Avik's ENGL296 Blog

My younger brother was born with Kabuki Syndrome, a disability frequently compared to Down Syndrome and autism that impairs his speech, fine motor, and behavior. This, of course, can be interpreted as detriments to his quality of life; he has a hard time with social situations and making friends, he won't ever be able to properly play sports or drive a car, and he struggles with basic tasks like communicating with others and writing neatly with a pencil. He's never passed an annual standardized state exam (although he has  come close on numerous occasions), and despite being an avid sports fan at 16 years old, he still can't cleanly catch a ball.  Bauman and Murray ask in Deaf Studies in the 21st Century , "How does being deaf reorganize what it means to be human? [...] Embracing deaf people and their languages lead toward a deeper understanding of the human proclivity for adaptation. [...] In this light, deafness is not so much defined by a fundamental lack, as in hea...

  In 2019, Susan Dupor painted Surrender  upon a canvas with oil. Observing this painting initially confused me; interpreting it in the most literal sense, it's a human with a fish's head, having been caught by a fishing line and being pointed at and gestured towards by several hands towards the frame of the image. However, upon closer viewing, we find some more metaphorical observations. For example, from the title of the painting - " Surrender " - and the types of gestures towards the subject (pointing, beckoning) we can assume that it is being asked to surrender. Surrender is only asked of those seen as adversarial or hostile, and as such we may assume that the outside perspective - the hands pointing and gesturing at the subject - believes this human-fish to be a threatening or hostile force that must surrender to them. Similarly, we observe that having bitten the reel, the fish-head is crying, as there is a tear rolling down from its eye. It is clearly sad or dis...