This blog is being set up because it's required as part of my training programme at the State Library of Victoria. Frankly, I find it a waste of time. I'd much rather be writing something substantial which could be of enduring significance than posting my random meanderings for all to read. I'd much rather spend my time reading a good (well-edited) book or an interesting (well-edited) journal than a blog.
I'm late in starting the programme because I've been off work with a ruptured eardrum. I am now deaf in my left ear and am finding this both salutary and annoying. Salutary because it is giving me some insight into what it is like to be deaf. Annoying because I can't hear what people are saying. Most of my colleagues are sympathetic and remember that I've told them that if they want to be on my right side they have to be on my right side but is surprising the number of people who simply ignore the fact that I've told them I'm deaf and that they need to speak to my right ear. More forgivable, but still annoying, is the assumption that the way to speak to a deaf person is LOUDLY. No, it's not. Speaking clearly and facing the person is the best method.
Being deaf is not just an absence of sound; it's a constant buzzing in your ear, it's an inability to hear small (normally unregistered) sounds which tell you that someone is just behind you or just to your left when walking in the street, it's the fact that your own voice booms around your head and you have no idea whether you're shouting or whispering, it's the fact that you can't tell where a sound is coming from, it's the fact that certain types of noise particularly low-pitched machinery sounds reverberate in your head to the exclusion of all else, it's the fact that you can no longer listen to classical music.
As you might have gathered from the first paragraph, I'm not enamoured of being required to write a blog and I have no idea what I'll put in mine. Perhaps a few observations and anecdotes from Rare Books. As it's highly unlikely anybody will read my comments it probably doesn't matter very much.
