Spanning the Gamut discussion

I've put a request at the public library for Blindness...and all 9 copies are out. I'm sure I can secure a copy by Nov. 7th so that date to start reading sounds good to me. It looks like the book was published in 1997 though. As far as why he picked blindness as the affliction I'm not sure. He does have another book called Seeing published in 2006.

According to his wikipedia page: "Saramago has been a member of the Portuguese Communist Party since 1969, as well as an atheist and self-described pessimist."

Sounds like an interesting fellow, eh?

I have the book now.

I just picked up the book today, I will start on it shortly

I am 75 pages in at this point. I am enjoying the plot so far. How are you guys doing? When are we going to meet?

I'm around 70 pages in and I'm enjoying the book too. I have picked up on the blindness = sin analogy, especially when looking at how the affliction was viewed towards the car thief. I'm still not 100% blindness is analogous to sin at this point. The rounding up of people reminds me of the internment camps in the US during WWII. It might not be McCarthyism per se, but something similar.

I feel the confessional aspect is an interesting analogy as I can imagine the DR looking directly in to your thoughts and feelings with this machine. It’s along the lines of the old saying “the eyes are windows to the sole”. I did not pick up a correlation of sin and blindness. That may be due to the sympathy I feel for the DR.

I'm not so sure about that theory Joseph. It's true that bad things are happening to the blind, but i believe the thief and soldier's actions aren't motivated by the same thing. The thief is acting out of greed and opportunity and the soldiers are acting out of fear and strict enforcement orders. I think that actions done before the blindness is seen as a "contagious illness" must be separated from actions done after the epidemic has been identified. I still think that the blindness is analogous to some kind of "ideological belief" that is perceived to be easily spread and contaminates everything it touches...and is a threat to our society. Possible candidates are communism, atheism (which is related to your theory of sin), possibly liberalism, or even radical fundamentalism. Something I'm taking note of is the cause of the blindness. It's mentioned many times that the blindness is a milky-white blockage of sight...not a darkness or blackness. This implies something impeding light, or "truth" possibly, from entering the eyes. So the remedy to the blindness would be the removal of something rather than the creation of something that is non-existent or fixing of something that is broken.

Hah...I'm glad you're digging it. What I meant about the "remedy" is that if you look at the malady, you find out a few things. Regular blindness is usually due to a loss of all signals to the brain from the eyes. This could be due to severing of the optic nerves, brain damage to the visual centers, detached or diseased retina, etc. Usually this results in zero stimulus to the brain which is perceived as darkness. The blindness in the book seems to be perceived as milky-white...kind of like a cataract. A cataract merely blocks the light from hitting the retina. Cataracts are treated by removal via surgery. Regular blindness can't be treated in the same way a cataract is treated.

To complete the analogy I'll use religion as an example. Say religion is viewed as "the truth". We're all born into seeing "the truth". Then one day, someone questions this "truth" with scientific facts and a whole ideology that doesn't include religion. This "new way" would be like the cataract that blocks "the truth" from shining into one's eyes. Everyone around someone afflicted with the "new way" would perceive him to be "blind" and without "direction". In fact, the afflicted would himself feel very disoriented at first, but would eventually learn to deal with his new reality.

As more people become afflicted, the more society shuns this group because they threaten their ideology and existing "truth".

In this analogy religion isn't removed or destroyed, like a detached retina or severed optic nerve. In fact it's blocked by something else...by the "new way". One can still "see"...but it's the "new way" he sees.

I've just finished the book. How's everyone else coming along?

I'm dragging my feet. I wont be done until after the holidays. Feel free to move forward with the discussion and I will catch up.

I have to pull the rip cord on this book. I am stuck at about 120 pages in and I am not enjoying the read. I can’t shake the feeling of being locked up with the people in the book and it is not a good feeling. Sorry but I got to bitch out on this one.