In a choice that is perhaps a bit too on-the-nose for the current coronavirus pandemic, I recently read the book Blindness by José Saramago. In the story, there is a communicable epidemic of blindness (name drop!) that suddenly affects almost everyone in society. The government tries to control the epidemic by locking everyone who becomes blind in a quarantine and offers those in quarantine very little support - basically, they are waiting for them to die. Spoiler alert: it doesn't work, and society crumbles. Disclaimer: I'd like to formally recommend that you not actually read Blindness by José Saramago at the present time. Ionno - the back of the edition that I have says that it's a "powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses - and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit", but I found it pretty heavy on the "worst appetites and weaknesses" and pretty light on the "ultimately exhilarating spirit". In the current climate, out of respect for your probably-already-frayed nerves, I'd recommend something more like this (talk about exhilarating spirit!). While locked in quarantine, the building the newly-blind people are all being held in is eventually taken over by a group of also newly-blind thugs who steal all the food, murder, rape, and basically are the worst. The group of thugs have a superpower - they have a member of their group who did not suddenly go blind due to the mysterious communicable illness, but instead has been blind for years. From page 146 of the book: "So there was a normal blind person amongst these blind delinquents, a blind person just like all those people who were once referred to as being blind... They were certainly lucky, not only had they won a clerk in the raffle, they could also use him as a guide, a blind person with experience as a blind person is something else, he's worth his weight in gold." Obviously, this made me think of the 2012 superhero film "The Dark Knight Rises", starring Tom Hardy as the Batman villain Bane. In this beloved classic piece of cinema, as Batman tries and fails to do his "hide in the shadows" routine, Bane says, "you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man. By then, it was nothing to me but blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." It's basically a mic drop moment, but actually it's a grab-Batman-by-the-throat-and-throw-him-to-the-ground moment. As I think about blindness as a superpower and Bane being born into darkness, I'm also seeing a lot of able-bodied folks on social media struggle with social distancing, because they are finding working from home challenging and finding themselves incredibly isolated and lonely for the people, places, and events they care about - this, of course, isn't addressing people who are struggling due to loss of work, who have an incredibly heavy weight of additional stressors piled upon them. I'm also seeing some people with disabilities being pissed that now that there's a pandemic, able-bodied people are suddenly being given work from home options and opportunities to socialize remotely that would've been life-changing for them. As you know if you've been following this blog, I've been having a pretty crap year. I haven't worked since the end of September due to my chronic pain and other symptoms, and for years now I've been cancelling and limiting what sorts of activities I can do because of my chronic illnesses. I, like other people with disabilities, am a little pissed at how quickly everyone is boarding the work-from-home-and-socialize-remotely train - it feels like, with a little bit of effort, all the able-bodied people could have been extending me these courtesies all along. Of course, I am also frightened - I don't want myself or the people I care about to get sick(er). Mostly though, I've been amazed by how little my life has changed due to the shelter-in-place order in effect in my state. My symptoms mean I hardly can go anywhere or see people anyways - the biggest change to my schedule is that now all my doctor's appointments are through telehealth. I've actually been selfishly delighted by the stay-at-home order. Bands have been live streaming awesome concerts I definitely couldn't have otherwise seen! Museums that I couldn't have otherwise visited are posting video tours! My husband is home with me all weekend instead of partying with his friends! My friends are calling me, and posting in baking groups with me, and remotely playing video games with me! And now I realize... I am the already-blind man. I am Bane. At the end of Blindness, everyone struck by the mysterious blindness-plague suddenly gets their vision back, and the blind people with experience as blind people go back to being regular blind people. At the end of The Dark Knight Rises, Bane is killed and Batman drinks wine with the leading lady in Italy. At the end of this pandemic, I imagine that for the most part, the rest of the world will go back to only socializing in ways that are, frankly, physically daunting and thinking people who work from home are lazy.
But maybe, at the end of this, you could go ahead and visit your friend who has a disability at their home. It's hard for them to leave, and (as you'll know by then) it gets lonely.
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Grace Daly
I'm young, hot, and have multiple chronic illnesses. Come with me on this magical fucking journey. Archives
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