University of California Press, May 2000
Reviewed by Joy Calderwood
Biography, Anthropology, Disability Studies
Diane
DeVries was born with no legs and only vestigial arms. To herself, she is
normal; this is how she is. When she was a year old she discovered how to pick
things up, and she figured out a way to walk when she was two or three years
old. She participated in the childhood games of her neighborhood, and has had
an active social life since she was a teen. She was married for several years.
With the help of friends, her husband, assisting institutions, and her own
determination, she overcame many obstacles to earn a Masters degree in
clinical social work, and earns a good living as a social worker among AIDS
patients.
Author
Gelya Frank met Diane in class when they were both in their twenties, and was
fascinated at first sight. Diane made no effort to hide her physical
differences, preferring to wear shorts and sleeveless tops that emphasize her
well-developed bust – only partly because sleeves irritated her arm stumps.
Ms. Frank’s first thought about Diane was that she could have no sex life, an
assumption that was one of many to be quickly proven wrong. Starting with a
revealing account of their first meeting, from both her own and Diane’s points
of view, the author explores for us her reactions to Diane and the reasons for
them. This is part of the technique of cultural biography, in which the writer
recognizes that his/her interpretation of the person and events being observed
is going to be affected by the writer’s own viewpoint, making it important
that the reader know the author’s attitudes and background. The author
attempts to lay wide open for the reader her conscious and unconscious
self-explorations as they affect her view of Diane over a twenty-year period.
This
book needs to be reviewed from three viewpoints: those of the scholar, the
layperson, and also Diane’s viewpoint. Every decision the author makes shows
clearly that her first priority is academic legitimacy. I am sure VENUS ON
WHEELS has received good reviews in the academic community. The book discusses
the terminology, history, methodology and ethics of life histories such as
this one, and returns frequently to these subjects throughout the book. The
author includes chunks of Diane’s unpublished autobiography, explores with
Diane her experiences and attitudes in many moods, and describes her own
involvement in Diane’s life. She recounts in detail the developments in the
independent living movement that is evolving throughout their lives, in order
to place Diane in her cultural setting. (One wonders, is this setting perhaps
too limited? Diane participates in a country and an intellectual climate, not
just in a disabled culture.) She examines the ethics of forming a personal
bond with her subject while publishing her own opinions which Diane does not
always agree with. This is very much a scholarly book presented with all
attention to academic forms, but also with the author’s own individuality
giving life to the study.
The
best lay audience for this book would be a reader who wants to understand a
disabled person involved in his/her own life. To a layperson, this book will
probably be tough going. The sections on terminology and methodology are meant
to communicate to readers in the field of anthropology, and like a computer
textbook, it may require some prior knowledge of the subject. The story is
here, Diane’s achievements and difficulties and the story of the relationship
between Gelya and Diane, but it is embedded in a great deal of
non-biographical material. For those with a personal stake in the issues, it
will be useful. Even though the author doesn’t seem to grasp Diane’s feeling
of being normal in her own body, she describes what Diane has told her about
it so the reader will have a chance of understanding it. She vividly shows how
Diane innovates to do things most people depend on full limbs to handle, such
as writing. It is obvious from her descriptions that Diane has a leadership
personality and a friendly and understanding nature. These things help us
understand how much a disabled person can have to contribute, and how
inventive he/she might be in finding ways to contribute.
What
is Diane’s reaction to VENUS ON WHEELS? Gelya and Diane talked about that.
Gelya jokes that Diane thinks the book will be very dry reading, and that
another version will have to be written by someone else, maybe Diane herself.
Diane wants her message of accomplishment and potential to go out to as many
people as possible, and the style of this book makes it inaccessible to many
readers. It sounds as if Diane feels the message hasn’t yet been put across
the way she wants it.
Generally, VENUS ON WHEELS emphasizes how important it is to a disabled person
to develop his/her potentials, but it is also clear how inappropriately named
the “independent living” movement can be. Diane’s “independent living” is
deeply dependent on the people around her, so much so that her mother and
husband both broke under the strain. This book does not count the cost of
developing a disabled person’s potentials, but both the disabled person and
those around him/her must do that. For the sake of all, we need to learn how
Diane might have reached her present position as a productive member of her
society without either draining those people and resources or smothering her
own qualities.
Sep
2000 Review, first published on the Independent Reviews Site
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