Sight Unseen

by Georgina Kleege

This book offers an unexpected and unprecedented account of blindness and sight. Legally blind since the age of eleven, Georgina Kleege draws on her experiences to offer a detailed testimony of visual impairment - both her own view of the world and the world's view of the blind. Kleege describes the negative social status of the blind, analyzes stereotypes of the blind that have been perpetuated by movies, and discusses how blindness has been portrayed in literature. She vividly conveys the visual experience of someone with severely impaired sight and explains what she can see and what she cannot (and how her inability to achieve eye contact - in a society that prizes that form of connection - has affected her). Finally she tells of the various ways she reads, and the freedom she felt when she stopped concealing her blindness and acquired skills, such as reading braille, as part of a new, blind identity. Without sentimentality or cliches, Kleege offers us the opportunity to imagine life without sight.

Genres: Disability, Nonfiction, Memoir, Literary Criticism, Disability Studies, Biography, Essays

233 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 1999

About the author

Georgina Kleege is a Lecturer in English at the University of California Berkeley. She teaches creative writing and disability studies.

Reviews

[Cathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I'll be searching out more of Ms.Kleege's other work.

[Jo Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good, but still comes from a very privileged experience (but she, unlike many writers, acknowledges this).

[conway · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.

[ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75

[Mahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and really interesting

[Jenny Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a gift, a detailed account of how this particular blind woman moves through the world. I learned a lot from it, although the author keeps it personal, reminding us that each blind person works out different ways of adapting to a world in which most people are sighted.

The writing is matter-of-fact, clear, and careful, always a little understated. Kleege starts out by pointing out the ways that language emphasizes certain beliefs about the blind. Then she tackles the depictions of blind people in literature and film, and the ways these reinforce common prejudices. She addresses the way these beliefs about blindness have impacted her own life.

Kleege lost most of her sight at the age of eleven, and like many people with impaired vision, her approach was to pass as sighted, rather than dealing with people’s attitudes. She details some of the ways she did this, and what these ways cost her.

She tells us that blindness is not what we think it is, not so much of a tragedy, and that it would be a lot easier if one didn’t have to thread one’s way through this thicket of fears and prejudices. Social stigma gives a feeling of shame, even when you know you’ve done nothing wrong. As Kleege has let go of the need to protect other people from her blindness, she’s found easier ways to navigate. One of her discoveries was Braille, which apparently goes in and out of favor among people specializing in helping the blind. She writes about how she came to this tool late, and how freeing it has been for her.

[Katrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm very torn on my opinion of this book. On the one hand, I felt at first that she was a little harsh toward the media view of the blind. However, after thinking that I watched "Shrek" and the three blind mice were exactly what she was saying. Her descriptions of a movie theater inspired me in my work with the blind student I work with and I feel made me better at my job. On the other hand she was a little pity-party-ish. Actually jealous of Helen Keller because she had Annie Sullivan? My view of the blind, however, is very different from her's. I was raised by a father who is legally blind, and I work with a blind student now. I don't see all that the blind can't do. I see all that the blind CAN do because I was raised by a man who didn't let his eyesight stop him from doing anything, except for driving a vehicle. I also am approaching these things from the point of view of society in 2010. She was not and that is probably the biggest difference. A blind child now, even one who can see a little bit, is taught braille. She was not taught it as a child. And, "Shrek" aside, the blind are portrayed more positively in today's movies and on television. So again, a little torn. Some of this book was brilliantly descriptive, and a real eye-opener. Some of it bored me and seemed a little too much like a pity party.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tend to view this book as a collection of essays rather than a 'pure' memoir. Some of the topics are a bit more academic (blindness as portrayed in literature, art, and film) but still interesting. However, I especially appreciated some of the more personal aspects of Kleege's account of the past 30 years of her blindness. She does a masterful job of describing in great detail the particulars of her form of blindness: a large central blind spot with very distorted peripheral vision (due to early-onset macular degeneration, diagnosed at age 11).

She discusses the liberation she felt in finally learning braille as an adult -- and her theory of why eye doctors and social workers discouraged it for most of her life: as sighted people, they wanted her to hold tenaciously to what little poor-quality sight she retained; no reading "like a blind person." (This desire to keep the blind looking as "normal" as possible by discouraging braille, has been similarly experienced by the deaf during periods when signing was discouraged or disallowed.)

Part cultural, part personal, but only mildly political (respect for persons with disability), this autobiography is an excellent reminder of what people can achieve despite tremendous obstacles.

[Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent book by a blind author -- part autobiography, part textbook. The author gives wonderful descriptions of blindness, explaining that many legally blind people do not live in darkness, that many can maneuver the world such that we never realize that they are blind. Her explanations of the techniques and strategies the blind utilize are fascinating and inspiring. And interspersed with these factual/academic sections are sometimes emotional passages telling of her own life and experiences.

For me, one of the most interesting passages described her visits to art museums, and how she looks at paintings. Incredibly fascinating!

This book taught me a lot about blindness, and increased my sensitivity towards those who are blind. Unfortunately, at times the author was overly critical of sighted individuals, taking umbrage at off-hand comments, at movie plots, at common phrases, at stranger's looks. She responds as if all of us are insensitive cruel people -- and that super- sensitivity limits her ability to reach out. If the book was more understanding of ALL of us, I would recommend it more highly. But even with that negative, I do recommend the book for anyone wanting to more deeply understand blindness.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Sight Unseen, by Georgina Kleege, borrowed from the National Library Service for the Blind.

Kleege is a blind professor of English and author residing in Berkeley. This book is her attempt to explain to the sighted world, and to herself, what sighted people see, and how it differs from what blind people see. I am blind also, and I agree with her philosophy that sight is not necessary to enjoy the world, but that blind people “see” the world differently. My favorite chapters talked about such things as eye contact:what does it really mean, and do any two people mean the same thing, and do blind people really miss out by not having access to eye contact. She also discussed whether or not audio books are “read” or whether ther is some scorn shown by the elite public for “listening” to a book as opposed to “reading a book. Finally, she talks about Louis Braille and what he gave to the world, with an explanation of Braille for the sighted world and a robust expulsion of the theory that adults blinded later in life can’t learn Braille. An insightful book for both the sighted world and blind readers.

[Ann-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Yale UP book, actually the first that I've read, not counting the Yale books I've edited. The author, Georgina Kleege, was the wife of one of my authors, although he died before I began editing his ms., so I never worked with him.
It's a memoir about Kleege's blindness and I really enjoyed it (she writes well). Especially interesting were the chapters on what it's like for her to go to an art museum (she has some peripheral vision) and what it was like for her to learn braille as an adult. The book was eye opening (forgive the pun) in many ways.

[Palak Bhandari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Sight Unseen for college and honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect at first. But Georgina Kleege’s writing pulled me in. It’s personal, sharp, and sometimes even funny, which makes it really easy to connect with. I liked how she talks about blindness in a way that isn’t stereotypical, but real and honest. The parts where she mixes her own experiences with bigger cultural ideas were the most interesting to me. It definitely made me think about things I’d never considered before, and I’m glad I got to read it as part of my course.

[Brian]

"Writing this book made me blind." An excellent memoir about growing up blind in a family of visual artists. What she means by the sentence quoted above is that the process of writing about her senses brought her a new consciousness of her disability.

[Wes Townsend · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas about blindness and the nature of sight, but ultimately Kleege's tone is too bitter and humorless for the book to be enjoyable at all. She holds a deep resentment for sighted people, and it comes through strongly in the writing.

[Doc Kinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was reasonable, but not overly memorable. I think, perhaps, I was after something very specific that wasn't entirely there. However, the book was good in knocking out some stereotypes and as such I recommend it.

[Evalangui · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is clear minded, personal but intelligently related to both the circumstances of the sighted and the blind and quite simply, to human perception. I will be thinking of it for a long time and reading about Monsieur Braille ASAP.