The class has ended and I just want to say I think the class was interesting and informative for me and the collection was challenging for me thank you professor Talbird for your class.

Final Week

This week of the blog is optional. Anyone who posts will get extra credit. Some things you may want to write about:

• What were your favorite aspects of the class? What were your least favorite? What did you learn? What do you still need to work on? 
• What was your favorite text that was read on the last day of class? Give a shout out to your favorite fellow writers.
• How do you feel about your final collection? Have you ever written so much before? 

The girl with the dark glasses and the man with the eye patch had an argument about how each of them felt about each other with there love.

I noticed that the film showed some what like blurry to represent the name of the movie showing that the people were blind.

Movie

One interesting thing I noticed in the movie "Blindness" was that the camera was hand held rather than placed on a tripod or crane. The use of the camera would be the most important thing while creating the film because the world has gone blind, and it is a visual tool. I think the director chose to use this kind of camera work to make the viewer feel at unease much like the characters in the film. The camera being shaky and be unsteady represents everyone's state of being, and eventually the world government. An important element to the camera work being stable, the tripod, was taken away much like an element people have that they all take for granted, their vision.

Blindness-movie

The sex scene were very graphic and I couldn't really look at the screen. Just the fact raping is very cruel and uncomfortable for a women to be forced to have sex. Also, it didn't mention how many weeks or months they stayed at the wards which it looks like they've stayed in there for a very long time. And the population of the blind was increasing when days went by. At the end it seemed the only lady that was not blind, got blind, but no she was just looking up into the sky. Which made it seem when everyone reliefs from blindness, she will then get blind. Overall great movie, but very graphic for me to watch people get abused and demanded with a weapon.

This scence was very interesting but I like the way doctor wife dealt with the situation because was the only way out of that horrible environment they where in at the moment .so when they where free she was able to get them food and even afford up their home so they could get clean water food and whatever else was needed.

Class Discussion on Blindness: The Movie

I really enjoyed this movie. It helped me put bits and pieces together to understand parts of the novel I was questionable about. I noticed the different strategies the director used when producing the film. For example, when people began to go blind a bell would ring. When the fist blind man went blind a bell rang. When all the government officials at the conference went blind a bell rang continuously to represent the bunch of people being plagued with this sea of whiteness. I also noticed how in the end of the movie, when the first blind man regained his eyesight, the camera was in his point of view. The camera started off with a blurry whiteness that began to fade and produce a clearer picture to represent him regaining his eyesight. But in certain parts of the film, scenes would open up with a blurry whiteness. Some scenes would stay blurry depending on whose point of view it is in. In scenes where it was in the wife's point of view, it would begin blurry but it would become clearer. To me, I feel like most of the movie was in the wife's point of view because she was the only who could see. Most scenes couldn't be in one of the blind characters point o f view because they couldn't see and there wouldn't be much of a story to tell. In the end, I interpreted that the dog symbolized a hope for life. Everyone and everything was hanging by a thread but once the dog came around, everything changed and things became better. Like the first blind man regaining their eyesight, the group finding food and shelter.

Sydney Brown
Engl 102
5/9/2019



      The Movie Blindness has many pros and cons from my perspective. It didnt  really feel like a 2 hr movie but that was alright for me. I feel like the book gave more than the movie, like it told a scenario from each persons perspective. The movie can never be compared to the book at all, even though it was a good movie and we can visualize more of the things that were going on in the book. Especially when they spoke about how the people were living in slums and had to do everything in their nature to survive. So to me I think the movie can be a great representation of the book if you can imagine in your own head what you are reading.   

Blindness: The Movie

My thoughts on the movie, Blindness, are that it really exposes you to the thought of "what if". What if we went all blind? What would happen? A particular scene in the movie really struck me as odd, where there was a Benz lying in the street, and a few other luxurious cars, just abandoned and left in the street. Stores were deserted, the supermarket was filled with people as everyone was trying to get food or other provisions. It really shows that people rely on their sight to judge and value different objects. Another example of this would be where the dogs, who are normally regarded as "Man's Best Friend", were eating a dead man, in broad daylight.

Also, since I've watched a similar movie like this, where men were paid to be prisoners and others were paid to be the warden/officers in a simulated prison where everyone felt like they were equals. It ended up going in a similar fashion. At the beginning, everything went smooth. Then, the nice/seemingly nice person started to take advantage and it just brings chaos into the fray. It shows and generalizes that the nature of people can change instantly and no one will just continuously remain the same. Full personalities will be revealed to everyone as there is no reason to hide it. Society today trumps the nature values of people, this is shown in cars, clothes, and other so called "valuable items". The movie and the book, Blindness, shows the theory of what would happen if people started going blind and if the "illness" was in fact contagious.

There were two shorthanded moves that both the movie and the book threw at readers, which are the doctor's wife never losing her sight and the already blind man being taken into the blind ward. I believe this was done to encase the foreign concepts one might not foresee to bring about more possible continuations of the movie/book. When you read or watch them entirely, your own concepts are disregarded as they've already been set but as I stated before, it really just adheres to the thought of "what if".

Discussion about the movie blindness

I liked the movie and something that I've learned from it was that people with or without eyesight will always do the wrong thing. Instead of them coming up with some great ideas in the ward on how to distribute the food and making people feeling safe and comfortable, instead they wanted to take supremacy and abuse women in exchange for food. I liked how the movie was in a good speed but i guess the only thing that had me a little confused was that there was no resolution to the movie. I don't know if the rest of the population recovered their eyesight or if the lady stayed with older man.

Blindness Movie Thoughts

I liked the fact the movie wasn't too different from the book. I liked the way they made the streets look polluted and put detail into the way everything seemed deteriorated. The thing that bothered me was the sound of a bell every time someone went blind. Another thing that bothered me was the acting, some actors were acting like they could see but this was subconsciously i know its hard to act as a blind man so i give them props for doing their best. THE MAJOR THING THAT BOTHERED ME from the book and the movie is that if the lady had the gift of sight why didn't she take control since day one? She didn't have to go through all that suffering with the wards.

Thoughts on the film.

The movie "Blindness" in my opinion did a great job of showing how the world changed and how dark the world can become when all hope is lost. Shock value was huge in this movie ranging from the disgusting inhumane things human can do and how nasty environments can become in post-apocalyptic conditions. There was not much censoring and that helped give the audience a raw take on what to expect if the world loses hope.

The movie version of Blindness gave me a clear meaning of what was going on in the book version. I prefer the movie version then the book. I really like how each character came together as one to make a group of friends. From the moment they started to the end stood with the same crew. I like movies when characters are face with life threatening circumstances but overcomes the struggle that’s being put infront of them. I like when people work as a grip living with care and love.

Blindness: Complete Book and Film Response

Completing the book and then watching the film has led me to see how people react when facing different circumstances. Once they went blind and were put in the ward they were depressed and angry. Including the events that followed once confined to the ward. Using the women as payment for food. At the end once they are in the doctors house they seem to have accepted that they are blind and this is how their life will be from now on. Until the Japanese man gets his vision back. Then a sense of hope emerges. If his sight has come back then maybe there is chance that everyone will be able to see. There is no telling what could happen as their lives go on.

I think the director of the movie blindness did a good job with his interpretation of the book blindness. He captured the gore and darkness very well. I liked the subtle hints of comedy throughout the movie. Having already read the book, the visuals in this movie help bring the story to life.

Watching this movie made me wonder “what if people were to go blind”  It’s so much better when we live as one we get things done instead of fighting with each other .... For what? Nothing this is a awesome book .

interesting

The entire movie was interesting. the movie made realize how important it was to have that one lady who can see. if there wasn't at least one person who could see it would be completely different. I really like the fact that it was the doctors wife that had eyesight because if it had been the man with  the gun he would definitely use it to his advantage. Everything would have gone his way. The Lady used it to help everyone

Blindness movie

The movie was way more interesting than the book to me. The part when the woman died because of the abuse , that was a strong scene. It showed how much people change when one small thing is taken away from their life. These people have became cold hearted and the movie expresses that to me more through visual facial expressions.

I really love this book . The love they shared with each other while being blind is awesome . It also shows that no matter what people will be people, we will always have fighting , hate and anger in this world instead of sharing and coming together to make one they thought it was better to fight with each other.

Ekphrastic Cinematography

You all might not have been aware that several of the images in the film were inspired by painter Lucian Freud's work such as the painting below:

Blindness scene

In the scene we read in class, it sounds that they are starting to get on each other’s nerves. They have been together for so long and nothing in their lives have helped them. They are still blind. I think they are becoming frustrated that they are blind, while the doctors wife is taking care of them. I don’t honk anyone is really mad at each other, reality is just setting in.

Blindness Discussion Pg 305-307

In this excerpt, I think that after being around each other for a fair share of time the girl with the dark glasses and the man with the eyepatch have grew fond of each other. The man with the eyepatch was expressing his love for the girl with the dark glasses because he felt as if all of humanity was hanging by a thread and now was the time to be thankful for good fortune. The old man was hanging onto hope that everyone will gain their eyesight but the girl was more of a realist accepting the fact that there will be no more connection to family or the outside world. At first the girl with the dark glasses was denial toward the old mans feelings but once the old man argued that its life that makes the decision whether they will be together or whether eyesight will be regained she realized that he is correct after all. In the end, the old man realized that it was her who had washed his back in the shower scene meaning that she too was clinging onto hope but didn’t want to show it being a pessimist.

Blindness

There is two sides the old man and the girl. I old man has no hope of being able to see in the future, his only connection to sight is the doctors wife. The old man wants to have his eyesight back and being just able to see. The girl on the other hand she hopes that she can find her parents and other people. She forgot about being able to see and doesn’t think that being able to see is something that can happen out of the blue.

Blindness 305-307

It continues with a fight over love and affection that they both have for each other. But their sight is a problem making them unable to see what is really causing there relationship. Also, they're biggest fear of there love is what they went in the camps. Living in terrible conditions, w/o any sources to food or hygiene, making there love affair vulnerable. Where was the love in that, no where to be found

The book is coming to an end and I’m realizing that everyone is accepting the fact that the blindness might be for the fittest of the fit. To live with such a tragedy is hard but they start to accept it for what it is realizing there’s no cure for blindness. Also learning to accept there disadvantages.

Blindness

When the woman says the “ the woman I was before wouldn’t have agreed” and I think that one line speaks a lot into the book. You really notice more than people just being blind in the vision aspect but you can see how much people change . As it said in the book only a person who’s blind would make choices like these because of the the subconscious thoughts we have when our eyes see something. Everyone in the book is becoming more accepting to things because they lost faith in the hope of things changing.

Scene

The importance of this scene is to show how everything has changed from the beginning of the book compared to the end of the book. In the beginning of the book the old man and girl would have never probably interacted. However at end of the book everyone has gone through many changes because of this blindness that has caused everyone’s thought and ideas about life to be changed. Everyone in the room is more or less equal. The one thing that everyone hopes for is have there sight back and that would probably be the only thing that everyone would agree upon.

Response to pg 305

The old man with the eyepatch and the girl with the dark glasses find love and connection together and firmly express their love through talking to each other in complete silence. In this depressing and unfortunate time, they seem to find some hope with each other to live on and continue their lives as the blind, and to do it together. The only one who can see, the doctor’s wife, is regarded as their leader as she has sight and she is the other sense of hope that is found in the rest of the people she is around.

Blindness pg305

To me, as the scene comes to an end i come to realize that difficult situations force you to mature or become a different person. In the beginning, the woman with the dark glasses would have never said that she loved the old man with the eyepatch. She was in a confusing stage of her life and did not
Know what she wanted. At this point in time she seems to be certain that she wishes to be with the old man and that she loves him enough to do so. I also came to realize that throughout the entire story the woman with the dark glasses took care of the little boy. After this scene he becomes separated from her and the doctors wife expresses that from now on he will sleep on a cushion outside.

Blindness pg 305

The section that we read in class today has a certain significance towards showing that even though two people are blind it doesn’t mean they can’t love each other for losing something so valuable. Most people would be distraught and think of themselves in ruin, yet they overcome that and begin to show love amongst themselves.

As the book comes to an end i start to feel like it becomes more and more
Survival of the fittest. As we can see, various people die off because their body could not handle not eating for a couple of days and could not handle the activity with the hoodlums. I guess a lot of this has to do with how healthy somebody is and how much the body can sustain before it gives out.

Blindness: Film and Novel

As we finish the novel and watch the film adaptation this week (dir. Fernando Meirelles, 2008), I would like you think about both the conclusion of the novel and also the film adaptation. Some specific questions I have:

• What role does the old woman who lives by herself and feeds on raw rabbit play in the novel? As the doctor's wife says, "I can assure you that not even where we were living before were things so repugnant" (251). How can her life we worse that the hell they have escaped from? 
• Why does the blind author write if there is no one to read his work?
• What role does the dog of tears play in the novel? 
• The doctor's wife says, "In a way, everything we eat has been stolen from the mouths of others and if we rob them of too much we are responsible for their death, one way or another we are all murderers" (314). Remember what I said about sci-fi: That it's always about our life here, now? What does this statement say about our world?
• Why have the eyes of all the images and sculptures in the church been covered with white bandages or swipes of paint?
• Why do you think that people start to regain their eyesight at the end of the novel?
• When Fernando Meirelles asked Jose Saramago if he could film his novel, Saramago said that he could as long as the setting wasn't any recognizable city. Why do you think he made that condition?
• Why are there so many ethnicities represented in the film? Why do you think the first blind man and his wife speak Japanese? 
• All adaptations are just some people's interpretation of a text. That's why Shakespeare still gets performed even though his plays are over five hundred years old. What do you think of Meirelles' interpretation of the novel? In what ways did he realize your idea of the book? What things would you have done different if it were your movie?

Writer's Showcase

On Friday in S-112 from 12-2, there will be the first-annual Writer's Showcase. Three published QCC professors will read from their work followed by a Q&A. If any of you wish to attend and write a 1-p response about the event, I will give you extra credit. More details below:

Research Parties!

For those who need help on research for your annotated bibliographies, you might want to take advantage of the Library's Research Parties.

These five, drop-in Research Parties are designed to help students with end-of-semester research assignments.

 

Librarians will be on hand to help with topics, citations, article searching etc. And free snacks will be served!

 

Dates and times are as follows, and all will be held in L302:

 

5pm-7pm on Wednesday 5/8/19

11am-1pm on Thursday 5/9/19

11am-1pm on Friday 5/10/19

11am-1pm on Monday 5/13/19

5pm-7pm on Tuesday 5/14/19

As you can see, only the Wed. session is before the due date of the Collection. However, I will take Collections up until class time of 5/14. So obviously the very last session won't be useful for this class, but maybe you've got research in other classes you're doing.

Open Mic Folloup: Extra Credit

Anyone who reads at the open mic next Wed (see 5/01 for details) and then writes a 1-p response about the experience will get extra credit. Responses are due in class by the last day (5/14). Let me know if you have questions.

Blindness

This book is getting interesting. From the beginning I wasn't pulled into the book, the idea of everyone being blind might sound interesting but its the part of sectioning them into facilities. From what I read I like the idea of basically a war in the facilities, just from the way they are getting treated up to them rioting to get free. These sections to me feel like death camps that Hitler made for the Jewish. Instead of taking care of these people they are taking advantage of them because they cant see which backfires on them in the end.

Still reading curious yo find out what will happen in the story will it get better and if the doctor's wife will go blind and also enjoy the paintings from tuesday class.

Open Mic Poetry

I wanted you all to know about the Open Mic Multicultural Poetry Event. It's next Wednesday during club hours and all can participate. I know a lot of you have written some great poetry this term and you might be interested in reading your work to your peers. Even if not, it's always a good event and worth it to listen (esp. if the weather is nice!). It takes place in the Quad in front of the Humanities Bldg. See below for more info and write one of the sponsors if you'd like to get on the reading list (though you can probably just show up and read if you'd prefer).