Friday, April 8, 2016

helen? (***updated)

I just did a search on this blog for “helen keller” and the only thing that came up was this post in which the term referred to a dive. I can’t believe we’ve never talked about Helen Keller here, and I bet if I texted Ellie right now she’d remind me of the time that we DID just like when I thought I was the first one to write about the newspaper clippings from the bottom of the stairs. So let’s just not text Ellie*, shall we? Because I’ve got Helen Keller on my mind.

Clara and I are going to see The Miracle Worker in a couple of hours (writing this 5pm Thursday) and I really have no idea what to expect.  Earlier she asked me if it was a play or a musical and I said that I didn’t know, but thought it would be pretty funny if they sang the story, because I am a depraved individual who should never have been allowed to reproduce, especially when my spawn’s next comment was: “well I guess Helen Keller won’t be singing” and I died laughing.

Why is Helen Keller funny? It’s all because of the speak and tell. Or see and say. Or show and hear.  No one can ever remember but it was this awesome toy we had growing up that involved a record player and a filmstrip. We probably had a bunch of stories but the only ones I remember are Thomas Edison (or was it Alexander Graham Bell? Who was it that blinded himself with an awl**?) and Helen Keller.

It was an inspiring story to watch, and also to hear. Let me find a way to phrase this without coming across as a complete and total asshole. You see, the sounds that young Helen made in her pre-miracle worked days were portrayed as….. shall we say…. theatrically guttural.  All of my sisters and several nieces are making the sound right now as they read.  The best part of the script went like this:

*********
Anne: “Helen? HELEN?”

Helen: previously described theatrical guttural utterances

Narrator:  But she did not understand! The words didn’t mean anything!***"

*******

Ahhhh, those were good times. I hope that part is in the play tonight. 

*I texted Ellie

**omfg it was Louis Braille who blinded himself with an awl! Was this a toy for blind kids? Then why the filmstrips?


***Ellie made fun of me for several parts of this post (see below), but I think she might be right about my sound of music mash up. Maybe Anne said "the words had no MEANing!" I don't know, I CRS. Also, the show was pretty great, and there was only one moment when I thought I might bust out laughing at the poor child's sounds. She was a powerful character, although as Clara pointed out, she didn't have to learn any lines.

7 comments:

Me, You, or Ellie said...

“Helen? HELEN?”

Oh my God Jacquie. I don't even know where to start.

First of all, I love the mash-up of The Sound of Music and Helen Keller. "But it doesn't mean anything." "So we put in wooords. One wooord for each note. Like this." Anne Sullivan meets Maria von Trapp.

Second of all, you thought Thomas Edison blinded himself with an awl? There's something terribly ironic about that, if you think about it . . .

Third of all, you don't remember The Count of Monte Cristo? That was my second-favorite.

Fourth of all, nobody seems to remember this -- and actually, I'm probably wrong; I usually am -- but in my memory *I* got that Show and Tell / speak and tell / see and say / show and hear for Christmas. Man, that was an ingenious contraption.

ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod here it is:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/67/fa/cd/67facd34a6804dd8e756a0a79cff8d1f.jpg

I die!

And I am also *dying* to know how the show was.

And I hope they belted out the best part.

Love utterly.

Ellie

MB said...

I am cracking up, reliving my childhood! You are a riot, Jacq. xo

Beth said...

No, Ellie, you are cracking up gutterly.

I think my favorite part(s) of this post are your girl's lines, Jacquie. I love her!

xo,
beth

Jane Corey Holt said...

What about Jane Eyre, people? Mr Rochester brooding, Jane hearing the strange sounds from the attic? And I'm
With you on the HK dialogue, jacq. OMG great memories girl.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

oh my GOD, Jane. Jane Eyre! My second favorite.

"Jane. JAANNEEE."

Mr. Rochester. The Madwoman In The Attic, (as we referred to her in all my feminist lit classes, thanks to Gubar and Gilbert), the *fire*, Thorndike Hall . . . that one was a winner.

And what's that you say? Why, yes. Blindness.

Coincidence?

I don't think so.

*Love*.

E.

Me, You, or Ellie said...

p.s. I agree. Young Madame Boogsie's lines *are* the best. Especially in the addendum.

E.

jacquie said...

Oh my God Jane, I am dying laughing. How could I forget Jane Eyre? I don't know what is wrong with me that makes me forget details like these while retaining the list of propositions we had to memorize in 4 grade (about above across after against among apart at....), all the words to Rapper's Delight, and key points in the basement routine to I am Woman.