Bibliograph

There plant eyes, a personal and cultural history of blindness, M. Leona Godin

Type

Label

There plant eyes, a personal and cultural history of blindness, M. Leona Godin

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 447-462)

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

There plant eyes

Medium

large print

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

M. Leona Godin

Sub title

a personal and cultural history of blindness

Summary

M. Leona Godin begins her fascinating, wide-ranging study with an exploration of how the idea of sight is inextricably linked with knowledge and understanding; how "blindness" has, for millennia, been used as a metaphor for ignorance; and how, in metaphorical terms, blindness can also be made to suggest a door to artistic or spiritual transcendence. And she makes clear how all of this has obscured the reality of blindness, as a consequence of which many blind people have to deal not just with their disability but also with expectations that they possess "superpowers." Godin illuminates the often-surprising history of both the physiological condition and the ideas that have attached to it. She incorporates an analysis of blindness in art and literature (from King Lear to Star Wars) and culture (assumptions of the blind as pure and magically wise) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) and a recounting of her own experience of gradually losing sight over the course of three decades. Altogether, Godin gives us a revelation of the centrality of blindness and vision to humanity's understanding of itself and the world

Table Of Contents

Introduction: Seeing & Not-Seeing -- Homer's Blind Bard -- The Tenacious Grip of the Blind Seer -- I Once Was Blind but Now I See -- Out, Vile Jelly! -- Telescopes, Microscopes, Spectacles, and Speculations -- Darkness Visible -- The Molyneux Man -- Performing Enlightenment -- Braille and His Invention -- The Tap Tapping of Blind Travelers -- Helen Keller In Vaudeville and In Love -- Sanctified by Affliction, or Not -- Portrait of the (Working) Writer as Blind -- The Secret Life of Art and Accessibility -- The Scylla and Charybdis of Stigma and Superpowers -- The Invisible Gorilla and Other Inattentions -- Constructing Blind Pride Out of Ancient and Evolutionary Blind Memes

Classification