Rating: 
Summary: Incomplete
Review: Being a Deaf person, I enjoy reading about the culture, the history, the outlook of others. That's why I was particulary excited when I got my hands on this book. And while I was interested throughout the book, I found my blood pressure frequently rising as I read the author's biased and one-track-mind approach. He speaks as if all deaf people are the same and that one language is right for all. I, personally, use the language he speaks of, however, it is simply not healthy to presume all deaf people do as well. The largest thing he fails to even mention once is the fact that the large majority of deaf people became deaf after the age of 18. That being said, if you're interested in learning nothing more than what this man thinks and his delight in learning a handful of signs and communicating with us less fortunate people (sarcasm), read away. If, on the other hand, you want to truly learn more about the culture and not only what Oliver Sacks believes, click on the back arrow at the top of your screen and continue your search. :o(
Rating: 
Summary: Thinking in Sign
Review: I concur with my colleague Kex86, this is an excellent mediation on what it means to think. Sacks acknowledges the substantial Deaf (with a capital 'D') political movement that feels deafness is not a disability, but a completely different way to experience the world. The unsurpassed richness of Sign -- and the thought patterns supported by it -- will cause many a "deafness-impaired" hearing person to give consideration to this view. As always, Oliver is erudite, compassionate, witty and insightful. A delightful and thought-provoking book -- in ANY language.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good, but with evident flaws
Review: I have to admit, I was "forced" to read Sacks' book for my Cognition class in university this past year. However, once I started getting into the book, it actually became a joy to read as Sacks poured his enthusiasm and wonder about the world of the deaf onto every page. I was soon finished and looking forward to the paper I was required to write on the book. However, as noted in many other comments, the long footnotes were incredibly distracting, many of them turning over for three pages, after which it was necesaary to go back and re-read everything you'd just finished looking at in the main article. His repetition at the beginning and end of the book also got annoying. On the whole, though, I quite enjoyed Oliver Sacks' book and am interested in reading more of his works now.
Rating:
Summary: Very insightful book
Review: I loved this book by Oliver Sacks. He did an excellent job of introducing the deaf community and their fight for recognition. A must have for anyone in this field.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating glimpse into the world of the deaf
Review: I've read most of Oliver Sack's books and this one is perhaps my favorite. While I am not deaf myself and cannot begin to comprehend the complexities of living in a world that in so aural-dependent, I think Sacks has done an excellent job of introducing the layman to the world of the Deaf. This book is part a scientific exploration and part social history. It is probably incomplete as one previous reviewer indicated but I don't think that Sacks meant for the book to be a comprehensive history of the Deaf, nor a complete medical look at deafness. I found the book to be fascinating and , like most of the author's books, left me wanting to know more about the subject.
Rating:
Summary: "...the deaf have something to teach us."
Review: In this extraordinary study, Dr. Sacks gives the general reader a penetrating insight into the world of the deaf. In his acclaimed "The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat", as a practicing neurologist, he brought his readers into the bizarre world of terrible brain related illnesses, presenting twenty-four cases of individuals afflicted with such diseases as agnosia or prosopagnosia, where "normal" reality is turned inside out, and how some of these diseases are treated and how the patients cope with their condition. In "Seeing Voices", he permits us entry into the silent, at times strange, though culturally rich world of the congenitally and pre-lingually deaf.
As someone who has had no previous experience or knowledge in this area, for me this text opened a whole new area of culture and history that is continually growing and developing.
Sacks' explores the nature of language, touching upon Noam Chomsky's paradigm-shifting studies, "Syntactic Structures", "Cartesian Linguistics" and Language of Mind", where he proposes his theory that language is innate, lying dormant until it is made active through human interaction and culture. Sacks connects these theories to the pre-lingual deaf and its implications and manifestations.
We are also given a history lesson on the language of SIGN, how it has developed, why it was jettisoned, out of ignorant prejudice, in the late nineteenth century, and its miraculous come back in the twentieth century. Through Sacks' concise and straightforward prose, he connects us to the foreign world of another language not depended on speech, its intricacies and its wonder, and how those of us who have the ability to hear and to verbalize, all too often take language for granted. He also makes clear the sophistication of Sign as a form of legitimate communication, its grammatical foundations and its many nuances, and how, in some ways, it is a superior form of active exchange between people.
In chapter three, Sacks tells us about the cultural breakthrough at Gallaudet University in March 1988, where after massive student protest, the school literally closed down, the first ever deaf president of the university was appointed. Sacks witnessed this social changing event first hand, which in the end affected him more than he realized,
"I had to see this all for myself before I could be moved from my previous "medical" view of deafness (as a condition, a deficit, that had to be "treated") to a "cultural" view of the deaf as forming a community with a complete language and culture of its own." (P.129-30)
Indeed this entire text has changed my view that deafness is not simply a condition or human deficit, but another way of being in the world. In fact the deaf, with their shared language are forming a world community and culture crossing all barriers. And as Dr. Sacks points out, in this way, "...the deaf have something to teach us." (P. 167)
Rating:
Summary: The Importance of Language
Review: Seeing Voices gives a clear answer to the question, "Which comes first? Language or thought." The answer, "Language." As Sacks retells stories of the profoundly deaf deprived of "language" into early adulthood, the pattern emerges: Without language there is no abstraction, no ability to achieve love or communication, and all life becomes an inarticulate groaning to have basic needs met immediately. There is no sense of time - life becomes an eternal present. The discovery of language leads to intense sadness as one realizes the lonely prison they have been in. In a long life of reading, this is the first book I immediately re-read on completing it the first time.
Rating:
Summary: The Importance of Language
Review: Seeing Voices gives a clear answer to the question, "Which comes first? Language or thought." The answer, "Language." As Sacks retells stories of the profoundly deaf deprived of "language" into early adulthood, the pattern emerges: Without language there is no abstraction, no ability to achieve love or communication, and all life becomes an inarticulate groaning to have basic needs met immediately. There is no sense of time - life becomes an eternal present. The discovery of language leads to intense sadness as one realizes the lonely prison they have been in. In a long life of reading, this is the first book I immediately re-read on completing it the first time.
Rating:
Summary: Parent who used cueing method very successfully
Review: Seeing Voices is a useful source of information on the history of sign, the Deaf community, and the development of language in children. At times, however, I found myself in a love-hate relationship with it, because for all Sacks has done, he has left much undone. The book is composed of three long essays describing, in turn: the history of deaf people, the power of sign language, and the Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University. The middle essay examines the beautiful, expressive language of Sign, which was described by Dr. William Strokes as a true language only in the 1960s. Sacks calls this essay "the heart of the book" -- his most personal yet comprehensive examination of the deaf world. As I read it, I began to mark passages that were unsupported by references or were in direct disagreement with my own experience and study. At first the marks were seldom, but by the end of the essay, they were frequent.
My problems with the book seemed to have a common theme: Having guided us this far and identified ASL as a language for people who are deaf, he veers off into the flawed conclusion that it is THE ONLY language for them.
For example, Sacks describes seperate encounters with two children, a five-year-old who cues and a six-year-old who signs. He uses different standards to evaluate their different methods of communication. In doing so, he is guilty of the same misperception he accuses much of the hearing world of having about people who are deaf -- he judges what the two youngsters know by the ease with which he can communicate with them. He evaluates the cueing child by the quality of her speech, but evaluates the signing child by his language.
It is curious that someone so experienced and perceptive could be so cavalier in his appraival of deaf communication.
Seeing Voices is an important book that makes much of the deaf culture visible to the general public. It argues convincingly that ASL is the language of that culture. But it is ultimately a love story. Sacks has fallen in love with sign language, and in his case, love is blind.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but with evident flaws
Review: This book is awesome. I want to be an interpreter and thishelps me to learn more about the culture so it is very helpful. Ihave read many other books about deaf culture too. You will ebjoy this book.
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