Bibliograph

Words fail us, in defence of disfluency, Jonty Claypole

Type

Label

Words fail us, in defence of disfluency, Jonty Claypole

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Words fail us

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Jonty Claypole

Sub title

in defence of disfluency

Summary

In an age of polished TED talks and overconfident political oratory, success seems to depend upon charismatic public speaking. But what if hyper-fluency is not only unachievable but undesirable? Jonty Claypole spent fifteen years of his life in and out of extreme speech therapy. From sessions with child psychologists to lengthy stuttering boot camps and exposure therapies, he tried everything until finally being told the words he'd always feared: 'We can't cure your stutter.' Those words started him on a journey towards not only making peace with his stammer but learning to use it to his advantage. Here, Jonty argues that our obsession with fluency could be hindering, rather than helping, our creativity, authenticity and persuasiveness. Exploring other speech conditions, such as aphasia and Tourette's, and telling the stories of the 'creatively disfluent' from Lewis Carroll to Kendrick Lamar, Jonty explains why it's time for us to stop making sense, get tongue tied and embrace the life-changing power of inarticulacy

Target audience

adult

Contributor