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Cristina Hartmann
Cristina Hartmann

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Nov 3, 2018

Reading Between the Lines I Couldn’t See

I was born Deaf and lost my vision as an adult — but reading is my constant companion — The first time books changed my life, I didn’t even know what a book was. My mother reeled when I was diagnosed as totally Deaf at four months old. She called it “the destruction of dreams.” “I wanted to be a mother, a good mother,” she once told me before…

Books

8 min read

Books Taught Me I Was More Than Just a Label
Books Taught Me I Was More Than Just a Label

Published in Modus

·Sep 28, 2018

The Power of Tactile Typography

As someone with limited sight, Braille allows me to feel the landscape of language — About six years ago, my world turned upside down as my sight receded into blurs and whorls of color and light. One thing that changed most was how I read. As someone who loved books, I didn’t want to completely abandon the written word. Against the advice of a low-vision…

Typography

10 min read

The Power of Tactile Typography
The Power of Tactile Typography

Sep 11, 2018

A Guide to Making Reading Fiction Fun

What sucks the fun out of reading and what to do about it — When you read a good story, a lot happens. It activates your visual cortex as if you were actually seeing what the words describe. Your oxytocin levels spike, bringing on all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings. The nifty neurochemical is called the “love hormone” for a good reason. Whenever…

Reading

9 min read


Aug 29, 2018

From Silence to Sound

What it’s really like to hear for the first time after growing up totally deaf — I didn’t hear a damn thing until I was six. When my parents discovered my deafness at four months, the audiologist told them that I was the deafest baby she had ever met. I didn’t react to even the loudest sounds, which were noted as no-reaction on my audiogram. The…

Life

10 min read


Jul 19, 2018

The Vanities of a Blind Woman

If you had met me six years ago, you would’ve found me to be an ordinary young woman where my vanities were concerned. Whenever I passed by the mirror, my gaze assessed my reflection. I zeroed in on my physical flaws. The bump on my nose. My belly’s stubborn convexity…

Fashion

5 min read

The Vanities of a Blind Woman
The Vanities of a Blind Woman

Apr 2, 2018

The Odd One Out

The strange dynamics of growing up deaf in a hearing family — When I was 11, my 13-year-old sister locked herself into her room in a fit of teenage angst. Before she quarantined herself, she covered my parents’s bathroom mirror with post-its detailing their every transgression. As you might’ve guessed, there were many. …

Deaf

14 min read

The Odd One Out
The Odd One Out

Mar 22, 2018

When Bad People Create Good Art

The ethical dilemma of consuming good art by bad people — Every time a famed artist is felled by some shocking revelation, we start wringing our hands. “What should we do?” we cry. “Should we keep on enjoying their art? Or should we boycott beautiful things create by filthy people?” …

Art

12 min read


Mar 5, 2018

Like and Equal are Not the Same Thing

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ has a message that rings as true today as it did in 1962. — When a book comes along at just the right time, it changes you forever. A Wrinkle in Time was that book for me. A Wrinkle in Time begins with the disappearance of Dr. Murry, a scientist working on a top-secret government project. He leaves behind a wife and four children…

Books

9 min read


Feb 11, 2018

The Complications of Growing Up Bionic

It’s not a tragedy to be deaf and it’s not a miracle when technology brings you sound — When I was nine, my class went on a field trip to a sensory research lab. A local TV crew came along as part of a human interest story on what schoolchildren thought about animal testing. It must’ve been a really slow news week. All of my classmates mugged for…

Deafness

16 min read

The Complications of Growing Up Bionic
The Complications of Growing Up Bionic

Jun 21, 2017

How to Tell if a Piece of Fiction Has Literary Merit

Literary merit can be a dangerous term. If you stand up in an English department meeting and declare that Hemingway is an alcoholic sexist who couldn’t write for the JCPenny catalogue, you may start a civil war. People get testy about this stuff. As any teenager who has read the…

Books

7 min read

Cristina Hartmann

Cristina Hartmann

Stringing words together and hoping for the best. Find me at http://cristinahartmann.com

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