Blindness by Jose Saramago
Feb. 9th, 2010 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainbowunicorn_readsThis, by far, is the scariest and most horrific book i've ever read in my entire life. The most disturbing thing about it is that it doesn't even have your typical monster or anything supernatural. Blindness by Jose Saramago tells the story of a society suddenly plunged into an epidemic of blindness, or what they call the "white evil". Unlike the typical blind people who see complete darkness, the victims see a milky sea.
To contain the spread of the white evil, the victims and the suspected victims are locked inside an abandoned mental asylum by the government, and it is there that chaos starts to manifest itself.
Saramago describes each incident with such attention to detail that I could almost imagine the horrors the victims had to endure. In fact, there are some parts where I stopped reading, for fear of being magically blind myself. There was a particularly gruesome rape scene though that Saramago might have deemed imperative to the character development in the story, but I was left wondering why the victims involved didn't act more aggressively, seeing as they were well-equipped within their means. Maybe it was the lack of nourishment, and other basic supplies. Maybe Saramago was showing us how desperation corrupts.
After reading it I was able to see how I shouldn't take a lot of things for granted. And at the top of my gratitude list--predictably--is my sense of sight.
How this made me feel: My imagination is running overtime. I found it harder to sleep after reading this.
Books similar to it: The Running Man by Stephen King
Soundtrack apt for this book: Something from Bjork. Dancer in the Dark OST.
Don'ts: Don't read this while eating, or if you have a faint heart.
What I think: 8 unicorns
To contain the spread of the white evil, the victims and the suspected victims are locked inside an abandoned mental asylum by the government, and it is there that chaos starts to manifest itself.
Saramago describes each incident with such attention to detail that I could almost imagine the horrors the victims had to endure. In fact, there are some parts where I stopped reading, for fear of being magically blind myself. There was a particularly gruesome rape scene though that Saramago might have deemed imperative to the character development in the story, but I was left wondering why the victims involved didn't act more aggressively, seeing as they were well-equipped within their means. Maybe it was the lack of nourishment, and other basic supplies. Maybe Saramago was showing us how desperation corrupts.
After reading it I was able to see how I shouldn't take a lot of things for granted. And at the top of my gratitude list--predictably--is my sense of sight.
How this made me feel: My imagination is running overtime. I found it harder to sleep after reading this.
Books similar to it: The Running Man by Stephen King
Soundtrack apt for this book: Something from Bjork. Dancer in the Dark OST.
Don'ts: Don't read this while eating, or if you have a faint heart.
What I think: 8 unicorns