\n
Ben Elton, a founding father of the
\n‘alternative scene’, stands as one of the
\nmost successful and pioneering writer and
\nperformers. In ‘Gridlock@’ disability is one of
\nhis main themes. Ignoring the fact that Ben
\nElton doesn’t appear to be a member of the
\ndisabled communIty, I’ve tried to judge the
\nbook by its depth of understanding of disabIlity.<\/p>\n
Disability is one theme of ‘Gridlock’ the other is the
\nmotorised vehicle and its effect both socially and
\nenvironmentally. Misuse of the car has resulted in
\nincapacitation rather than liberation. He connects the two
\nthemes and this automatically puts disability in a negative light.
\nA light in which disability spends most of its time in this book.
\nThe trouble with this novel is that it’s not as simple as it being
\na straightforward success or failure. One moment Elton will be
\nrelating classic moments of social discrimination, with sensitivity
\nand insight, and tthe next he will be making gross generalisatlons
\nthat are not accurate and show him up to be a fraud, if not an
\nintentional one. The book is at times embarrassingly flawed,
\nwhich is sad as it occasionally almost wins awareness gold stars with
\nportrayals of common situations experienced by many
\ndisabled people. For example, not being allowed to use
\npublic transport. being patronised at a job interview and
\nhaving a wheelchair used as a coat hanger.<\/p>\n
He chooses to use the actions of someone (Geoffrey)
\nwith cerebral palsy as something to laugh at. It’s true you
\ncan laugh at anything if you want to but for disabled
\npeople being laughed at is not a main aim in life –
\nalthough other people maybe think that is what we are
\ndesigned for. Elton uses the actions resulting from
\nhaving cerebral palsy to ‘endear’ the main character to
\nthe reader, he writes, ‘And pausing only to knock the
\nglass of water off Deborah’s beside table, Geoffrey
\nexplained the events of the day’ ‘bollocks’ he said,
\nor rather ‘bugles’, an exclamation which he
\naccompanied with an impulsive looking gesture of
\ndespair.<\/p>\n
When Elton writes ‘He (Geoffrey) hated being
\npatronised”, the writer should also have seen that
\n,however unwittingly, he then goes on to consistently
\npatronise his disabled characters throughout. Firstly, he
\nuses disability as a comic device. Secondly, he nearly
\nalways relates to them in terms of their disabilities. As in
\n‘Yes’ jerked Geoffrey wearily’ or ‘Deborah parked her
\nconverted car. Thirdly he regularly refers to his main
\ncharacter as ‘Geoffrey Spasmo’, arguing that this is his
\ncharacter’s way of rebelling against the misuse of the
\nword ‘spastic’. This in itself is like justifying anti-semitic
\nhumour because Jews joke about Jews themselves.
\nBut self aimed black humour is not ok if it’s used to
\nlaugh at rather than with the originator.
\nPerhaps Elton is trying to make the reader feel part of
\nthe outcast group in order to identify with them.<\/p>\n
Though Elton tries to avoid stereotyped images of disabled
\npeople he counteracts this by regularly lecturing the
\nreader with ‘facts’ about disability which on the whole are
\nwrong or misguided. They range from ‘Like many people
\nwith disabilities (he) was dependent on public transport’
\nor ‘you will never hear a disabled person say ‘money
\ndoesn’t mean much to me’. Are these statistically
\nrecorded or just assumptions Elton has reached from
\nobserving disabled friends – that is if he still has any after
\nwriting ‘Gridlock’?<\/p>\n
So finally one must ask, should Ben Elton have
\npublished a book on disability while so ill informed? In an
\nideal sense he should not, because though he will be
\ngetting people to question their ideas on disability’ he
\nmay not be pointing them in the right direction. However
\nin a politically pragmatic sense the answer is probably
\nyes. In one publication Mr Elton will reach more people
\nand start the cogs turning in minds where the wheel still
\nneeds to be invented, and from this he will have more effect than a
\nhundred “disability” demonstrations. Having Ben Elton write a book
\non this subject will lend weight to the movement, as his
\nsignature is a seal of approval in many people minds
\nThis may result in other people becoming genuinely
\ninterested in the issues of disability rights and culture.
\nThe thing is with such shaky foundations can we build
\nsomething worth sheltering under?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
REVIEW OF BEN ELTON’S BOOK ‘GRIDLOCK’ Ben Elton, a founding father of the ‘alternative scene’, stands as one of the most successful and pioneering writer and performers. In ‘Gridlock@’ disability is one of his main themes. Ignoring the fact that Ben Elton doesn’t appear to be a member of the disabled communIty, I’ve tried to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2221","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2223,"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2221\/revisions\/2223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonsdiary.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}