January 31, 2006
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The World of the Blind
Well I just finished up writing a paper on a short story by Raymond Carver called ‘The Cathedral’ primarily about a blind man and a raging narcissist. The paper was entirely about asking(then answering) the question of whether or not a person who lacks the ability to see is more disadvantaged that a person who lacks the ability to see anything beyond his/her own skull. It was an interesting question to write about, but it’s another question that brought up here to put up a new entry.
I haven’t really spent much time on the idea yet, but I have honestly been wondering what the world of sex is like for the blind. Specifically, could the fact that a blind person lacks the ability to see enable them to have a ‘purer’(if that’s the word) form of sex than those of us who do. Think about the world around you and how much of it is based on impressions. Think about the world around you and how do you define it? Unless some kind of existentialist garbage is floating in my head and I try to look like I am superior to impressions, I define my world by what I see around me. At this moment, it is defined by the 50 computers or so and the 50 people or so sitting at them typing away at their emails or paper or what have you.
We have five sense available to us, and how do we define the physical world 95 percent of the time? Sight! So what is life like for a person who never once defined reality by what they see. I would like to believe that someone blind also does not define reality merely by what they can’t see. So what’s left? Sound, touch, smell and taste obviously. Smell and taste don’t really enter the equation unless we’re eating someone or are in the midst of a field of flowers. So it’s down to sound and touch.
Think about when you are listening to an extraordinarily deep song. Personally, I think of a song called ‘Raindrops Dance’ by Wave Wizzard. He’s just some obscure internet DJ, but the song is gorgeous. Anyways, have you ever listened to that song with your eyes closed. Is it not a completely different experience than with them open? Instead of listening to a good song while walking down the street or sitting in a chair reading some oddball’s website, your imagination is free to take you wherever it wishes to go. All that exists is your own imagination and the music in your ears to fuel it. It can be a truly transcendent experience. Imagine an hour and twenty minutes worth of music like that, and that’s kind of what I did when I made a cd series last year called Ambient Transcendent. I learned long ago not to listen to that while walking down the street. ::HONK!….’yeah yeah I love you too’:: I did that once while reading a letter too, but that’s another story.
So we can listen to a song and be in that state for what, 5 minutes, a half hour, an hour? Imagine a person whose entire life is defined by that kind of state. That’s kind of what I think it must be like to be blind. The entire world is defined by what they hear and what they can touch. The visual impression so many of us(me included) accept as the most real may be so far from the truth that it may actually be us who are blind and they who truly can see.
This is why I wonder what it must be like to have sex with a blind girl. Now I’m not saying I would go down High Street, spot the first blind girl, walk up to her and go ‘Hey, wanna get jiggy?’. I’m not advocating sex purely out of curiosity by any means. I’m just wondering if the fact that the entire sexual experience for them is defined by what they feel and what they hear means that their experience will always transcend ours. It’s a little saddening if you really think about it.
We’re stuck with a world that ranks attractiveness according to visual cues. To a degree it’s biological yes, but those Calvin Klein ads and Maxim centerfolds don’t just pop out of an oven after a pleasant ding and a God sized voice that calls out ‘Hey humanity, your hotties are done!’. What defines attractiveness to the blind? Voices, smells, ::cough:: taste, and the number one more than likely….touch. Imaging making love to someone whose only idea of you is based on the words you have said in the past, the dreams they share with you for the future, and what they physically feel in the present. The intimacy must be beyond imagination. I know people who like hands, but what if hands were all you knew. That, my dear friends, would be true ecstasy.
-Dan
Comments (7)
wow.
really makes one think.
ever notice that most people close their eyes when they kiss someone? and that many people turn off the lights when they have sex? and i know i often close my eyes when listening to music or the rain. and i’m oblivious to the rest of the world when i’m reading a good book. though my eyes are reading the story, it’s my mind where the story truely is taking place. sometimes we block that sense on purpose.
{would like to hear the letter story sometime, LoL}
so much to say to this post, and not sure how to say it…
Books! That is a perfect example Nikki! Ever read an awesome book all at once and not even notice when 2 or 3 hours have passed?
I know you have to have read The Lord of the Rings. Remember the chapter called ‘The Council of Elrond’. That chapter fits the whole atmosphere I was describing perfectly. You start reading something like that and you’re just….gone. I remember reading the whole battle for Minas Tirith from around 1 to 4 in the morning. I was pretty tired the next day but those 3 hours were beyond imagination!
It’s not the most common of posts so don’t worry about not being sure how to say whatever it is you wanted to say. It was one of those spur of the moment, “I wonder…” kind of things.
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hm, interesting.
yes, i love books. i could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about books….
…but i won’t.
LoL, couldn’t resist.
anyways, as far as reading a book for hours and not noticing, yea, i do it all the time. and i’ve always done it. since i was little. when i’m in a book i am IN A BOOK! example? sure i have an example.
STORY TIME:
so this one time (not in band camp), but rather in the 2nd grade, i was reading a book during some free time before lunch. (that or with my superior intellect at the time i finished my equations and cursive writing practices early so i could get on to things more worthy of my time) either way (and probably the latter), i was sitting at my desk as were all the other 2nd graders, and i got really into this book i was reading. now i don’t remember exactly what book it was but judging from the time period, my love of horses since i was 3, and the ever changing patterns in the weather… i’d say it was some story about horses, possibly black beauty or something in the black stallion series. well anyways, the black stallion began to fight one of the other horses in the gate of his first race on a real track. then black beauty learned of the cruelties of men from his lovely friend ginger. whilst pegasus flew in from somewhere and unicorns traveled on journies with haphazard wizards when lo and behold a brief interlude in the action of the story line, i look up… AND MY ENTIRE CLASS WAS GONE! yea, not kidding. they all went to lunch and apparently i was in another place and time and never noticed them get up and leave. i’m sure i received some interesting looks on their way out, but i was oblivious to them all. so i arrived to lunch with about 10 minutes to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and apple slices.
moral of the story:
sometimes the world in a book is more appealing than the one in which we currently live……
I used to read tons and tons and tons of fantasy books and watched movies like Willow and Robin Hood too for the sole reason that I felt it was a better world than the one in which I currently lived. I was kind of an escapist for awhile(awhile being from about 14 through 21) I guess. Still can be at times but about 1/10 of where I used to be.
The whole transcendence thing? That’s more about striving to be better, to find better. I don’t think that I ignore reality when I get all idealist-like. At least I hope I don’t…..