6/15/2015 2 Comments Speaking of H.G. Wells...
"The Country of the Blind" is one of H.G. Wells' short stories, probably his most famous. I read it in the early 80s and thought I remembered what the story was about. But I re-read it recently and realized I was wrong.
The story is about a community, isolated in a valley, where a disease blinds all the babies. Everyone in the community is blind, and they've adapted their town life accordingly.
A sighted man accidentally comes upon the community and believes that, "in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" (which inspired another short story in Asimov's magazine, about a Babbage machine and a time travel paradox, but damn if I can remember who wrote it or what it was called....). He's soon proved wrong and leaves the valley to perish because he can see a rock slide about to happen and no one believes that sight is actually a thing.
I remembered the story as an illustration of how a disability is only a disability because of how society is structured. But H.G. had a different message in mind. I appreciate where he was coming from (more of a none so blind as those who will not see kind of place), but still. I was disappointed. One day I will write the story I remember. I will sit down and imagine what a town might be like where everyone is blind, and how they might do their science, and prove or disprove things like how high the sky is. And a sighted visitor shall come, and believe that he can be king. And he shall be the disabled one in, the Country of the Blind.
2 Comments
Patricia Palm
6/15/2015 03:58:08 am
I look forward to reading your vision of the story... (pun intended.)
Reply
nataluna
6/15/2015 06:15:29 am
wtf. that's horrible. like they couldn't hear the frikin landslide coming?!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
November 2019
|