In 2019, Andrew Leland began writing a book about blindness, even though he himself was gradually going blind.
Working with declining eyesight gave him an insider’s perspective. Who better to write about the blind than the blind? But, as he learned, writing and reporting the book was also kind of an ordeal.
During the interview, he took notes with a thick-tipped pen so that he could more easily see what he was writing. He then used his six-button braille display. This is the electronic note-taking tool that I still use. “When I downloaded the notes to his computer, he seemed to have a glass of Scotch before writing them,” he recalls.
At first, he thought his experience would make the perfect story. In other words, you start reading while you can see and finish reading when you become blind. However, the plan was soon derailed.How could Leland know when he was TRUE blind?
As he states in his book, only about 15 percent of blind people have no perception of light at all. Most people see things like Leland’s, where his peripheral vision is less than 6 percent of his total field of vision. If he had waited until he was completely blind, he might be 80 and “still clinging to eight photons of vision and thinking, ‘Hmm, I can’t write yet,'” he says. Thought.
Steadily moving forward, Leland spent three years completing his book, Blind Lands: Memoirs of the End of Sight. Out July 18th through Penguin Press, the book interweaves memoirs and reportage with intriguing in-depths on everything from the development of Braille to the history of the blind civil rights movement. Also starring James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges and Henri Matisse.
The memoir faces many questions, chief among them: What does it mean to be blind in a world that often defines blindness as the worst thing that can happen? .
“Blindness initially manifests itself as this intractable disaster where everything you loved has been taken from you and there is no way to get it back,” Leland said. “The reality is they’re not gone. We just need to come up with a workaround.”
Leland was in middle school when he realized he could barely see at night. When I was in college, I was told by a doctor that I had an incurable disease, retinitis pigmentosa, and that I would be able to maintain good daytime vision until I was in my 30s. was told that he would only be able to see visually. A small spot in front of him.
In 2009, while working as an editor for the San Francisco-based literary magazine The Believer, Leland met Lily Garton-Wachter, then a PhD candidate in comparative literature. the two fell in love. When Leland proposed to her, he asked her half-jokingly: “Remember when I went blind?”
Garton-Wachter, now a professor of literature at Smith College, plays a prominent role in Leland’s memoir, as does his son Oscar, now 10. She appears in many of the book’s best scenes, including one at a dinner party where a disrespectful guest appears. Her father, whom Leland describes as “like an LL Bean model,” began asking a barrage of intrusive questions about how Leland felt about being blind. He then asks Gurton-Wachter what it was like to have her husband. A person who was losing his sight.
Gerton-Wachter described the exchange as “very awkward” and a sign that “I’m never going to be with those people again.”
But for Leland, this scene with its thoughtless cruelty loomed far larger—something Gerton-Wachter only realized when he read the book.
The chasm between how blind and sighted people perceive things is a major theme of this book. Much of the drama is about Leland and Gerton-Wachter, both of them discussing what it means to be blind and how others see blindness, or choose not to see it. We focus on how we can develop a better understanding of who we are.
In another scene, a youth leader recites a poem by Billy Collins during a Rosh Hashanah service. Leland, her family, and his friends listen to the poem and its refrain, “Kneel and thank God for your sight,” in uncomfortable silence. Garton-Wachter then emailed the rabbi, suggesting that a more comprehensive poem might be a better choice in the future.
“If I had heard this poem years ago, I might not have thought it was great, but I wouldn’t have really understood the issue of disability discrimination,” she said. He spoke using words that broadly refer to actions and the like. Norms and laws that demean or devalue people with disabilities.
“But now I see how vision and blindness metaphors are used in everyday conversations, in TV shows and movies,” she said. “It’s everywhere.”
The book also features works by blind artists, engineers, and artists, including award-winning sculptor and painter Emily Louise Gossiaux, who lost her sight in 2010, and Erin Lauridsen, director of access technology for one of the nation’s leading companies. I am following Leland when he visits an activist. An innovative blindness rehabilitation center.
At one point, Leland travels to the Colorado Center for the Blind for two weeks of training. There, students take classes in philosophy and woodworking, learn to kayak and rock climb, and hone their cooking and kitchen skills while wearing sleepshades (essentially heavy-duty sleep masks) that completely block their vision. , to navigate the region.
The center’s director, Julie Deden, said the aim was to build confidence and independence. “It’s so liberating when they discover they can do all this without having any vision,” she said.
Leland found training to be transformative. “Just sitting in a room wearing sleepshades, hanging out with other blind people wearing sleepshades, there is an absolute sense of normalcy, camaraderie, and joy.” there was,” he said.
Leland also answers blindness questions that many of us never ask or don’t know who to ask. For example, can blind people be racist because they “can’t see” colors? (Yes.) Blind men want to know if the woman they’re talking to is cute, right? See? (Some people do.) Why do blind people like to dress up? (They are human too.)
Over the years, Leland has worked to master technologies such as screen readers, software programs that allow visually impaired users to read text on a computer screen. When a blind woman told him he should learn now instead of after she lost her sight permanently, he made a decision. This experience can be an emotional tornado for many.
“I’ve heard stories of people losing a month, but I’ve also heard stories of people losing five years, 10 years,” he says. “Keyboard not if he’s trying to memorize shortcuts.”
Much of this book was written during the pandemic lockdown. He said his writing process kept him going, despite his failing eyesight and the accompanying anxiety about the future. Ultimately, the book was about blindness, so the conflict, the pain, and the friendships and connections that come with being with other blind people were all important elements.
“It would have been very difficult if no one cared about what I was going through and I was in a job that was purely stifling my progress,” he said. But given the fact that he was writing about blindness, “I felt almost productive about losing my sight. I was like, ‘Oh, this stinks,’ but also wonderful. I can watch this process carefully and write about it. and I am finishing my work. ”
