Blindness Film Review ...

by , 2008-10-06

To the Editor:

Though I have not seen "Blindness" (I generally dread it when movies are made of books), it sounds like a faithful adaptation of the novel. I was keenly disappointed by the piece submitted by the American Council of the Blind. The book club I belong to just read and discussed "Blindness" last month. It's not clear whether the ACB reviewer has either "seen" the movie or read the book. For what it's worth, it's a great work of fiction by a Nobel Prize-winning author, the Portuguese writer, Jose Saramago. It is not remotely correct to say that the premise of the book is that blind people are "uncivilized, animalized creatures."

What the novel does is examine what would happen if there were a sudden epidemic of blindness in a large city. The book is disturbing, frightening, but deeply humanistic and, ultimately, uplifting. It's also a fair-minded and plausible exploration of human nature, political systems and modern society.

There unfortunately seems to be no recognition of this by ACB. This remarkable novel does not threaten blind people, desensitize us to their disability or make them less than fully human. Read the book and decide for yourself.

Tim Colen, Executive Director
San Francisco Housing Action Coalition

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