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“There Plant Eyes” by M. Leona Godin

From Joan Myles, jmyles63@gmail.com:

From Homer to Helen Keller, from Dune to Stevie Wonder, from the

invention of braille to the science of echolocation, M. Leona Godin

explores the fascinating history of blindness, interweaving it with

her own story of gradually losing her sight.

There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our

ocularcentric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what

it means to be “blind.” For millennia, blindness has been used to

signify such things as thoughtlessness (“blind faith”), irrationality

(“blind rage”), and unconsciousness (“blind evolution”). But at the

same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special

powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John

Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil).

Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the

often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the

myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of

generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture

(from King Lear to Star Wars) with a study of the science of blindness

and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed

printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural

history.

A genre-defying work, There Plant Eyes reveals just how essential

blindness and vision are to humanity’s understanding of itself and the

world.

About the Author

M. Leona Godin is a writer, performer, and educator who is blind. Her

writing has appeared in The New York Times; Playboy; O, The Oprah

Magazine; and Catapult, where she writes the column, “A Blind Writer’s

Notebook.” She was a 2019 Logan Nonfiction Fellow and has written and

produced two theatrical productions: The Star of Happiness, based on

Helen Keller’s time performing on vaudeville, and The Spectator & the

Blind Man, about the invention of Braille.

She founded the online magazine Aromatica Poetica as a venue for

exploring the arts and sciences of smell and taste; not specifically

for, but welcoming to, blind readers and writers. She holds a PhD in

English Literature from NYU and has lectured on art, accessibility,

disability, and technology at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, Rice

University, and the American Printing House for the Blind, among other

venues.

Praise for There Plant Eyes

“…elegant, fiercely argued.” —Wall Street Journal

“‘The dual aspects of blindness—that it is a tragic horror on the one

hand and a powerful gift from the gods on the other—remain stubbornly

fixed in our cultural imaginations,’ Godin, a blind writer and

performer, asserts in this thought-provoking mixture of criticism,

memoir, and advocacy.” —The New Yorker

“There Plant Eyes is so graceful, so wise, so effortlessly erudite, I

learned something new and took pleasure in every page. All hail its

originality, its humanity, and its ‘philosophical obsession with

diversity in all its complicated and messy glory.’”

—Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts

“Godin guides readers through the surprising twists and turns in

Western blind history, from ancient seers to contemporary scientists.

The lively writing style and memorable

personal anecdotes are delightful. This book is a gift to both blind

and sighted readers.”

—Haben Girma, human rights lawyer and author of the bestseller Haben:

The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law

“This sighted disabled person learned so much from There Plant Eyes!

The book took me on a cultural journey that showed how blindness is

beautiful, complex, and brilliant.”

—Alice Wong, Editor, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from

the Twenty-First Century

“In the fascinating There Plant Eyes, Leona Godin moves effortlessly

from erudite explorations of the construction of ‘blindness’ in the

times of Homer and Milton; to incisive and often funny examinations of

technology that helps—or does not—the blind individual; to personal

stories of her own life as a writer and performer. I was only a few

pages in before I realized that what I thought about being blind was

either wrong or woefully insufficient. The reader will be lost in

admiration for the breadth and sweep of Godin’s gifts as a writer and

cultural critic.”

—Riva Lehrer, author of Golem Girl: A Memoir

“I’ve been waiting most of my life for a book like There Plant Eyes to

demystify what it means and doesn’t mean to be blind. With eloquence

and wit, M. Leona Godin articulates what our culture has gotten wrong

for centuries. Blindness, she makes clear, is a feature, not merely a

difference. I’ll be recommending this book every chance I get.”

— James Tate Hill, author of Blind Man’s Bluff

“We are inevitably blind to realities outside our own experience, and

it takes a sensitive writer like Godin—with her poet’s ear—to give

insight into sightlessness.”

—David Eagleman, neuroscientist at Stanford, author of Livewired

“…erudite, capacious…As Godin wonderfully shows, we’ve come a long way

in our quest to understand what blindness means.”

––Kirkus Reviews

“By turns heartfelt and thought-provoking, this is a striking achievement.”

—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

From Bookshare:

Synopsis

From Homer to Helen Keller, from Dune to Stevie Wonder, from the invention of braille to the science of echolocation, M. Leona Godin explores the fascinating history of blindness, interweaving it with her own story of gradually losing her sight. There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our ocularcentric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what it means to be &“blind.&” For millennia, blind­ness has been used to signify such things as thoughtlessness (&“blind faith&”), irrationality (&“blind rage&”), and unconsciousness (&“blind evolution&”). But at the same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil). Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture (from King Lear to Star Wars) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural history. A genre-defying work, There Plant Eyes reveals just how essential blindness and vision are to humanity&’s understanding of itself and the world.

Copyright: 2021

Book Details Book Quality:

Publisher Quality Book Size: 352 Pages

ISBN-13: 9781524748722

Related ISBNs: 9781524748715

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date of Addition: 07/29/21

Copyrighted By: M. Leona Godin

Adult content: No

Language: English

Has Image Descriptions: No

Categories: Nonfiction, Disability-Related, Biographies and Memoirs, Literature and Fiction, Social Studies, Language Arts

Submitted By: Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.

 
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