Letters with Smokie: blindness and more-than-human relations

How might two of the leading disability scholars of the day seek to shred through the metaphorical cloak of boredom, fear, and uncertainty (as felt by all, I am sure) during a global pandemic? For Rod Michalko, Dan Goodley, and a debatably dead guide dog (to whom, I must pledge the utmost respect) writing a book is quite a logical course of action. Indeed, these disability scholars show us how everyday ­discourse might become something of extraordinary creative substance when one (i) has access to Wi-Fi and (ii) possesses a tremendous capacity for exercising the imagination.

Letters with Smokie: Blindness and More-than-Human Relations (2023), was born in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic wherein Goodley and Michalko kept up a consistent exchange of emails as a way to stay connected when a sense of chronic isolation likely plagued every member of our society. In 2020, Goodley published a book, Disability and Other Human Questions, at which point Michalko decided that he would send a congratulatory email to Goodley–but with a twist. Michalko explains that he channelled the voice of his late guide dog, (Smokie) and exercised his creative muscles in anthropomorphism. ‘Anthropomorphism describes the tendency to imbue the real or imagined behavior of nonhuman agents with humanlike characteristics, motivations, intentions, or emotions’ (Epley, Waytz, and Cacioppo 2007, 864). In the voice of Smokie the guide dog, Michalko narrates a congratulatory email, questioning Goodley about the title of his latest book, and inquires specifically about why the book appears to be limited to the exploration of human questions.

Rod Michalko discusses in the introduction (2023, 6-7) ‘the tricky, inescapable process of anthropomorphizing’ the voice of Smokie throughout the letter writing process:

I am involving Smokie in an activity that is strictly the province of human animals, namely, letter writing […] Our life together showed me with equal certainty that Smokie had moved beyond any conventional human understanding of animal life and that I had moved beyond any conventional human understanding of human life. The two of us blended the ‘nature’ of animal life and the ‘social’ of human life to generate an estranged-familiarity. (7)

Letters with Smokie compiles two years of correspondence to create an intricate and heart-felt story narrated by Michalko, Goodley, and Smokie, (2023) discussing several key topics in disability studies discourse, including (i) traditional, social, and cultural conceptions of disability in relation to environment, interaction, and knowledge production, (ii) encounters of the lived experience in and with blindness, (iii) liminality: ‘to embrace the blurring’ moments (96) as encountered in-between the ‘in-between space[s]’ (101), and (iv) more-than-human questions that seek to uncover the ordinary and extraordinary meanings of disability through critical narrative inquiry.

What sets Letters with Smokie apart from other disability studies narratives is the strength of Smokie’s perspective on what it means to live life in and with blindness. Smokie reminds us ‘that our humanity might not be about “equal” access but, instead, about how best to be together within the limits of life, limb, energy and time’ (Znaimer 2023). Such a character might inspire more readers to engage with topics in disability studies as mediated by a voice that we might least expect to appear on the pages of scholarly texts. Michalko prefaces the book by recounting the story of his first encounter with Smokie, describing their life together as they learn to navigate the world as an extraordinary dynamic duo–not least as man and canine negotiating their way through the busy streets of Toronto (in a geographical sense), but also as true companions learning to negotiate their way through, with, and in the realm of blindness (a sensorium).

Dan Goodley explains in the introduction (2023, 15) the crucial role played by Smokie, noting his ability to contribute meaningfully to disability studies discourse in unexpected ways:

Smokie emerges as a central figure: an inevitably anthropomorphized character who, nonetheless, troubles some of the easy distinctions that we carry around with us between human/animal, nature/culture, and ability/disability. I feel that Smokie reveals himself as a theoretical provocateur […] he demands that we attend to the complexities of life rather than seeking out easy answers. But he also guides us through problems and possibilities, and in this sense he is very much a welcome new voice in disability studies. (15)

I liken Letters with Smokie to other notable disability studies works that grapple with the arts (e.g. poetry, creative non/fiction writing, critical narrative inquiry) including: (i) Dramatizing Blindness: Disability Studies as Critical Creative Narrative (Healey 2021), (ii) Storying the Social: Opening Interpretations of Deafness, Disability, and Race in Accessibility Training Modules and Videoed Encounters (Cagulada 2023), (iii) Things Are Different Here: and Other Stories (Michalko 2017), (iv) DisAppearing: Encounters in Disability Studies (Titchkosky et al. 2022).

These works express the necessity for our culture to re-examine the ways in which they encounter and understand disability, encouraging readers to consider new meanings for disability–meanings that imagine disability to be something other than, as David Mitchell (2002, 15) writes, ‘a problem in need of a solution’ (as cited in Michalko and Goodley 2023, 223). This book holds a strength in its ability to communicate and contextualize various complicated, emotional themes that intersect with disability. The concept of felt isolation grappling with a need for interpersonal relations is a startlingly beautiful topic broached throughout this book in such a way to provoke personal reflection and critical thinking.

This collection of letters reflects more than an epistolary exchange. This work reveals aspects of society’s normative order through a revolutionary perspective: the perspective of Smokie the guide dog. This book invites its reader to engage with the imaginary and to let go of all preconceived notions regarding what it means to live in and with blindness. With Smokie as our guide, we are invited to re-encounter the world in new and uncomfortable ways–seeking new ways to ‘disturb the peace [that] people have created’ (Michalko and Goodley 2023, 138) and to forge new paths for meaning-making that might deviate from the normative order.

Making use of artistic mediums, including expressive writing, humour, and lively debates ‘about who was the greatest Beatle’ (Michalko and Goodley 2023, 9), Letters with Smokie is an excellent example of how interpretive disability studies engages with (and challenges) cultural conceptions of disability as a space for critical inquiry into the human (and more-than-human) condition. By engaging with the magic of everyday interaction, Michalko, Goodley, and Smokie reveal the power of exercising the imaginary–breathing life into the limitless possibilities for meaningful relation, as shown throughout every letter exchanged between Goodley and Smokie. Letters with Smokie shows us the inner workings of ‘blend[ing] the “nature” of animal life and the “social” of human life’ (7) as a means to navigate the unprecedented times of global uncertainty—and perhaps serves to guide us (disabled and non-disabled beings) through the uncertainty that always rests within disability. I highly recommend this book to those who are more-than-curious about what it means to explore questions of, what it means to be human–and perhaps more importantly, what it means to be more-than-human, in relation to the ways in which we understand one another in meaningful ways.

The scholarly discourse encountered in Letters with Smokie functions as a way to challenge ‘the social model’s assumption that “disabled” and “nondisabled” are discrete, self-evident categories, choosing instead to […] imagin[e] disability, and disability futures, differently’ (Kafer 2013, 10). These letters bring a fresh perspective to interpretive disability studies discourse through the art of creative writing, humour, anthropomorphizing, and by daring to ask the uncomfortable questions that our culture appears to have left un-encountered.

Hilary Pearson
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
[email protected]