Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Story of My Life [Book Review]

Not really an example of a fairy tale, but it is a rather interesting look into the nature of perspective. One can get some very interesting ideas from the life of someone who was forced to live in an altered state. But I digress.

"The Story of My Life" is a book written by deaf and blind woman Helen Keller, it being her autobiography. It was published in 1903. I did not read the entire book as presented. It had two other sections containing 4 hours worth of her horribly constructed letters as well as a section that was about the writing of the actual book. These were uninteresting to me, and so this review is only about the book she actually wrote, which I did finish.

Funny story: When I was very young, I often got Helen Keller and Pollyanna confused. I didn't know who was fictional and who was real. For a while I thought Helen Keller had all her problems as well as a pair of broken legs. These mistakes can happen to a child who does not bother reading. I did later figure out who was who and who had what disability later on.

I read Pollyanna about six or seven years ago. I'm not quite sure. I was going to read this book right afterwards, but I got side-tracked by other things. Even so, I am glad that I finally got around to it. The whole reason I did this was because I did think it a peculiar thing that someone with such a debilitating set of maladies could actually function as well as Helen did.

The whole reason we sort of wonder about her is because she had a unique perspective in life that we just aren't familiar with. And to read her book, it does make things a bit more clear. She isn't like other people, but she is still human... and a woman. Her lack of sight and sound does not change her. All it did was change her perspective.

I recently had my first real alcoholic drink. As I began drinking, I picked up one of my books and started reading it. I was trying to gage how much my cognitive abilities would alter while I was under the influence of alcohol. Unfortunately, I didn't really notice much, but the whole idea that a perspective could change based on altered senses had always intrigued me.

"The Story of My Life" is an amazing and extremely well written book, and when you look into the issues this woman had, it is amazing it is as good as it is. By the end of the book, she honestly barely feels like she's any different than anybody. And her unique perspective, even though influenced by negatives, has actually given her insights into the world around her that we might never comprehend ourselves.

Sometimes we do get distracted by what we see and what we hear. We don't take the time to "see" life through our other senses, as we were intended so. There's a lot of nuance in things that can be missed because of this. It's unfortunate that we do this to ourselves, but we can do better is we care to bother.

One small criticism, a personal one. Helen Keller does relate that she loved reading old fables and fairytales in her book, but she was very scathing in how she put down the presentation of talking animals. She went on and on about how she could not take a moral seriously due to the absurdity of the animals acting like people. Pardon me, Miss Keller, but I take a personal exception to this. I forgive you though, being that I intend to completely saturate the publishing market with as many talking, yelling, screaming, dancing animals as I possibly can! So have at you!

I recommend the book. Enjoy!

This blog was written on February 2, 2022.

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