Notes on Blindness

Author: John Hull
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1782833617
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
A rediscovered modern classic: a life-affirming account of one man's journey into blindness 'A gift to the whole of humanity' Cathy Rentzenbrink Days before the birth of his first son, writer and academic John M. Hull started to go blind. He would lose his sight entirely, unable to distinguish any sense of light or shadow. Isolated and claustrophobic, he sank into a deep depression. Soon, he had forgotten what his wife and daughter looked like. In Notes on Blindness, John reveals his profound sense of loss, his altered perceptions of time and space, of waking and sleeping, love and companionship. With astonishing lucidity of thought and no self-pity, he describes the horror of being faceless, and asks what it truly means to be a husband and father. And eventually, he finds a new way of experiencing the world, of seeing the light. Based on John's diaries recorded on audio tape, this is a profoundly moving, wise and life-affirming account of one man's journey into blindness. 'Poignant and wise' Andrew Solomon Published in partnership with Wellcome Collection.

Touching the Rock

Author: John M. Hull
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780281077472
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
"Touching the Rock" is a unique exploration of that distant, infinitely strange 'other world' of blindness. John Hull writes of odd sounds and echoes, of people without faces, of a curious new relationship between waking and dreaming, of a changed perception of nature and human personality. He reveals a world in which every human experience - eating and lovemaking, playing with children and buying drinks in the bar - is transformed. 'The incisiveness of Hull's observation, the beauty of his language, make this book poetry; the depth of his reflection turns it into phenomenology or philosophy.' Oliver Sacks, neurologist and bestselling author (1933-2015) 'He lets us see with no trace of self-pity or self-praise how blindness has become for him a genuine acquisition, an unforeseeably rich gift that has made of him what so few of us are: excellent watchers and hearers of the world . . . triumphant in the teeth of ruin.' Reynolds Price, American novelist (1933-2011) "Notes on Blindness," a feature film and virtual reality experience by Peter Middleton & James Spinney based on John's original audio diaries. The project is an Archer's Mark Production in association with Fee Fie Foe Films and 104 Films in co-production with Agat Films & Cie/Ex Nihilo. www.notesonblindness.co.uk

Blindness

Author: José Saramago
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0156007754
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Book Description
A stunningly powerful novel of man's will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. "This is a shattering work by a literary master."--The Boston Globe A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers--among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears--through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses--and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit.

On Sight & Insight

Author: John M. Hull
Publisher: ONEWorld Publications
ISBN: 9781851681419
Category : Blind
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This book is a unique testimony to the 'other world' of blindness, describing not the overcoming of suffering, but rather the reality of a world where perceptions of sound, silence and space are greatly changed.

Blindness and Insight

Author: Paul de Man
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135854963
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
In Blindness and Insight , de Man examines several critics and finds in their writings a gap between their statements about the nature of literature and the results of their practical criticism. Not only are the critics unaware of this gap, says de Man, but their blindness to it often leads to some of their most valuable insights. The central issue of de Man's work is the rhetorical constitution of the text, and this book, with its new introduction by Wlad Godzich and five additional essays by de Man, is meant to challenge readers to a new appreciation of their chosen task as readers of literature. Included in this new edition are the original essays on Binswanger, Poulet, Lukas, Blanchot, the New Critics, and Derrida's `of Grammatology', as well as five more: `The Rhetoric of Temporality', `The Dead-End of Formalist Criticism', `Heidegger's Exegesis of Holderlin', a review of Bloom's `Anxiety of Influence, and `Literature and Language'.

The Blindness of the Heart

Author: Julia Franck
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802196217
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
The international phenomenon and winner of the German Book Prize. “A devastating novel about war, love, and the art of survival” (Marie Claire). Julia Franck’s unforgettable English-language debut, The Blindness of the Heart is a dark marvel of a novel by one of Europe’s freshest young voices—a family story spanning two world wars and several generations in a German family. In the devastating opening scene, a woman named Helene stands with her seven-year-old son in a provincial German railway station in 1945 amid the chaos of civilians fleeing west. Having survived with him through the horror and deprivation of the war years, she abandons him on the station platform and never returns. The story quickly circles back to Helene’s childhood with her sister Martha in rural Germany, which came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the First World War. Their father is sent to the eastern front, and their Jewish mother withdraws from the hostility of her surroundings into a state of mental confusion. As we follow Helene into adulthood, we watch riveted as the costs of survival and ill-fated love turn her into a woman capable of the unforgiveable. “Enthralling, richly imagined and remorseless.” —The New York Times Book Review “Spellbinding . . . The young woman at the center of Julia Franck’s acclaimed novel The Blindness of the Heart ranks among the most haunting characters to be found in European fiction about twentieth-century horrors . . . At times, the novel feels more like an eyewitness account than historical fiction.” —Vogue “Disturbing, original, and brilliant.” —Guardian (Best Books of 2009)

The Unseen Minority

Author: Frances A. Koestler
Publisher: American Foundation for the Blind
ISBN: 9780891288961
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 678

Book Description
The definitive history of the societal forces affecting blind people in the United States and the professions that evolved to provide services to people who are visually impaired, The Unseen Minority was originally commissioned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the American Foundation for the Blind in 1971. Updated with a new foreword outlining the critical issues that have arisen since the original publication and with time lines presenting the landmark events in the legislative arena, low vision, education, and orientation and mobility, this classic work has never been more relevant.

Blind Eye

Author: James B. Stewart
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684865637
Category : Current Events
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Book Description
The author of "Den of Thieves" traces the path of Michael Swango--who seemed a model young doctor until his patients began dying in suspicious circumstances. The doctor is thought by the FBI to be the most successful serial killer in the nation's history. Second serial to New York "Daily News".

Blindness and Writing

Author: Heather Tilley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107194210
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
In this innovative and important study, Heather Tilley examines the huge shifts that took place in the experience and conceptualisation of blindness during the nineteenth century, and demonstrates how new writing technologies for blind people had transformative effects on literary culture. Considering the ways in which visually-impaired people used textual means to shape their own identities, the book argues that blindness was also a significant trope through which writers reflected on the act of crafting literary form. Supported by an illuminating range of archival material (including unpublished letters from Wordsworth's circle, early ophthalmologic texts, embossed books, and autobiographies) this is a rich account of blind people's experience, and reveals the close, and often surprising personal engagement that canonical writers had with visual impairment. Drawing on the insights of disability studies and cultural phenomenology, Tilley highlights the importance of attending to embodied experience in the production and consumption of texts.

What You See When You Can't See

Author: Zena Cooper
Publisher:
ISBN: 1788173198
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
A deeply touching and uplifting view of the world through different eyes, and a roadmap to finding bliss in the simplest of things. Zena Cooper lives a full life, in which she uses her senses to examine and explore the world around her. She does all that without one thing many of us take for granted: sight. Born with Marfan syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that means she is almost completely blind, Zena kept the extent of her condition hidden from the world for four decades. That was until Munch - a guide dog full of personality - took up residence in her life and, almost overnight, a disability she had been hiding for years was suddenly clear for all to see. What You See When You Can't See follows Zena's journey in accepting her limitations. A qualified integrative counsellor, she shares her unique model to reset negative thought patterns, along with tools to help anyone reshape their narrative. Zena asks her readers to find beauty in their own adversity. With Munch at the heart of her experience, this book explores the possibility of an amplified life, no matter your circumstances.