008 Blindness

Blindness by José Saramago, published in English in 1997.

This is the third entry today. And like the previous two, I no longer have the book on hand . I have reservations about continuing on with this reading list. So many outdated books. Too much American content. Having said that, I don't enjoy translations of international books because translations never do originals justice. Meanings are lost or twisted and the art of the writing itself is crippled. So reading American books are easier and in some sense, the intended meanings are less skewed because they are written in English and I know, to some extent, American history. It's pickle 22.

Ok. Now on to two paragraphs or so about José's book. I like science fiction, and this book was written recently (in book time) so it was a refreshing read. Of course, like all winners or books by winners, heavy themes exist. José's story of a society going blind en mass, except for one doctor's wife, and people being quarantined, references the holocaust.

Over three hundred blind people are confined to an old mental asylum. No outside help is given to them because the "white blindness" is highly contagious. Rooms, halls, courtyards are covered in feces. Food is delivered daily. A group of twenty men, armed with one gun and self fashioned weapons, control the food and demand payment first in material goods and then in women.

The doctor's wife stabs the leader of the blind thugs in the throat with a pair of scissors.

In a way, this book is similar to Grapes of Wrath. In the worst of inhumane conditions, people reveal their true nature. People will do acts previously unimaginable. Like the doctor's wife who kills.

From these books, over and over again, it is the message you don't know what you are capable of nor what you are made of until tested.