Say to a blind man, you’re free, open the door that was separating him from the world, Go, you are free, we tell him once more, and he does not go, he has remained motionless there in the middle of the road, he and the others, they are terrified, they do not know where to go, the fact is that there is no comparison between living in a rational labyrinth, which is, by definition, a mental asylum and venturing forth, without a guiding hand or a dog-leash, into the demented labyrinth of the city, where memory will serve no purpose, for it will merely be able to recall the images of places but not the paths whereby we might get there.-- The doctor’s wife in Jose Saramago’s, Blindness –
Have a great Monday!
That people have been locked up for so long, physically and mentally, and that they have been left at the mercy of others, would be fearful to possess freedom again, because they are so terrified by having no guidance.
ReplyDeleteThis idea, from Orwell, Huxley, to Atwood, Saramago, Ondaajte, and Pamuk, keeps on coming up in readings.
Excellent point, Matt.
ReplyDelete