I don't often quote literary magazines but this was a nice chunk of word craft. In the Spring 2018 issue of
Crazyhorse, a publication of the College of Charleston, is an article by
Russell Working titled "Terrain." Like the best essays it's about multiple things, but Working uses his own deafness as a device to discuss a few topics: Hemingway, Insomnia, WWI injuries, Beethoven, Evelyn Waugh, and Slovenian tourism to name a few. It included a few very vivid descriptions of tinnitus.
"It is a misconception that the deaf and hard-of-hearing dwell in Trappist silences. Day and night I hear the rumble and scram of tinnitus. The phantom sounds are caused by damaged nerves in the inner ear: a devil's philharmonic of buzzes, hums, brays, shrills, cicada chirrs, television static, leaf-blower roars, and shrieks like a factory full of motorized grindstones sharpening knives."
Mr. Working of course actually suffers from tinnitus, insomnia, Slovenian tourism and news writing. Only someone with that particular array of afflictions could possibly have written something so visceral. It makes me interested to read some of his short fiction.
