...written a first-person story narrated by a blind man? With no visual details whatsoever?
Interesting. But I think you'd have to have visual details in some way. He could give the readers his perception of the world around him through inner dialogue, which could be a fun exercise. His mind will create pictures of, say, a car based on sounds, what he's been told about cars, how the car feels (blind people see through touch), and what we take for granted he sees as something magical. Something amazing. Something astonishing. It'd be a cool exercise in world building and setting, inner monologue, and the senses. My interest is piqued now. I may have to borrow your idea, just for an exercise and practice.
Right? That's what really intrigued me, because I rely pretty heavily on visuals. But a blind man, who's never had sight, would define and describe the world very differently. His other senses would lend to the visuals in his head, and it would be interesting to use that darkness, and the senses he does have to trick the reader. Could do some interesting unreliable narrator stuff, the contrast between the visuals in his head, and the reality of what's going on around him.
Do it! I haven't worked up the nerve to try it out yet, and I'd love to see what someone else comes up with.
It's not first person, and the characters are struck blind (by epidemic) rather than born that way, but you might find Jose Saramago's Blindness an enlightening read, with its disregard for punctuation or quotations or character names.
I'll check it out Gordan, thanks! I think it's so cool when authors mess with punctuation and stuff like that. The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig is sort of like that, not the blindness but the punctuation. I mean it has periods, but no commas, no apostrophes, no quotation marks. It all just runs and runs like a kid going on and on.
Blindness has no character names? Wow, that's crazy, and it doesn't get confusing? Well, I guess I'll find out when I read it, won't I?
Depends on what you mean by blind.:P
Blind, as in cannot see/has never been able to see.
Well my vision is deteriorating, and I wrote a MC based on aspects of my life. I wouldn't call it a blind MC in the traditional sense. And I mean based on very loosely.
Sorry to hear that Sarah.
I actually wanted to write about a blind theif, with like a hobbling prostitute or something. Somehow that didn't end up working out.
But yes I want to. And thanks.
If you haven't already, read 'The Pit and the Pendulum' by Edgar Allen Poe. The first half of the story is told in complete pitch black, relying entirely on the other senses.
I haven't, I'll definitely have to check that out.
That's awful Sarah, I'm sorry to hear that. Why is it deteriorating? If you don't mind me asking.
