{"id":3713,"date":"2017-02-20T16:46:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T22:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=3713"},"modified":"2017-02-20T16:46:52","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T22:46:52","slug":"book-on-famous-stutterers-includes-chapter-on-updike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2017\/02\/20\/book-on-famous-stutterers-includes-chapter-on-updike\/","title":{"rendered":"Book on famous stutterers includes chapter on Updike"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In Chapter 12 of\u00a0Famous Stutterers<\/em>, author Gerald R. McDermott<\/strong> begins,<\/p>\n

“Until John Updike (1932-2009), no one had ever described stuttering with such dead-on precision. Once he compared it to a traffic jam. ‘I have lots of words inside me: but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam.’<\/p>\n

“He painted a picture of facial tics that will make any relative of a stutterer groan with recognition.
\nViewing myself on taped television, I see the repulsive symptoms
\nof an approaching stammer take possession of my face\u2014an
\nelectronically rapid flutter of the eyelids, a distortion of the mouth
\nas of a leather purse being cinched, a terrifying hardening of the
\nupper lip, a fatal tensing and a lifting of the voice<\/p>\n

“All stutterers will nod knowingly when they hear him refer to that ‘untrustworthy’ part of himself that ‘can collapse at awkward or anxious moments into a stutter.’ They might smile at his philosophical conclusion that stuttering is a sign of the ‘duality of our existence, the ability of the body and soul to say no to one another.’ Or his reflection that a stammer is the acknowledgement of unacknowledged complexities surrounding even the simplest of verbal exchanges.”<\/p>\n

Other famous stutterers included in the book are Moses, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Joshua Chamberlain, King George VI, Winston Churchill, Byron Pitts, Marilyn Monroe, John Stossel, and Annie Glenn.<\/p>\n

Amazon link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Chapter 12 of\u00a0Famous Stutterers, author Gerald R. McDermott begins, “Until John Updike (1932-2009), no one had ever described stuttering with such dead-on precision. Once he compared it to a traffic jam. ‘I have lots of words inside me: but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-updike-quoted","category-updikes-life-times"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3715,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713\/revisions\/3715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}