"The Finer Things"

Raymond Luczak grew up in a large family with nine children in a small mining town in northern Michigan. While a baby, he lost most of his hearing due to pneumonia. An English major, he graduated from Gallaudet University in 1988 and became a professional writer. He has written stories, plays, essays, and literary criticism. He has won many awards including first place in the New York Deaf Theater’s 1990 Samuel Edwards Deaf Playwrights Competition.

He is the author of the play, Snooty, the essay, “Notes of a Deaf Gay Writer, “The Finer Things”, a short story, and a book of poems, St. Michael’s Fall. He is the editor of Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay & Lesbian Reader.

“The Finer Things” is a short story about a relationship triangle. The main character is a deaf, gay man who has a deaf-blind, gay partner. The main character meets a hearing man at an art museum in Washington, D.C. and the two form a friendship which leads to a more serious relationship. The main character breaks off with his partner and moves to NYC because he wishes to have the “finer things” in life (exposure to the arts, fine dining, larger, cosmopolitan city, good wine, more friends in the art community, etc.). It ends somewhat sadly because the gay partner is deaf-blind and will be left alone.

This story is a good introduction to deaf, gay writing in the 1980s (??). At this time, it is somewhat dated because most Gallaudet art majors are more sophisticated and knowledgeable than the main character. The main character does not seem to eat out in good restaurants much. He also seems to have limited exposure to art even though he was a Gallaudet art major. Finally, the main character seems to get by by lipreading hearing people and there is little focus on the difficulties of communications in the hearing world. It seems that the focus in this story is the main character’s need to broaden his horizons and take care of a new gay, older, partner’s patronage – in other words, this is more of a gay story with a typical art theme than a deaf story with a visual theme. And, it is also now dated.

The writing style is simple but flowing with avoidance of big words that deaf readers may not know. There is glossing of ASL in the dialogue between the two deaf characters. Readers can see some development of the main character who “grows” and changes. The other two characters are not as rounded.

Related to the “leaving home” theme, the main character has to leave home (Washington, D.C. with Gallaudet and its deaf community) to go to NYC, a much bigger place, for more exposure and a bigger chance to realize his potential.

My first husband was bisexual (more gay than bisexual??) and passed away in his 30s from AIDS in the early 1990s. He was the oldest boy in a large deaf, Australian family. He was also a rebel, in not conforming to his family’s church (no post-secondary education, dancing, cards, marrying outside the church, etc.). He left the church and came to the U.S. to get a college education. He later taught history at SWCID in Texas. His younger siblings also left the church (and also were ex-communicated) and his two of his three younger brothers followed him to the U.S. to enroll at Gallaudet.