Page 28 - Community Living Magazine 33-4

arts
Summertime reading is understood only by those who are also

outsiders. The sequel, Ben, in the World
(2000), follows him into adulthood.

With some lazy days in the sun ahead, Simon Jarrett suggests The Sound and the Fury
eight novels that entertain, engross and tell us something about William Faulkner (1929)
attitudes to learning disability A difficult but rewarding read, this
extraordinary novel tells the story of
the dysfunctional Compson family in the
deep south of Mississippi, a fading white
Walter “defective” man duped by a group of family surrounded by a retinue of black
David Cook (1978) international anarchists into attempting servants and labourers. The story is told
This is a beautifully observed account of to place a bomb at the Greenwich from four perspectives, one of them
the life of Walter, a young man left alone Observatory. the profoundly disabled and voiceless
after his mother’s death, who is moved Benjamin “Benjy” Compson, in a stream
into the local long-stay “mental handicap” Tasting the Wind of consciousness style.
hospital in the north of England. The 1979 Allan Mayer (2008)
sequel Winter Doves is also excellent. Mayer’s murder mystery is based on a Barnaby Rudge
group of ex-hospital patients who have Charles Dickens (1841)
Brave New World moved into a group home in London. It is Although written in the 1840s, this
Aldous Huxley (1932) both brilliantly funny and very, very is Dickens’ imagining of London in
A grim portrayal of a future where people serious, often at the same time, and is 1780, when it was convulsed by the
are bred to suit the purposes of society. intelligently insightful about that whole anti-Catholic Gordon Riots. Young
An elite alpha-grade intelligent class 1980s era of the “great Barnaby, a half-loveable, half-frightening
rule, while grinning return” from hospitals to “idiot”, gets caught up in the riots with
epsilon-grade “semi- the community. calamitous consequences.
morons” carry out the
menial jobs. The Fifth Child Of Mice and Men
Doris Lessing (1988) John Steinbeck (1937)
The Secret Agent Ben, the unlucky fifth child of Many of us read this short novel at school,
Joseph Conrad (1907) the hitherto charmed Lovatt perhaps not registering that one of the two
The full title of this novel family, exerts a strange and central characters, Lennie, is a man with a
written at the height of the disturbing influence on all learning disability. His friendship with the
eugenics era is The Secret those around him, and the non-learning-disabled George, as they seek
Agent: A Simple Tale. It family begins to fall apart. work in great-depression America, is a
tells the story of a young The learning disabled youth story of both love and tragedy. n

Review: first history to cross the continents

Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth disabilities and their families. They were unrelenting negative
Century: Transnational Perspectives on also asked to tell life stories, where possible view of intellectual
People, Policy and Practice with the voice of the people themselves. disability has its roots
Jan Walmsley and Simon Jarrett (eds) Although the chapters are very different, in spiritual beliefs.
Policy Press, 2019, 216 pp, hardback £75; there are some common themes. The For example “those
e-book/paperback (January 2021) £26.99 stain of the “science” of eugenics, first with Down’s
advocated in 1863, was strong in the syndrome are labelled
his book, edited by Jan Walmsley and Anglosphere and much of Europe. ‘nsuoba’ meaning
Simon Jarrett (editor of Community The chapter on Austria illustrates how the spirit or water
TLiving), is a remarkable achievement. nadir was reached by the Nazis. Sterilisation children… A child born with disabilities in a
As they say in the introduction: “We and extermination of the “unfit” and village would often be left to die in the bush
believe it is the first of its kind to take a “unworthy” were the most extreme or by the river. This was seen as allowing
historical view of policy and practice in examples of the drive to manage and the child’s spirit to return to the spirit realm,
intellectual disability across continents, eliminate lives deemed to have no value. so it could be reborn in a ‘proper’ body”.
and we are certain it is unique in its It was only in the latter part of the century The chapter tells us that, regardless of
emphasis on the impact on individuals.” that sustained efforts started across the which gods are worshipped, disability is
It covers 12 countries: Australia, Austria, world to move away from institutionalisation seen as a punishment and a reason to
Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, Ghana, (and worse) to valuing people. exclude people, especially those with
Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, The chapter on Ghana shows the calibre intellectual disability, from community life.
New Zealand, Taiwan, the UK and the US. of the contributions. There had been no “Change has been spearheaded by
Contributors tell their countries’ stories, authoritative history until now – the parents. Parent organisations… have
examining major changes in policy and condition barely had a name in the been a mainstay of support and advocacy
their effects on people with intellectual country until the late 20th century. The [and] educating and supporting

28 Vol 33 No 4 | Summer 2020 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk