Friday, June 18, 2021

The Search for Skallagrigg

Yesterday I watched a YouTube video that I can't get out of my mind.  The movie was made in 1994, and was hard to watch for many reasons - the dialog is difficult to understand, the closed captioning is terrible, and many scenes are very disturbing - dark in every way.  And yet, I couldn't stop watching.

 It was the story of "Skallagrigg" - with special ties to my past.  Let me try to explain. without giving away too much of the story, just in case you want to read the book or watch the movie.  The author, William Horwood, is a British novelist who happens to have a daughter with Cerebral Palsy. The movie is loosely based on the novel (published in 1987 in England), which in turn undoubtedly has some basis in the author's real life experiences.  Wikipedia has more information - the book itself is VERY long!

From a 2005 review of the book:   "We then begin to learn about the life of . . . Esther Marquand and her quest to find the Skallagrigg – a character who crops up in stories of hope and deliverance passed down among disabled people. Which brings us to one of the many notable aspects of this book: Esther has Cerebral Palsy, and many of the characters are disabled."  (Blogging Bookworms, 2005)

In a long, winding plot line with lots of confusing twists, turns and generational jumps in time, the story covers a full range of disability-related issues: misunderstanding and mistreatment of those with significant disabilities, the horrors of some institutions, the difficulties associated with mobility and communication, and all the struggles that go with relationships and sexuality.  PLUS, in this instance (it is a novel, remember) the  main characters are able to communicate among themselves amazingly effectively, often with no words spoken.

I learned about "Skallagrigg" when it was mentioned in an early book on the shifting paradigms in special education written by Anne Donnellan and Martha Leary - "Movement Differences and Diversity in Autism/Mental Retardation" (1995). I had encountered many children with a variety of significant limitations, and many of them could have been placed in institutional care, but were instead living at home with their families, and schools were just beginning to give serious thought to what was best in the way of educating them. I was particularly intrigued because the children in the story were able to communicate without spoken language - which I was beginning to encounter in my own classroom - and because the heroine happened to be named "Esther."   (More about that in a separate blog).

But the book was not easy to find.  At the time it was published only in England and there were strong restrictions in place regarding distribution elsewhere in the world.  I was relatively new at using the computer, and I think Jeff Bezos and Amazon were just getting started in his Bellevue, Washington garage.  Nevertheless I persisted, and eventually the book appeared in my mailbox.  Then things got really interesting. 

I started reading the book right away, and found it fascinating.  I happened to be working on my own book at the time, and occasionally meeting at my home with Lesley, a former student who was one of my most prolific FC typers.  Lesley often caught me by surprise with comments about other students I had worked with - many of whom she had never met, but was very concerned about.  When we met for these sessions, we sat at my computer and enjoyed back and forth conversations, with very little being spoken out loud.

One day I typed:  Do you know about Skallagrigg?  And Lesley answered (using FC with support):

SKALLAGRIGG IS THE BOOK YOU GOT FROM ENGLAND.  IT IS ABOUT KIDS LIKE US WHO LIVE IN AN INSTITUTION.  YOU ORDERED IT FROM THE INTERNET. 

 The very next time we met, I asked Lesley to tell me more about the book:

ESTHER IS IN AN INSTITUTION AND HER FATHER FINDS OUT THAT SHE IS SMART.

SHE ALSO IS REALLY GOOD ON THE COMPUTER.  SHE LEARNS HOW TO PROGRAM GAMES.  ESTHER IS MY HEROINE.  YOU USUALLY READ THE RIGHT BOOK AT THE RIGHT TIME.  YOUR ANGELS MAKE SURE.  ARTHUR IS ALSO IN THE BOOK.  HE IS IN AN INSTITUTION ALSO AND HE IS WAITING FOR SKALLAGRIGG TO COME AND SAVE HIM.

Do you know this because you are reading my mind or do you know this yourself somehow?

REALLY I JUST KNOW. 

And that, my friends, is what they all say whenever I ask "How do you know that?"  Somehow, they just know!



4 comments:

  1. Hi Char:

    So many times "For copyright reasons this book cannot be sold to the USA" was on my Penguin books.

    I watched Skallagrigg a few years ago on YouTube.

    A gentleman-academic called Tom Coogan mentioned it in his dissertation.

    Even reading the Wikipedia article - and Lesley's words about the plot and characters - shows me how much was left out of the film/TV series.

    Lesley is also right about Book Angels.

    Each year Screen Two would make an episode for many weeks of different stories and properties which were also well-loved.

    Skallagrigg really does pull you in like a tidal wave.

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  2. Thanks so much for you comments. I especially love the reference to "book angels" --- for sure, they have impacted my life!

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    1. Char:

      The stories about Book Angels are ... well ... legion.

      There are also Screen Angels and Stage Angels and maybe even Television and Radio Angels. And Internet and Multimedia Angels.

      And now I am going to look at MY ESTHER KIDS.

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    2. No doubt about it - and aren't we lucky to have all those angels in our lives?

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