What do you think?
Rate this book
There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness
From Homer to Helen Keller, from Dune to Stevie Wonder, from the invention of braille to the science of echolocation, M. Leona Godin explores the fascinating history of blindness, interweaving it with her own story of gradually losing her sight.
“[A] thought-provoking mixture of criticism, memoir, and advocacy." — The New Yorker
There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our ocularcentric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what it means to be “blind.” For millennia, blindness has been used to signify such things as thoughtlessness (“blind faith”), irrationality (“blind rage”), and unconsciousness (“blind evolution”). But at the same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil).
Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture (from King Lear to Star Wars ) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural history.
A genre-defying work, There Plant Eyes reveals just how essential blindness and vision are to humanity’s understanding of itself and the world.
“[A] thought-provoking mixture of criticism, memoir, and advocacy." — The New Yorker
There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our ocularcentric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what it means to be “blind.” For millennia, blindness has been used to signify such things as thoughtlessness (“blind faith”), irrationality (“blind rage”), and unconsciousness (“blind evolution”). But at the same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil).
Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture (from King Lear to Star Wars ) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural history.
A genre-defying work, There Plant Eyes reveals just how essential blindness and vision are to humanity’s understanding of itself and the world.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2021
55 people are currently reading
2291 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
July 21, 2021
One blind reader's opinion, but this is the book I've been waiting for all my life to explore all the facets of blindness through the years. It examines so many of the things that make being blind difficult. Spoiler, sighted people are part of the problem and should read this book to open up their minds to the real life, lived experiences of blind people.
Terms like ocularcentrism are a theme throughout this book and finally there's a word that encapsulates the world we live in. This author weaves in her own personal anecdotes with culturally relevant examples of where blindness has come up as metaphor and as trope. Words have power, for good or for ill, and Dr.
Godin shines through in this guide through our collective blind history and into these modern times where we're trying hard to be more tolerant as a society, to diversify. It's humourous and witty and a brilliant read.
It's not only a book that matters to blind readers, but anyone and everyone should be reading There Plant Eyes because we all need to let go of any internalized ableism, something so common. She is attempting to get people to pay attention, by metaphorically drawing our eyes to a spot where change can take place for the betterment of us all, sighted or blind.
I can't tell you how often I nodded in agreement, with each chapter read. It is a tapestry of blind voices all gathered together to be heard by the wider world. I just hope people will stop a moment and consider what's said in the pages of this cultural history of blindness.
Terms like ocularcentrism are a theme throughout this book and finally there's a word that encapsulates the world we live in. This author weaves in her own personal anecdotes with culturally relevant examples of where blindness has come up as metaphor and as trope. Words have power, for good or for ill, and Dr.
Godin shines through in this guide through our collective blind history and into these modern times where we're trying hard to be more tolerant as a society, to diversify. It's humourous and witty and a brilliant read.
It's not only a book that matters to blind readers, but anyone and everyone should be reading There Plant Eyes because we all need to let go of any internalized ableism, something so common. She is attempting to get people to pay attention, by metaphorically drawing our eyes to a spot where change can take place for the betterment of us all, sighted or blind.
I can't tell you how often I nodded in agreement, with each chapter read. It is a tapestry of blind voices all gathered together to be heard by the wider world. I just hope people will stop a moment and consider what's said in the pages of this cultural history of blindness.
February 23, 2022
I want to buy this book. I learned a lot and I loved her exploration and where she led the reader. The content is dense, yet accessible. It gave me the feeling I had in university when I would read research papers that sparkled and inspired me. DAAAAMN, M. LEONA.
November 6, 2021
"Until we recognize that being "made to see" is not the same as being a sight-oriented person, or that being a sighted person in the dark is not the same as blindness, we will never, as a culture, be able to say anything intelligent about blindness as a perceptual experience that is as full of variety as sightedness. We must learn to translate the blind experience into language with as much effort, as much intellectual rigor, as we invest when we attempt to translate what we see into language. Blindness lies outside the experience of most sighted people precisely because it is not the same thing to open one's eyes as it is to be made suddenly and irrevocably sighted."
For Godin, occularcentrism is an ontological phenomenon which "dictates that blindness, when literal, translates into not just different but a lesser way of perceiving the world." So in a world where many consider sight/vision as the most important sense, blindness stands out. Godin situates her examination of literal and metaphorical blindness, sight and vision, in Western thought and imagination. While this might be a limitation for many, I didn't mind because Godin makes it clear right from the start while she looks at how blindness shapes culture in myriad ways and how that's quite limited.
From long proliferating cultural conceptions of the blind poet (Homer and Milton) and the blind seer (Tiresias) to blindness as a divine punishment (Oedipus and Gloucester), Godin explores representations of the blind in pop culture and literature. Blindness could confer helplessness but it can also be a conduit for super powers (the superblind like Daredevil). The limitations and metaphorical blindness of physical sight, the profundity and clarified sight of physical blindness—it is paradoxical. Godin cites her experiences and that of other blind people to dissect occularcentrism.
So: "There Plant Eyes seeks to chip away at the pervasive ocularcentrism of our culture, to open up a space for a social justice that accepts sensorial difference, and to celebrate the vast, dappled regions between seeing and not-seeing, blindness and sight, darkness and light." My favourite chapters were the ones about telescopes and microscopes; Milton; and the desexualization of blind people. On the whole, a very superlative book. If I must nitpick, I am not sure the tone Godin had in mind. In most places it is formal, but a few times it breaks character to use slang and neologisms. Another, Godin has a very bad habit to tell and telescope: "as we continue, we will see", "In the following pages, we will encounter", "we will return to this shortly." I admit it's not something I enjoy and it irritated me.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
June 16, 2021
This book fills an enormous hole in our cultural bookshelf, and Godin is such an engaging guide through history, sociology, mythbusting, and her own story of vision loss. But this isn't a story of loss. It's a story of what has been left out and misunderstood about blindness for so long. And while the importance of this book can't be overstated, it's also filled with humor, lively prose, and absolutely fascinating stories.
August 9, 2023
Turns out real eyes do realize real lies...
April 8, 2022
Really good. A lot to think about, and prompted a lot of self reflection
July 15, 2025
Easily a 5 star read. Godin is a brilliant writer and this book made me feel so “seen” (pun intended). I was audibly screaming “yes!!” during so many parts and actually learned quite a few new things.
November 3, 2023
overall, really great!! i learned a lot especially about history and literature and i can definitely see a lot of sighted people getting a lot of of this book. i do have a few minor criticisms that i can’t type out now because i have to go to work, but altogether i would definitely recommend this.
March 15, 2022
This book, written by a blind person, informs the reader that pretty much everything we think we know about not having vision is incorrect. Those of us with vision pigeonhole blind people into tropes we learn from movies and from history itself. The truth of the matter, which infuriates the author and some other blind people, is that they can in fact live complete lives and don't develop super powers such as special hearing or mystical insight. When a blind person uses a white cane or a guide dog, they stop being a fellow human being with all the talents, needs and flaws of the human race and they become A Blind Person. This is a pernicious form of segregation not dissimilar to ethnic racism, and it often comes to the blind from the misguided desire to help. But we so fundamentally misunderstand blindness that blind people have great difficulty getting real jobs despite the existence of powerful tools that work around a vision deficit. In the book we meet a blind opera singer who can't get cast singing the role of a blind person, and workers who arrive at an interview and told "we can't work with you" which is simply illegal.
The "ocular centric" world in which we live doesn't know that some blind people learn to get around using echo location. Most people don't know that most blind people really don't want to touch your face. Most people don't know anything about Hellen Keller after her learning how to communicate as a child (she was an outspoken Socialist, gave lectures and even performed in Vaudeville). Most sighted people are content with the heart-warming story of her success and no more. And when the author is grabbed by someone who is going to "help" her get across the street, she tells them that they are assaulting her and that she knows karate!
In short, the blind are like other humans with individual strengths and weaknesses who can navigate through life just as the rest of us do.
The "ocular centric" world in which we live doesn't know that some blind people learn to get around using echo location. Most people don't know that most blind people really don't want to touch your face. Most people don't know anything about Hellen Keller after her learning how to communicate as a child (she was an outspoken Socialist, gave lectures and even performed in Vaudeville). Most sighted people are content with the heart-warming story of her success and no more. And when the author is grabbed by someone who is going to "help" her get across the street, she tells them that they are assaulting her and that she knows karate!
In short, the blind are like other humans with individual strengths and weaknesses who can navigate through life just as the rest of us do.
December 16, 2022
I feel that I truly learned so much about my own internalized ocular-centrism and ableism. There is truly important nuance here about how ableism, sexism, and classism intersect, told with humor and clarity. I was left wanting to know more about the experiences of non-celebrity BIPOC folks who are blind and visually impaired; I acknowledge that this is not the author's experience and that Eurocentric colonialism and white supremacy are caused of underrepresentation of blind BIPOC experiences.
I was also surprised that Godin didn't rip into Jane Eyre more.
I was also surprised that Godin didn't rip into Jane Eyre more.
December 21, 2023
There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness
By M. Leona Godin
Came across the book a year or two ago, and was deeply enamoured by it. Finally coming around to it. Breaking down my review to highlight where it thrived and where it could use more rigour.
Where the book thrived a lot:
1. Leona extensively dove in whatever blind focused / centric literature, key blind figures and progresses they made to support a bigger picture about blindness, in ways that was truly important. Not only because having exposure to such great minds and resources but to also see Leona engaging with them as they mean near and dear to her - such as Hellen Keller (and how Leona did a production based on HK), John Milton’s Paradise Lost and more.
2. Advocating for blind people across the different mediums in healthy dialogues allowed to see how people are discriminated, subtle and non-subtle ways - be it language we use, be it sighted peoples assumptions on their sex life and being, on usefulness, etc. These wide-net topics showcase Leona’s personal goal to touch on many facets of blindness history and that we have much to learn and even understand if we are to work towards a more sustainable world where able and disable folks can coexist, and not just survive but thrive.
Areas I felt that the book could have done better / has room for improvements:
1. The writing felt expansive in quantities of topics but paper thin qualitative assessments. Although deeply admirable to see her dive into what’s out there (let’s be really honest here - I don’t think a comprehensive book like this exist that’s also very accessible about Blindness - which is tremendous on its own) to paint a full picture, it started to end up feeling like a listing of whatever comes to her mind to just make a reference for the sake of it. Whereas people like Maggie Nelson and Olivia Laing, although sighted people, have done a far better job of referencing (On Freedom, Everybody) and adding meaning to frequent references - which Leona fwiw was able to demonstrate plentiful with multitude of chapters including about Braille, however can lead to exhaustion where some just felt very out of context.
2. There was this underlying tension with her and the antagonist - the sighted people and their biases that she explores throughout the book and was often the thread that can bind the chapters. This felt a bit regressive - the writing didn’t meaningfully take a step back to understand the why behind it - but that somehow the readers (a sighted person), will have to figure it out. Which I get to an extent, but after a while, it makes one scratch their head. It felt unproductive dialogue and started to fall in the category of bickering.
3. Another complex problem I did have with the book is that, it relies heavily on anecdotal evidence to suggest a wider problem at hand, which may be the case but again, it wears thin. Often her explanations and generalizations can lack facts behind it, and one could argue there isn’t much in the way of research that’s available to support such hypothesis’ (which to her point, she does highlight we don’t as a society have as much data points and whatever dubious data points are out there - especially how much people value sight over other senses, one could see why Leona would prefer a bit more anecdotal centric cases) but just I believe caveating this with more intentionality could have vastly helped.
4. Leona throughout the book drops her personal anecdotes, which frankly I loved. But they felt rushed or quite brief - and she does preface in the introduction that she will not open up / talk about personal as much. One has to wonder why not - especially writing a landmark book like this where her personal deep dives could provide relief to a rather big undertaking - which for most part, she does great, but left me wanting more from her.
Altogether, what remains as a whole, is a book that challenges the sighted reader, in more than one way, as it asks us directly on how we can better support and understand the blind community and not operate from places of our internalized biases, which can often be harmful as evident via lack of providing meaningful support to them in work environment, to generalize them as some specialized / spiritual beings when in fact they remain deeply human and in positions to shed light on things that sighted humans take for granted. I look forward to more from Leona.
By M. Leona Godin
Came across the book a year or two ago, and was deeply enamoured by it. Finally coming around to it. Breaking down my review to highlight where it thrived and where it could use more rigour.
Where the book thrived a lot:
1. Leona extensively dove in whatever blind focused / centric literature, key blind figures and progresses they made to support a bigger picture about blindness, in ways that was truly important. Not only because having exposure to such great minds and resources but to also see Leona engaging with them as they mean near and dear to her - such as Hellen Keller (and how Leona did a production based on HK), John Milton’s Paradise Lost and more.
2. Advocating for blind people across the different mediums in healthy dialogues allowed to see how people are discriminated, subtle and non-subtle ways - be it language we use, be it sighted peoples assumptions on their sex life and being, on usefulness, etc. These wide-net topics showcase Leona’s personal goal to touch on many facets of blindness history and that we have much to learn and even understand if we are to work towards a more sustainable world where able and disable folks can coexist, and not just survive but thrive.
Areas I felt that the book could have done better / has room for improvements:
1. The writing felt expansive in quantities of topics but paper thin qualitative assessments. Although deeply admirable to see her dive into what’s out there (let’s be really honest here - I don’t think a comprehensive book like this exist that’s also very accessible about Blindness - which is tremendous on its own) to paint a full picture, it started to end up feeling like a listing of whatever comes to her mind to just make a reference for the sake of it. Whereas people like Maggie Nelson and Olivia Laing, although sighted people, have done a far better job of referencing (On Freedom, Everybody) and adding meaning to frequent references - which Leona fwiw was able to demonstrate plentiful with multitude of chapters including about Braille, however can lead to exhaustion where some just felt very out of context.
2. There was this underlying tension with her and the antagonist - the sighted people and their biases that she explores throughout the book and was often the thread that can bind the chapters. This felt a bit regressive - the writing didn’t meaningfully take a step back to understand the why behind it - but that somehow the readers (a sighted person), will have to figure it out. Which I get to an extent, but after a while, it makes one scratch their head. It felt unproductive dialogue and started to fall in the category of bickering.
3. Another complex problem I did have with the book is that, it relies heavily on anecdotal evidence to suggest a wider problem at hand, which may be the case but again, it wears thin. Often her explanations and generalizations can lack facts behind it, and one could argue there isn’t much in the way of research that’s available to support such hypothesis’ (which to her point, she does highlight we don’t as a society have as much data points and whatever dubious data points are out there - especially how much people value sight over other senses, one could see why Leona would prefer a bit more anecdotal centric cases) but just I believe caveating this with more intentionality could have vastly helped.
4. Leona throughout the book drops her personal anecdotes, which frankly I loved. But they felt rushed or quite brief - and she does preface in the introduction that she will not open up / talk about personal as much. One has to wonder why not - especially writing a landmark book like this where her personal deep dives could provide relief to a rather big undertaking - which for most part, she does great, but left me wanting more from her.
Altogether, what remains as a whole, is a book that challenges the sighted reader, in more than one way, as it asks us directly on how we can better support and understand the blind community and not operate from places of our internalized biases, which can often be harmful as evident via lack of providing meaningful support to them in work environment, to generalize them as some specialized / spiritual beings when in fact they remain deeply human and in positions to shed light on things that sighted humans take for granted. I look forward to more from Leona.
February 24, 2025
This book was fantastic! Everything I wanted from a book on this topic—and then some! There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness weaves M. Leona Godin's personal journey of gradually losing her sight through a cultural examination of blindness as metaphor, meme, and figure.
While There Plant Eyes might be said to function as a biography and general 101 on the cultural history of blindness, underneath its narrative structure is a continuous flow of conversation with not only academic theory but what it means to exist expansively as a blind person. Godin utilizes her academic background in early modern literature to connect classics with disability theory and activism. I absolutely understand why other reviews of this book make mention of the desire to write after reading this. My favorite undercurrent in this was the continued references to blindness and disability being understood as expansively as gender—yes, please! I want more!
This book gets me incredibly excited for what the future of disability representation and scholarship will be in my lifetime. And I look forward to reading anything written by M. Leona Godin in the future!
While There Plant Eyes might be said to function as a biography and general 101 on the cultural history of blindness, underneath its narrative structure is a continuous flow of conversation with not only academic theory but what it means to exist expansively as a blind person. Godin utilizes her academic background in early modern literature to connect classics with disability theory and activism. I absolutely understand why other reviews of this book make mention of the desire to write after reading this. My favorite undercurrent in this was the continued references to blindness and disability being understood as expansively as gender—yes, please! I want more!
This book gets me incredibly excited for what the future of disability representation and scholarship will be in my lifetime. And I look forward to reading anything written by M. Leona Godin in the future!
October 9, 2024
This was fantastic - I highly recommend it! Very informative and thought provoking. Definitely intend to return to it in the future.
Only part that struck me as odd is that Godin omits the fact that Helen Keller was pro eugenics? Feels worth mentioning especially given all the great analysis of ableism in this book.
Only part that struck me as odd is that Godin omits the fact that Helen Keller was pro eugenics? Feels worth mentioning especially given all the great analysis of ableism in this book.
August 18, 2025
This book was very dry, but I can appreciate what she was trying to do. I feel like she could’ve presented the material a little differently, there honestly wasn’t a lot to connect with. I read this for book club, and I’m glad it’s out of my face.
April 5, 2024
Sorry I just can’t read about the odyssey.
September 20, 2024
a great primer on blind culture and cultural issues
January 5, 2026
A book that should be of interest to readers both blind and sighted alike.
September 9, 2023
This is a wonderful book. I learned a lot about both the cultural and historical significance of blindness. I appreciated how the author balanced her personal narrative with historical, literary and cultural analysis. The writing is superb. With the evident scholarship involved, this book could have been very dry but instead it was gripping. As a side note, I have visual field loss myself, though it is not getting progressively worse like Dr. Godin's. I could relate, in some ways, to her description of her own experience.
November 7, 2022
In case anyone was wondering my reviews have moved to @ninaschoicebookawards on instagram
May 26, 2021
Read my review of this book here: https://booksandbakes.substack.com/p/...
I absolutely loved this. Fascinating, informative, funny, insightful, nuanced. An incredible blend of memoir, history, cultural analysis, literary criticism, disability studies, and a whole lot more. I've been thinking about this book for days since I finished, just as I walk around the house, go about my life. Thinking about ways of seeing, ways of communicating, language, translation. How we talk about blindness, how we talk about sight, the multiplicity of all the ways humans exist in the world. This book is so many things at once; can't recommend it enough. Full review to come.
I absolutely loved this. Fascinating, informative, funny, insightful, nuanced. An incredible blend of memoir, history, cultural analysis, literary criticism, disability studies, and a whole lot more. I've been thinking about this book for days since I finished, just as I walk around the house, go about my life. Thinking about ways of seeing, ways of communicating, language, translation. How we talk about blindness, how we talk about sight, the multiplicity of all the ways humans exist in the world. This book is so many things at once; can't recommend it enough. Full review to come.
September 24, 2021
Interesting book on how blind people live in an ocular centrist world and the stereotypes that they face.
September 11, 2022
Blindness is not just a subject; it is a perspective.
So writes M. Leona Godin in the introduction to the wonderful There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. As the title promises, the work delivers on tracking western stigmas and perceptions of blind/partially blind persons, mining nearly three thousand years of the cultural representations of “blindness” in all their complexity. From Homer, Sophocles, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Joyce, Jorges, Keller, and in works such as Oedipus Rex, the Gospels, King Lear, Paradise Lost, Dune, to modern novels, memoirs, scientific studies, and the author’s own personal experiences of blindness - all within 280 pages. Though the work takes a formidably wide breadth, it manages to stay grounded and focused in its analyses.
As the author candidly admits, this work is a personal and cultural history. Importantly, however, it doesn’t personalize history, but historicizes the personal. The work invites readers to consider representations of blindness and their sometimes subtle pervasiveness in western culture: whether sophisticated and sensitive in their use of blind characters, or given over to stereotypes of blindness (such as the “superblind” trope or the protagonist-affirming prophet), or simply playing blindness as a gag. As the author states, “There Plant Eyes seeks to chip away at the pervasive ocularcentrism of our culture, to open up a space for social justice that accepts sensorial difference” (xviii). This driving goal is one that the work delivers on quite well. It is a call to action, but it is not heavy-handed in its message or confrontational in its social justice purpose. It pulls you into its world with intelligence and grace, without condemnation or accusation.
The author brings readers into the world of what it means to live and be perceived as a blind person, deftly weaving the personal and the public, the individual and the historical/cultural. One of the best things about this work’s methodology is that the author does not see themselves - and, it is implicitly argued, nor should we see ourselves - as separate from the histories we find ourselves in or the cultures and communities that constitute an increasingly diversifying world. Nor should we ignore our human responsibilities toward one another, as the work’s emphasis on social justice testifies.
Like its range of knowledge, the work’s targeted audience is broad. With brisk and accessible prose radiating with responsible scholarship and nuance, There Plant Eyes appeals to a wide and varied audience: academics, non-academics, and general readers invested in disability studies and/or intersectional activism. Some of its claims may raise provocative questions for discussion, but that seems to be the point. In short, it will change the way you think about blindness and those who live with it.
I confess that, until I read this work, virtually my only experience with blind or partially sighted people was making way when I saw the tell-tale cane swaying back and forth before them on the sidewalk. Little did I know the complex history or the cultural perceptions of blindness in western literature, which There Plant Eyes masterfully reveals. As it did for me, this work will change blindness from a subject to perspective.
So writes M. Leona Godin in the introduction to the wonderful There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. As the title promises, the work delivers on tracking western stigmas and perceptions of blind/partially blind persons, mining nearly three thousand years of the cultural representations of “blindness” in all their complexity. From Homer, Sophocles, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Joyce, Jorges, Keller, and in works such as Oedipus Rex, the Gospels, King Lear, Paradise Lost, Dune, to modern novels, memoirs, scientific studies, and the author’s own personal experiences of blindness - all within 280 pages. Though the work takes a formidably wide breadth, it manages to stay grounded and focused in its analyses.
As the author candidly admits, this work is a personal and cultural history. Importantly, however, it doesn’t personalize history, but historicizes the personal. The work invites readers to consider representations of blindness and their sometimes subtle pervasiveness in western culture: whether sophisticated and sensitive in their use of blind characters, or given over to stereotypes of blindness (such as the “superblind” trope or the protagonist-affirming prophet), or simply playing blindness as a gag. As the author states, “There Plant Eyes seeks to chip away at the pervasive ocularcentrism of our culture, to open up a space for social justice that accepts sensorial difference” (xviii). This driving goal is one that the work delivers on quite well. It is a call to action, but it is not heavy-handed in its message or confrontational in its social justice purpose. It pulls you into its world with intelligence and grace, without condemnation or accusation.
The author brings readers into the world of what it means to live and be perceived as a blind person, deftly weaving the personal and the public, the individual and the historical/cultural. One of the best things about this work’s methodology is that the author does not see themselves - and, it is implicitly argued, nor should we see ourselves - as separate from the histories we find ourselves in or the cultures and communities that constitute an increasingly diversifying world. Nor should we ignore our human responsibilities toward one another, as the work’s emphasis on social justice testifies.
Like its range of knowledge, the work’s targeted audience is broad. With brisk and accessible prose radiating with responsible scholarship and nuance, There Plant Eyes appeals to a wide and varied audience: academics, non-academics, and general readers invested in disability studies and/or intersectional activism. Some of its claims may raise provocative questions for discussion, but that seems to be the point. In short, it will change the way you think about blindness and those who live with it.
I confess that, until I read this work, virtually my only experience with blind or partially sighted people was making way when I saw the tell-tale cane swaying back and forth before them on the sidewalk. Little did I know the complex history or the cultural perceptions of blindness in western literature, which There Plant Eyes masterfully reveals. As it did for me, this work will change blindness from a subject to perspective.
July 29, 2023
I'm getting through a lot more books this year than usual because I now have a library card and access to an audio book catalogue. I feel compelled to explain this spike in my "reading" -- perhaps because I find it slightly ironic to say I "read" this book about blindness when I actually listened to it. I really enjoyed it. Godin presents many interesting ideas, many concepts that made me stop and really think. Her explanation of how Braille came to be, and how she eventually came to feel it was not going to be supplanted by audio books, stands out. She also notably observed that the sense of touch does not decline in aging the way sight does, so maybe many generally sited people could benefit if only we thought Braille was widely worth learning. This is meaningful to me as my own eyes have taken a dramatic turn for the worse, with normal size print now impossible to read with out reading glasses if I have my distance-correcting contacts in. In the chapter on Helen Keller, Godin observes that biographies written by a third party for some reason are always more popular than autobiographies. So although Helen Keller wrote very capable autobiographies, many others have written their own versions of her life. Another interesting thing I learned was that the blind can learn to use a form of echolocation, like bats, and can be so successful, there's even an echolocation mountain biking club. Godin also repeatedly underlines the prejudice and discrimination sight-impaired people face, to the extent that a successful writer, once it is discovered he or she is blind, will only be asked to write about blindness; an educated specialist of any kind, upon revelation he or she is blind, is likely to be rejected as incapable of doing the job. Having to sell yourself over and over would be exhausting, but blind people who are able to work in all kinds of normal and useful ways, have to do it -- a situation likely true for anyone who is identifiably different than the expected norm. I found this "personal and cultural history" an enjoyable and educational listening experience.
December 30, 2022
A brilliant work of scholarship that is a personal and cultural exploration of blindness. Dr Godin explores sight throughout history, how it has been represented literally as well as figuratively and she deftly weaves her personal history of blindness throughout the pages. Dr Godin is a skilled storyteller and her keen analysis of historical issues as well as of how she lives in the world now, accompanied by her sharp wit, make this such a rich read and a delight.
One of the compelling themes addressed in the book is the questioning of the primacy of sight over other senses, as Oliver Sacks asserts. “The complexities of seeing”. Dr Godin challenges us to think about the information we receive through the other senses, if we were to lose our sight. Dr Godin lost her sight over the period of a few decades, beginning when she was a teen.
She learnt braille as an adult and she discusses this along with the history of braille. Dr Godin also goes into the nuts and bolts of how she writes and how she wrote this book. This brings in a history of assistive devices and technology for blind people. Her experiences as a student, first in undergrad through to a PhD at NYU are detailed with the advances in technology and how she has used them.
I learned so much about the lived experiences of blind people from reading this and not just in terms of assistive devices as that is reductive. Dr Godin is a performer as well as writer and she created a show based on Helen Keller's time performing in vaudeville: "The Star of Happiness", as well as a show about the invention of braille: "The Spectator and the Blind Man". Her talents are many and this book takes you on a highly enjoyable and informative journey.
One of the compelling themes addressed in the book is the questioning of the primacy of sight over other senses, as Oliver Sacks asserts. “The complexities of seeing”. Dr Godin challenges us to think about the information we receive through the other senses, if we were to lose our sight. Dr Godin lost her sight over the period of a few decades, beginning when she was a teen.
She learnt braille as an adult and she discusses this along with the history of braille. Dr Godin also goes into the nuts and bolts of how she writes and how she wrote this book. This brings in a history of assistive devices and technology for blind people. Her experiences as a student, first in undergrad through to a PhD at NYU are detailed with the advances in technology and how she has used them.
I learned so much about the lived experiences of blind people from reading this and not just in terms of assistive devices as that is reductive. Dr Godin is a performer as well as writer and she created a show based on Helen Keller's time performing in vaudeville: "The Star of Happiness", as well as a show about the invention of braille: "The Spectator and the Blind Man". Her talents are many and this book takes you on a highly enjoyable and informative journey.
October 31, 2022
Godin does an incredible job of combining the cultural history of blindness as it is seen in the Western world with her personal experience losing her vision. I appreciate that she specifies from the start that her focus is on how blind people have been portrayed and treated in the West, though I would love to learn more about perceptions of blind people in other parts of the world too. This is a great book for anyone to read, and especially for those who are able-bodied/fully sighted. It is a great and accessible introduction to the topic and addresses the ways that able-bodied people have perpetuated (and continue to perpetuate) harmful stereotypes of blind people, and other disabled people as well. I also found that it helped me improve my mindset regarding my own visual impairment and chronic health issues. I often struggle with fear regarding my increased loss of vision and occasionally mobility over the years, and that fear and the internalizing of harmful stereotypes has left me reluctant and embarrassed to use various aids. Godin's book tackles the discussion of those issues in a nuanced and well-written way, and those discussions helped me begin to reframe how I view the issues stemming from my health.
Overall, a very interesting and accessible book that covers the multiple facets of the history of blindness. It is a great book to start with when beginning to read about similar topics.
Overall, a very interesting and accessible book that covers the multiple facets of the history of blindness. It is a great book to start with when beginning to read about similar topics.
September 19, 2021
4.25
'There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness' by M. Leona Godin is a great look at the history of how blindness has been discussed by society paired with Godin's reflections on her life as a blind woman.
Godin begins with a reflection on Homer and takes the reader through different cultural moments in history surrounding blindness, discussing both historical figures (such as Helen Keller and Ray Charles) as well as technological advances and cultural views of blindness. Interwoven with her cultural criticism, Godin also discusses her own experience as a blind women and calls on sighted people to better understand the ways that ableism permeates our society.
As a sighted person who has not read much about blindness, I found this a great introduction to some of the issues surrounding how the world views blindness. The balance of cultural criticism with Godin's personal experience provided context while also exploring the nuances of living as a blind person. Godin reads the audiobook herself, which elevates the text. Each section delves deep enough into the subject matter that I came away feeling that I had a good grasp of the subject while still being interested to learn more. I will definitely pick up what Godin writes in the future.
'There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness' by M. Leona Godin is a great look at the history of how blindness has been discussed by society paired with Godin's reflections on her life as a blind woman.
Godin begins with a reflection on Homer and takes the reader through different cultural moments in history surrounding blindness, discussing both historical figures (such as Helen Keller and Ray Charles) as well as technological advances and cultural views of blindness. Interwoven with her cultural criticism, Godin also discusses her own experience as a blind women and calls on sighted people to better understand the ways that ableism permeates our society.
As a sighted person who has not read much about blindness, I found this a great introduction to some of the issues surrounding how the world views blindness. The balance of cultural criticism with Godin's personal experience provided context while also exploring the nuances of living as a blind person. Godin reads the audiobook herself, which elevates the text. Each section delves deep enough into the subject matter that I came away feeling that I had a good grasp of the subject while still being interested to learn more. I will definitely pick up what Godin writes in the future.
December 7, 2022
Well this book was fascinating. Basically this was just a summation of how everything we, as sighted people, think about blindness is absolutely wrong. How it’s portrayed in films and media and books? Wrong.
So I learned a lot from this! It covered a lot of the history of blindness both in the actual world and in literature. So I quite enjoyed all of that.
But what I connected with most from this was hearing the author’s own experiences with losing her sight progressively. I wish there had been more about her own journey in this book but I’m happy she shared what she did with us!
Overall, this was really good! It was just a bit dense and I did end up rereading passages a few times when I got lost (but that was probably my own fault as I read this during Thanksgiving when there were lots of distractions). And this did seem to be a collection of a few previously published essays so it did cover the same ground in a few places.
But! Still an excellent read, especially if you’re looking for a good bit of history coming from a trusted source!! This was an excellent selection for Nonfiction November!
And thank you to Pantheon for sending a copy of this my way!! It was an excellent read and one I highly recommend!
So I learned a lot from this! It covered a lot of the history of blindness both in the actual world and in literature. So I quite enjoyed all of that.
But what I connected with most from this was hearing the author’s own experiences with losing her sight progressively. I wish there had been more about her own journey in this book but I’m happy she shared what she did with us!
Overall, this was really good! It was just a bit dense and I did end up rereading passages a few times when I got lost (but that was probably my own fault as I read this during Thanksgiving when there were lots of distractions). And this did seem to be a collection of a few previously published essays so it did cover the same ground in a few places.
But! Still an excellent read, especially if you’re looking for a good bit of history coming from a trusted source!! This was an excellent selection for Nonfiction November!
And thank you to Pantheon for sending a copy of this my way!! It was an excellent read and one I highly recommend!
March 25, 2023
This was a super interesting read and I learned a lot. The first chapters where about ancient literature and I haven‘t read those books so it was a little hard to understand for me without knowing the books. I also skipped the chapter about Milton and his book Paradise Lost a little due to the same reason. But after that the more modern history of blindness was so interesting I couldn’t stop reading. I learned a lot about schools for the blind, stereotypes of blind people in the media, the invention of Braille, the deafblind icon Helen Keller, science, technical stuff, music and so much more.
The second half also contained more personal elements so it wasn’t as academic and easier to read compared to the first chapters.
The second half also contained more personal elements so it wasn’t as academic and easier to read compared to the first chapters.
April 23, 2024
There Plant Eyes is a wonderful overview of the perspective and history of being blind and visually impaired that delves into cultural inconsistencies that sighted people have of this group of people. Ranging from Homer to the Information Age, Godin explains in depth the stereotypes of reverence for the blind in classic literature and the nonsensical expectations of the sighted based on this. Godin uses her own experiences as a blind woman to talk about the misrepresentations in media and the misconceptions of helplessness that she has experienced in her lifetime.
Shelved in Adult Nonfiction - Social Sciences, I highly recommend for anyone exploring diverse perspectives, loves reading the history that isn't taught in school, and/or has a love of literature critique.
Shelved in Adult Nonfiction - Social Sciences, I highly recommend for anyone exploring diverse perspectives, loves reading the history that isn't taught in school, and/or has a love of literature critique.
May 15, 2022
An absolutely fascinating exploration of blindness that is both deeply personal and academic all at once. Godin’s book has absolutely made me think more complexly about blindness and the experiences of blind people, as well as also interrogating the way perceptions and portrayals of blindness appear in culture. I truly hope books like this can chisel away at our occularcentric world and push towards a future that honors the insights and perspectives of blind & visually impaired people as much as it values those of sighted individuals.
I highly recommend this book.
**thank you so much to Pantheon books for gifting me a copy of this book!!
I highly recommend this book.
**thank you so much to Pantheon books for gifting me a copy of this book!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews