Author: H.G. Wells
Publication date: 1904
Genre: Classics, Science Fiction, Short Story
Format: Audiobook
Publisher: Acantilado
Translator: Javier Calvo
Narrator: Alejandro Gonzalez
Book Description: "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." Or is he? In H. G. Wells' acclaimed tale, a stranded mountaineer encounters an isolated society in which his apparent advantage, sight, since all the people are blind, proves less than valuable.
Thoughts:
This is a short story, it's one of Well's most renowned works and of course, is one of the most mentioned fictional stories featuring blindness in a positive light. It takes place in a fictional mountain range in Ecuador, a man named Núñez suffers an accident while he's climbing. He slides down the side of the mountain and ends up in uncharted territory.
Down the mountain, cut off from the exterior world in a valley there is a community. The whole village shares a blindness, early on in their settlement the people living there were struck by some type of illness never actually named which caused every newborn to be blind. There have been several generations, the people there settled and learned to live by sounds, their language and customs have evolved to thrive in their surroundings. They have fully adapted to a life without sight, but as it has no meaning and no one to remind them of the one sense they lack their world completely erased any vestige of sight. There is no word for eyes, for sight and colors; no one has been able to see for generations so those meaningless words ceased to exist for them.
Arrogant and opportunistic, he seeks to use his fifth sense to gain some leverage over the 'simple' villagers and rule over them. The logic he follows and repeats as a mantra to show he is superior to them is the very popular Spanish saying "En el pais de los ciegos el tuerto es rey" in English that would be "the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind". I had never heard this one in English but the one in Spanish, yes very well known.
We have social commentary on colonialism. This setting in particular is symbolic of the Spanish Conquistadors who thought themselves superior to the indigenous population under their subjugation. The villagers, however, have no concept of what it is to be blind, or indeed what it would be like to have the gift of sight, and so the interloper's devious gambit isn't the advantage he'd hoped it would be. Metaphorically speaking, the natives are able to 'see' better than Nuñez, as they are able to move in the deep darkness of the caves. The villagers see the newcomer as a child as he talks nonsense and is unable to move around without falling on his face. Their lives do not follow any of the normal schedules, they sleep during the 'Heat Time' (day), and their daily activities are done during the 'Cool' (night).
The whole thing is wholly meant to be a social commentary but it does not feel like the author wants to shove it down your throat.
I gave this:
This was used for the following challenges:
Classics.
Translated works.
Read in Spanish.
Social Commentary
Around the World: UK.
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