Book Review: Silence is a Four Letter Word (Raymond Luczak)

Reviewed by Linda J. Cronin

Silence Is a Four Letter Word: On Art and Deafness by Raymond Luczak was originally published in 2002 but thankfully for writers and artists with disabilities like me who may have missed it the first time this evocative and challenging work has been republished in a special 10th anniversary edition. Luczak has written a total of 15 books including Road Work Ahead (Sibling Rivalry Press), Mute (A Midsummer Nights Press), and Assembly Required: Notes From a Deaf Gay Life (RID press) While in Silence Is a Four Letter Word Luczak focuses primarily on the role of the deaf artist and what it means to create art and how to define both art and Deaf art, this call to arms has something to say to every artist and especially artists and writers with disabilities whatever they may be. In the introduction, he writes he hopes to guide deaf people – "actually anyone who feels different for any reason – who feel themselves blessed with the impulse to create."

While in the introduction Luczak calls the collection "a hodgepodge of notes on being a deaf artist or what I hope to be as an artist," I believe the notes comes together to form a cohesive whole that artists and writers can read many times and with each reading, discover something new, something which appears to be written specifically to them. The collection is formed in a way that allows the reader to open the book to any page and dive right in without a problem. His work is completely accessible, but by accessible I do not mean easy or simple.

Luczak raises many points of debate, and the notes contain a number of entries which will cause writers and artists to question their own beliefs and whether they agree with him or not. For example, he states there is no one definition of art, and states "art is art" and that we know it when we see it. (#5, 5) There are many writers and artists who would disagree with this statement and who believe a work of art needs to include certain qualities and achieve certain goals. Even Luczak himself goes on throughout the notes to discuss more specific ideas of what particular qualities he believes art contains. He writes "art is never one definition." (#5, 5) But through statements like the one above, Luczak helps people to articulate what it is they believe about art and more specifically disability art.

Luczak writes at the beginning of the book that when he discusses art he does not mean a masterly painting or well-written book. He believes "art is more a state of mind that transcends craft. Art is the specific point of view that we respond to whether it be positive or negative." (#4, 4) Luczak returns to this idea many times throughout the notes that art is a work from a specific point of view. He is a strong believer in art being representative of an individual's state of mind.

This idea of raising the individual and self-expression to the level of art has been around for years and grows directly from Romanticism. But many artists have disagreed with this philosophy and it can be seen as a limited view of art. Even artists like Shakespeare and Chaucer often wrote work that was commissioned to serve the purpose of other people. Others feel art is created not just by the individual but the society and the circumstances in which an individual lives live. While coming from an individual, so much of art can be representative of a point of view and a community not just that individual.

Luczak believes that art is a process of reinvention. "I admire many great artists because they share one thing in common: they have reinvented themselves in their work and reinvent our own perspectives of the world in the process. Like them, I wish to reinvent myself." (#19, 19) Luczak continues in the next few pages to discuss how every time he writes, he reinvents himself: "I want to pretend to be someone else, and I often do."(#20, 20) In Note #22, he says he writes for himself for what he likes to read and that only in the process of creating can he forget the fact that he's deaf, "and whatever labels the world have assigned to me when I am out there among them." (#22, 22)

Luczak writes "Art is about problem solving. Why did Anna Karenina fling herself in front of that train?" He observes, and reshapes his observations, to allow us to re-observe the familiar with unfamiliar eyes." (#66, 75) I agree that in many cases art serves to allow others to see things from a different point of view and to understand the world from someone else's position.

"Art is a specific point of view that we respond to, whether it be positive or negative." (#31, 36) To Luczak, "words are intangible. They are symbols for what cannot be truly encompassed."(#35, 40) But he believes however imperfect it may be "Art is the best method we have of passing human understanding and wisdom from one generation to the next, and beyond."(#36, 41) I agree completely with this idea of art being away to transmit wisdom and knowledge from one generation to the next. At times there is such a disconnect between people of different generations and different countries and nationalities, art is one way to bridge that gap.

Luczak discusses how with all the media that exists today, with the computers, cell phones, with Twitter and Facebook so many people are losing the ability to communicate face to face. He feels that art has a role in saving the future generations. He states "it isn't love only that must save us. Art too." (#55, 63) He wonders what will happen to community if we are reduced to status updates and tweets. He concludes: "perhaps art from the past and the present will have much more to teach the future." (#56, 64)

Luczak also focuses on the deaf community and how he feels there is too much infighting between people who are too deaf and others who are not deaf enough. He says right in the beginning of his book "if we don't want our deaf artists to stop inspiring the deaf community on to clearer expressions of themselves as a unique group, our insistence on labeling others within the deaf community has got to go." (#9, 9) This statement can apply to many different types of disability groups. "When we start to deal with labels, we often get lost in the politics and lose sight of why we banded together in the first place." (#9, 9)

In Note #70 Luczak presents the argument made by some deaf activists that they are not disabled but he disagrees. Although he personally doesn't see deafness as a disability, Luczak says "I accept the fact that it is a disability in the eyes of the general population."(#70, 79) He continues on to say the deaf community should not be separating itself from the disabled community. He feels we all need to work together "because we need to look beyond labels." (#70, 79)

Luczak believes rejection should never be taken as a sign of failure. "Do not give up. Real artists never do." (#29, 33) He talks to writers and artists about the demon to deal with: "discipline." And Luczak feels discipline can be achieved through obsession. "Only through obsession with certain themes, concepts, images, sounds and memories can we become enslaved to the joys of discipline." (#23, 23) But for an artist or writer to approach their work in a disciplined way takes more than obsession. Discipline means writing or creating when you may not be in the mood. Discipline means showing up in bad times as well as good.

Overall Luczak has created in Silence Is A Four Letter Word of valuable collection of notes that can serve writers and artists who may be deaf or disabled long into the future. He has written a book that a reader can return to time and again and always find something worth thinking about.