Rec | THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

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Rec'd on 📚 Books THAT SHAPED YOU AS A PERSON

I think I had to read this for school at some point when I was a teenager, but it reeeeally hit me hard. The book was written using a coded system of blinks- the author would blink to indicate the next letter, employing the help of a third party to transcribe. It is the memoir of a man who had a massive stroke and a result, suffered from “locked-in syndrome” [biting my hand not to make a tasteless joke about being absolutely locked in], and therefore couldn’t speak or move much. My dad had a similarly severe stroke when I was 10 and was also unable to speak and had very limited movement, so reading this book gave me much-needed hope that my dad was “still in there,” so to speak, and was just a pretty gorgeous triumph of will, and very sad as well. I remember the movie also making me cry a lot

@sabina

May 5, 2024

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@rowe

Wow you made me look into this book and it’s now on my wish list. I think it’s so easy to think we all live completely separate lives that it can feel like a lot when we see our struggles in someone else. I’m so sorry about your father, I hope things are going ok. However thank you for recommending this book. P.S. Resisting the locked-in joke will not go unnoticed 😌

May 6, 2024

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RE-REC'D BY @sabina

Buckle up, team. tonight’s the night

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I feel like this is rec‘d once a week on here. 60° and a light breeze, take me away

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