What a wonderful thing is metaphor

[kestrell]

At some point in the future I am going to be on a panel discussing images of people with disabilities in horror, so I thought I would do a little googling and see what books/films I may have missed.

Which is when I ran across an archived thread where a numer of people were criticizing blind people's objects to the film version of "Blindness," based on the book by Jose Saramago. There was a lot of mocking of blind people who obviously had not "read the book" (quote: "Get it? blind people can't read"), and quote: "Don't these people know what metaphor is?".

Why yes, I do know what a metaphor is but, you see, I do not have metaphorical blindness. I am a real blind person who thinks that using a real specific physical characteristic to signify all that is to be criticized in our society is insulting, because it is not *just* used metaphorically, but utilizes negative stereotypes in pursuit of its "metaphor."

I have this game I like to play, call it Stereotype Mad Libs, in which I substitute the stereotyped group of people with some other group of people. So, instead of saying nonfunctioning eyes make people instantly ignorant and aggressive, I can say having a penis makes people ignorant and aggressive or, to be even more metaphorical, having a di--oh, wait, this post is intended to be work-safe,...got it.

*Having* a duck makes a person *be* a duck. I'm not *actually* saying that everyone with a duck behaves like a duck, this is just a metaphorical duck of which I speak so, please, all you people who have a duck, get a sense of humor, a sense of perspective, a little thicker skin. See, by *using* the stereotype of ducks I am exposing the many, many ways ducks can be used to represent the negative aspects of society and, when I make the film, I promise to frame the ducks with all the dignity and sensitivity they deserve.

Excuse me, I have to go stab something now.

Comments

[ambyr]

I haven't seen the film, but I thought the book was pretty awful. (I ranted about it at great length on Goodreads and naturally had someone stop by to tell me patronizingly that I was missing the point of the metaphor.)

[kestrell]

Many years ago, when I was doing time at the Carroll Center for the Blind, there was a quote counselor unquote there, and we all had to have mandatory time with the counselor, who kept lecturing me about my attitude and my being argumentative (translation: I didn't treat every word from her lips as pure gold to be adopted and lived by). At one point, she asked me if I had read the book and, when I said yes, she went on and on aout how terrifying she found the book, and all I could do was sit there and think about how I, as a blind person, am supposed to respect the opinions of someone who found images of blindness that repulsive. It's like institutions hire these kind of people intentionally so they can be absolutely as useless as possible. Also, I never did get my schedule in braille, because no one there knew how to use the braille printer, and everyone else in my "class" was legally blind with use amounts of functional vision. I've met other people who refer to it as the Carroll Center for the Not-Quite-Blind.

[ambyr]

I mean, of course she found blindness as depicted in the book terrifying! The book repeatedly uses metaphors to compare blind people to animals. It is really, really gross.

[jesse_the_k]

Quack quack quack.