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Sometimes I suspect that effects-heavy multiplex movies are at the mercy of expensive technology and not the other way around. Several reviews I’ve read of the upcoming Hobbit movie fault it for being overlong and containing too-little story, yet this same criticism could be applied to multiple blockbusters of recent years that exceed two-hour running times. I understand the logic behind the growing lengths—blockbuster movies cost so much, both to make and to see, that studios and spectators alike want to get their money’s worth. But what might register for one spectator as a feast of pleasurable sounds and images (similar to the candy binge children enjoy on Halloween night) could be, to another, a form of sensory bombardment.
In any case, working with them was rather like caring for very large infants. I changed their diapers, spoon-fed them their lunches (they hadn’t developed the mental capacity to chew), and introduced them to as much of the world as they might comprehend. This latter activity took the form of sensory-stimulation exercises. For 20-to-30 minute periods, we’d engage the clients with different pieces of fabric, put on a CD, or show them pictures from a storybook. We didn’t read as often as we engaged in sensory or auditory stimulation, as a few of the clients had been born blind. Whatever we did, though, we tried to focus on one sense at a time, as anything more complicated could register as overload and send the clients into tantrums. One of the men suffered little seizures whenever he felt overwhelmed, which happened at least once an hour. He spent most of his life in a custom-made padded wheelchair that he could thrash around in without any risk to his well-being.
