I have been thinking lately of disability not as a form of disablement but as a counter-intuition, a matter that may get me in trouble. Taken at face value the assertion is irresponsible, for by calling disability a quality of mind one is guilty of suborning physical difficulty within the frame of intellect. That’s a troublesome idea, akin to saying that mind over matter will solve physical challenges–a canard that people with disabilities have long experienced.
What I have in mind is that physical difference stands in relation to normatively–to able- bodiedness if you will, as a counter-intuition stands against a first thought. Talking of literary writing Jack Kerouac is famous for extolling the virtues of fast composition, of getting your words down quickly, and by turn of not editing the text. “First thought, best thought,” was the phrase he made famous. Because I am a poet I think about craft. I tend to see poetry as a vehicle for philosophical speculation rather than a tabula rasa on which we scrawl our grocery lists. I like poetry that demands something from the reader and this shouldn’t be confused with style. Poetry that reads clearly can be as inciting to good ideas as a more abstract mode of verse. William Carlos Williams is clear but very shrews. Wallace Stevens isn’t clear at all, but well worth reading. Both are philosophical poets. Both would not subscribe to Kerouac’s notion of composition. A first thought is often not the best thought. Trusting a second sense is vital both in art and in life’s negotiations. This may seem evident, but in America we value easy acquaintanceships, simple ideas of fashion, embodiment, athleticism–even when we imagine we are being outre. Look at a high school yearbook from 1970 and you will see all the boys wearing the same “mod” hair styles. Normalcy encodes it’s parameters quickly because there’s money to be made. Body piercings are a similar example. I’m not saying that self-expression is a bad thing, or insincere or flip–only that it’s easy to create a new normal in a society that holds the idea of “lifestyle” to be valuable.
I think disability provokes second thoughts–far more often than the able-bodied citizen will likely experience. Able-bodiedness is “first thought, best thought” whereas disability calls for a second or third premis. This is of course a view that’s familiar to certain spiritual traditions–one thinks of the Hindu belief that with an act of deep devotion a maleficent goddess can become a begnign figure. Please note that I am not saying that people with disabilities are more likely to be hindus. I am suggesting that the problem solving that accompanies whatever we might call the non-able-bodied life is characterized by an intuitive steadfastness that calls for revisioning and patience. One may say that such a characteristic of mind is marked by a dual consciousness that things are not what they invariably seem. Yes. I’m generalizing. I’m a poet. I get to do that. Even when I’m talking about disability as epistemology. I can make claims. But in this case my counter-intuition tells me my intuition is alright.
SK
Planet of the Blind 