DISQUS

goldwriting · 1 year ago

The NFB are reacting defensively and without thought to something they perceive on the surface to be offensive. If the bothered to read the book they would find the truth, like you said in the article, that the blindness is a lens through which we watch the breakdown of society and the near instantaneous depravity people can drop to. These characters are not blind from birth, they have not had the time and training to learn to live as proud citizens with this affliction. They turn blind instantly in the middle of traffic, the middle of sex, the middle of a thought, and then they are tossed into a condemned building with little assistance or support. In all truth, the people in the story could have had full use of their sight and the depravity would have still happened, just not as quickly.

Keith · 1 year ago

“I’m very surprised. The film is not about blind people, it’s about human nature, about people who have just gone blind with no time for any adaptation. The only character who’s really blind (Maury Chaykin) is completely adapted and so efficient that he’s able to control all the others. I never even thought that the film could hurt blind people, because that’s not what it is about. I know some artists, scientists or businessmen that are blind and brilliant in their jobs. We all know that.”

- Director of Blindness, Fernando Meirelles.

Blindness is an amazing film, a real shame someone would want to protest against it.

Cole Abaius · 1 year ago

Ugh - if they're bothered by the movie, they shouldn't go see it.

Oh, shit...

Adam Sweeney · 1 year ago

I love my little monkey butler, I don't give a damn what anyone says.

Can somebody put a ban on political correctness? This film is not offensive in any way to members of the blind community. You know what? Fuck it. I am starting a protest against Attack of the Killer Tomatoes because it promotes a negative stereotype against vegetables. Take that!

Meepo · 1 year ago

Its just as stupid as the Tropic Thunder protests.

Blind people can't even see the movie, why complain?

Mikey · 1 year ago

"So why is it that some people are just too blind to see the line between fact and metaphor?"

Duh, it's because they can't see

James · 1 year ago

The blindness is a disease in the movie and it spreads like one from person to person. It also isn't normal blindness where you don't see anything... you see nothing but bright white. And there are many religious undertones throughout the novel as well if you read it.

Chuck · 1 year ago

I am legally blind and feel the book and film are outrageous.

Most people do not know a blind person, and you would be amazed how many stupid questions people ask us about "How do you do..." this or that. Blind parents even hear people tell their kids "You take good care of your Daddy, don't you." and other similar outrageous and stupid statements. We also face an unemployment rate greater than 60%, not because we are not qualified or don't want to work, but because employers harbor the same myths and misconceptions as the rest of society.

Blindness is simply the inability to perceive things with the eyes. Whether a person is born blind or becomes blind as a child or adult doesn't matter. They still have equal capabilities to learn alternate methods of doing the same routine things we all do every day. Just because someone goes blind does not make them suddenly lose the ability to dress themselves or do other simple tasks.

If a movie were to be made in which people’s hair suddenly turned blonde and all of the characters with blonde hair were vapid idiots, then people with blonde hair would rightly be outraged. In today’s society, it should likewise be unacceptable for blindness to be used as a stand-in for depravity, incompetence, and lack of understanding. This movie will further entrench myths and misunderstanding about blindness and blind people and will contribute to the barriers to equal participation in society that we face.

A group of NFB members and staff were allowed to pre-screen the movie, and other members have read the book, so we know what we're talking about.

Earlier tonight I joined hundreds of my fellow blind brothers and sisters across America in the largest protest the NFB has organized in its 68-year history. Hundreds of blind people and people who support us gathered at more than 75 cinemas across 38 states.

Paul · 1 year ago

I am also a Blind American. And I don't think I can say it much better than Chuck. The very fact that the above article by Brian Gibson uses stereotypes and cheap jokes to make his point proves that in America it is OK to insult and degradate the blind and disabled. Comments such as, "Can blind people read this?" and "Some people just cant see beyond their reach," are offensive in an article that is supposed to be thought provoking. Yes some of us have "Seen" the movie or read the book, and yes we understand that it is supposed to be a metaphor, but does that make it ok? If I made a movie about good people fighting evil people, and all the good people had white skin and all the evil people had black skin would that be an acceptable metaphor? The question is why is blindness linked with depravity, ignorance, and uncivility? They could have just as easily made the catalyst something else. Heck this could be a fictional retelling of Hurricaine Katrina and the Thunderdome, oh but waith thats real life and that might offend someone. Well as Chuck pointed out blind people are real and most people don't know us. And the stereotypes and false information about blindness do cause prejudice and descrimination in real life. So I feel we need to be more careful with our metaphors.

James · 1 year ago

I don't get how people can be offended. How are you offended? That people go blind in the
movie from something that spreads like a disease.... spreads all over. I think it's interesting
how people would react to that. I think some would be appreciative of people taking the
time to think about what it would be like.

lodro rigdzin · 1 year ago

"wait, can blind people read?" Well obviously. I'm blind. The problem with both the novel
and the film is that Saramago never wondered whether the mere use of blindness as a
metaphor for inhumanity and barbarism wasn't problematic as such. Society's attitude
towards blindness and the blind isn't neutral, unfortunately and the blog posting above
proves it admirably.

Sandra gomes · 1 year ago

Hello,

too late, but i really need to say it. sorry for my english. I'm portuguese, and i've read the book many years ago. i never thought about blind people then, i thought about the chaos of when you loose something that you're life is based on. Maybe the problem is the translation. in portuguese it's "AN ESSAY ON BLINDNESS". so if you think about it not only as metaphor, but as something that shows the relation between loosing something that you're life is dependent on and it's consequences, you understand. Now a few curiosities:

You know that we use almost 80% of our perception of the basicly vision (bsed on an USA study)?
You know the chaos that someone feels if suddenly goes blind, and it is not used to use other senses? we can get mentaly disorganized.
You know that the society is promoting vision over other senses? And that is making us a lot less inteligent? you know that there are philosofers and other thinkers who advise about the consequences of such a use of vision or excess of visual estimulation?
You know that lossing sight it is so important that even the ancient greeks created a mythic ideia about blindness?
you know that are several works of art that uses blidness to show us what we can't see (see in the sense of understanding)
You know that the words theory comes for the greek that implies seing?
we are cientific and symbolic beings, some of us religous and, nowadays, we have to add emptyness. emptyness is to be unable to understand art, expressions, values, traditions. is not being able to distuinguish from the dictionary definition of the words and the uses it takes for saying things otherwise impossible to say.
you know that if you say: i'am so happy i could fly, you wont be flying anytime, at least by your on means. but you need to use the verb as metaphoric expression. So why are so many americans (and probably others) bothered about the book/movie? because they are being moral, and morality always turns out to be politic, and if it spreads, it's dangerous. Most dictateurs started by burning books. that's what we are doing (all of us); we are burning abstract knowledge, the knowlodge that stop us for doing really bad things, and stoping us to turn inquisitors, beings protected only by the gods and ignorance of they're own actions.
I hope there are many blind people that are angry to be used in such a way, and against people that keep on denying the problems they have. i read that the director of an association of the imparaid (vision) saying that the only problem with blindness is the society not being prepared for them. The lie is such that it can't be argued. "the problem is not me, is the others". is this what we, ocidental civilization, want? to blame someone or something for the problems we encounter, and not learning from it?

The truth is quiet because it lives in the inside. the lie is noisy, because it can only live on the outside, it is "more true" as noisy as it gets. and all of us somehow, sometimes do this, not only the protectors of the disable ones. our only way to stop it is to look for knowledge and understanding, like this book does, looks at us and tells what we are...

sorry and thanks

Pedro · 1 year ago

Since, apparently, according to 'Chuck', only a few members of the NFB went see the movie and/or read the novel and apparetly relayed it to the rest, I will have to assume that either

a) These few already had their opinions formed when they watched/read it.
b) They were simply too "Blind" to understand the story.

What saddens me is that a whole group of people went on to protest without actually knowing and THINKING FOR THEMSELVES on the story itself.

Y'know, in the end of the book when everyone's sight returns, there is a line that particularly touched me:

"I don’t think we did go blind, I think we are blind, Blind but seeing, Blind people who can see, but do not see."

THAT is the blindness the movie's about. The one where you CAN see, but don't.

The NFB members could have 'seen' (heard or read, THOUGHT ABOUT IT FOR THEMSELVES) but did not. I find that sad.

It's kinda ironic that the indifference, discrimination, stereotyping that real life blind people suffer is a part of the *deeper* Blindness Saramago metaphorically talks about. Yet they go on in hordes, mindlessly protesting it.

Go figure.

"Foolishness is infinitely more fascinating than intelligence…Intelligence has limits while foolishness has none."
Claude Chabrol

[/rant]

Erika · 11 months ago

Wow....you talk about ignorance? YOU are the ignorant one, Brian (and others who sarcastically think things like this) "Wait, can blind people read this?" Are you stupid? They may not physically be able to READ it with their eyes, but screen readers can read it to them. I am not blind and even I am offended. Before writing on a topic--- why don't you research the topic, then you will see that blind people can do almost anything you can do...and probably better. STOP being so ignorant!

I don't care what you write about the movie or about NFB or whatever---everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However, you are just insulting blind people by writing comments like that. "Blind people can't even see the movie" - just cause you can't see things, does that mean you have no clue what's going on? Do you also think that because deaf people can't hear, they can't tell what's happening in a movie?

You guys disgust me.

overgauss · 9 months ago

Amen!
Yeah and it is also just deserts for the ass rapery blind people have to take in terms of technology pricing. 1980's tech for 3k! "well blind people are a limited market, they have to make a profit somehow". How many blind and or deaf people do we need to have worldwide before price gouging is unacceptable? 50-100 million? More?! Oh wait we're already there.

To reinforce what has been said already. Imagine a bunch of white people getting together to make a movie about blacks living in the inner city. All the actors in the movie are to be white and none of them should have ever met a black person, let alone talked to one. They just act as if they imagine how blacks must act from what they have seen on tv or read in books.

I'm not talking stereotypes as that could be argued to have a semblance of truth. I'm talking just straight pulling out of your ass what you think "hip-hoppers" must act like.

Because as we all know, all blacks in the inner city are hip-hoppers. OK then after all of that, the whites should show their superiority by chastising the over sensitive blacks for being offended. "Blacks should totally dig this movie! It's about them, but it is not because it is a metaphor for how crappy white people are. See!"

To put the icing on the cake, any dialogue must first start with "I'm sorry to any blacks that may possibly get offended for pointing out how nigerish blacks must be. It is by definition, they are blacks, what did I do wrong?"

Do you see what I did there?