will bring back a part of it to those who cannot experience all of it for themselves. I will bring the truth, raw and undiluted, to those who have become lost in fiction.

Question: Who is Morgan Spurlock?