Engl 231: Apocalypse & Dystopia The Colour of Blood

Tone: Sarcasm & Dark HumorThe two soldiers forming the escort, who were waiting outside, reacted admirably in the face of danger. Mastering, God alone knows how and why, their legitimate fear, they advanced to the threshold of the door and emptied their magazines. The blind internees fell . . .” (83 mid).

“the regimental commander [had said] that the problem of these blind internees could be resolved only by physically wiping out the lot of them . . . just as one amputates a gangrenous limb in order to save the rest of the body. . . . For some of the soldiers, less sensitive to the beauties of figurative language, it was difficult to understand what a dog with rabies had to do with the blind, but the word of a regimental commander, once again figuratively speaking, is worth its weight in gold, no man rises to so high a rank in the army without being right in everything he thinks, says and does” (101 mid).

“Would you like to hear the latest news, that colonel we mentioned earlier has gone blind, It’ll be interesting to see what he thinks of that bright idea of his now He already thought, he shot himself in the head, Now that’s what I call a consistent attitude. The army is always ready to set an example” (108).

Government Action: Practical or Cruel?

draconian rules for existence in asylum (43-44)

military won’t help infected thief (63 top-mid); kills him (72 top – 76 bot)

irregular delivery of meals (79 mid - 84 mid, 105 mid)

fearful military shoots 9 people after dropping off food containers (83-84)

it forces 200 more (in addition to 60-70 already there) into asylum built for 120 (107-112)

Government Action: Practical or Cruel?

gov. & news organizations downplay situation; recommend solidarity (121 top-bot)

gov.’s strategy changes twice in six days (122 bot); it begins incarcerating all who are blind in unused buildings (123 bot)

military is fine with the blind killing each other (138 mid)

they confine the blind regardless of health—some internees have cancer, etc. (161-62)

gov. stops broadcasting altogether when the announcer at one of the last stations goes blind (150 bot)

does the architectural design of the asylum complicate or facilitate the newly blind internees’ attempts to adjust to their new surroundings?

many cough up phlegm and pass wind without concern for others—atmosphere is increasingly heavy and noxious because windows are too high to reach (95 top).

layout of asylum is difficult to figure out for the blind: “doorways so narrow that they look more like bottlenecks, corridors as crazy as the other inmates of the asylum . . .” (109 bot)

asylum filled to overflowing with many more people (270+) than the 120 it was built to house; accordingly, feces and urine are everywhere, not just in the overflowing lavatories (131-133)

“the construction of the two wings, logically enough, had strictly adhered to a symmetrical pattern, anyone familiar with the wing on the right would have no difficulty in getting their bearings in the wing on the left . . .” (144 mid-bot).

does Saramago de-stigmatize blindness, or does his tale contribute to the popular notion that severe vision impairment is not only devastating but dehumanizing?

“[Y]ou have no idea what it is like to watch two blind people fighting, Fighting has always been, more or less, a form of blindness, This is different” (133 bot).

“the charitable, picturesque world of the little blind orphans is finished, we are now in the harsh, cruel, implacable kingdom of the blind . . .” (133 bot).

“I’ve spent my life looking into people’s eyes, it is the only part of the body where a soul might still exist and if those eyes are lost . . .” (134 top).

doctor’s wife: does not let people know she can see, lest she become the sole washer, beard trimmer, food distributor of the entire hospital—would be an exhausting and impossible position (135 mid).

does Saramago de-stigmatize blindness, or does his tale contribute to the popular notion that severe vision impairment is not only devastating but dehumanizing?

“a person has to give vent to his feelings somehow, especially if he is blind” (143 bot). “I cannot imagine anything worse than our present existence. Well, I’m not entirely convinced that there are limits to misfortune and evil, You may be right, said the doctor, and then, as if he were talking to himself, Something has to happen here, a conclusion that contains a certain contradiction, either there is something worse than this, after all, or, from now on, things are going to get better, although all the indications suggest otherwise” (144). “a blind person w/ experience as a blind person is something else, he’s worth his weight in gold” (146 mid).

Do the Arts & Aesthetics Retain Any Significance for the Blind?

ophthalmologist anxious, but comforted by recalling Homer’s Iliad, “the greatest poem about death and suffering ever written” (28 top-mid)

conjunctivitis of girl w/ glasses now gone, but beautiful bright eyes are irrelevant when everyone’s blind (96 mid)

desire for a storyteller—one who knows Bible by heart—and for music (106-107)

old man w/ black eyepatch has radio, & they listen to some music together—a few cry (119 top-mid)

man with eye patch prefers patch to glass eye, though, “With all of us ending up blind, as appears to be happening, who’s interested in aesthetics . . .” (126 bot).

girl w/ sunglasses wishes to listen to music, but man w/ patch denies request (149-50)

discuss passages, in turn, prior to viewing paintings

The Painting (128-29)

Text

“It was a picture of a cornfield with crows and cypress trees and a sun that gave the impression of having been made up of the fragments of other suns. Sounds like a Dutch painter” (128-29).

Vincent van Gogh’s “Wheatfield with Crows” (1890)

“I think it was, but there was a drowning dog in it, already half submerged, poor creature, In that case it must be by a Spanish painter, before him no one had ever painted a dog in that situation, after him no other painter had the courage to try” (129 top).

Francisco Goya’s “The Dog” (c.1819-1823)

Text

Probably, and there was a cart laden with hay, drawn by horses and crossing a stream, Was there a house on the left, Yes, Then it was by an English painter . . .” (129 top)

John Constable’s “The Hay

Wain” (1821)

“Could be, but I don’t think so, because there was a woman as well with a child in her arms. Mothers and children are all too common in paintings, True, I’ve noticed. What I don’t understand is how in one painting there should be so many pictures and by such different painters” (129 top-mid).

Raphael’s “Madonna and Child” (1504)

Text

“And there were some men eating, There have been so many lunches, afternoon snacks and suppers in the history of art, that this detail in itself is not enough tot tell us who was eating, There were thirteen men altogether, Ah, then it’s easy . . .”

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last

Supper” (1495-98)

Text

“There was also a naked woman with fair hair, inside a conch that was floating on the sea, and masses of flowers around her, Obviously Italian . . .” (129 mid).

Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of

Venus” (1486)

Text

“And there was a battle . . . There were corpses and wounded men . . . and soldiers too” (129 mid).

Jan Matejko’s “The Battle of Grunwald”

(1878)

Text

“And a horse stricken with terror, With its eyes about to pop out of their sockets, Exactly, Horses are like that, and what other pictures were there in your painting, Alas, I never managed to find out, I went blind just as I was looking at the horse” (129 bot).

Peter Paul Ruben’s copy of Da Vinci’s

lost “The Lost Battle of Anghiari” (1505)

why might Saramago have incorporated these paintings into this passage?

Text

“It was a picture of a cornfield with crows and cypress trees and a sun that gave the impression of having been made up of the fragments of other suns. Sounds like a Dutch painter” (128-29).

Vincent van Gogh’s “Wheatfield with Crows” (1890)

“I think it was, but there was a drowning dog in it, already half submerged, poor creature, In that case it must be by a Spanish painter, before him no one had ever painted a dog in that situation, after him no other painter had the courage to try” (129 top).

Francisco Goya’s “The Dog” (c.1819-1823)

Text

Probably, and there was a cart laden with hay, drawn by horses and crossing a stream, Was there a house on the left, Yes, Then it was by an English painter . . .” (129 top)

John Constable’s “The Hay

Wain” (1821)

“Could be, but I don’t think so, because there was a woman as well with a child in her arms. Mothers and children are all too common in paintings, True, I’ve noticed. What I don’t understand is how in one painting there should be so many pictures and by such different painters” (129 top-mid).

Raphael’s “Madonna and Child” (1504)

Text

“And there were some men eating, There have been so many lunches, afternoon snacks and suppers in the history of art, that this detail in itself is not enough tot tell us who was eating, There were thirteen men altogether, Ah, then it’s easy . . .”

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last

Supper” (1495-98)

Text

“There was also a naked woman with fair hair, inside a conch that was floating on the sea, and masses of flowers around her, Obviously Italian . . .” (129 mid).

Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of

Venus” (1486)

Text

“And there was a battle . . . There were corpses and wounded men . . . and soldiers too” (129 mid).

Jan Matejko’s “The Battle of Grunwald”

(1878)

Text

“And a horse stricken with terror, With its eyes about to pop out of their sockets, Exactly, Horses are like that, and what other pictures were there in your painting, Alas, I never managed to find out, I went blind just as I was looking at the horse” (129 bot).

Peter Paul Ruben’s copy of Da Vinci’s

lost “The Lost Battle of Anghiari” (1505)

peruse additional Points of Reflection, if time allows . . .