Wide Angle 15 - Blindness

It is quite cold here and wet too. The streets are almost always wet because it rains any time. So whatever I had heard about the UK has been validated. In addition, they drive on the left side of the road, call a “lift” not elevator but “lift”, apartment “flat” and call a movie “film”. So it is like I found the mother tongue. Anyway, back to today’s Wide Angle. This is about a book that I have read courtesy Rohit who gave it to me. It is called “Blindness” by Jose Saramago. It is a fantastic piece of work and was also made into a movie by the same name which released this year starring Susan Moore. The book is about epidemics, the nature of our reactions to them, and how easy it is for societal norms to break down when confronted with the unknown. When I write about the book, you will clearly see parallels with the Swine flu episode in Pune recently which I will also compare with.
The book is based in a random town somewhere in the US where all of a sudden on a busy traffic intersection, a man driving a car goes blind. The whole traffic stops because this car isn’t moving and when people open the door of the car, the man says “I am blind”. The man is taken to a doctor by some good people. By the next morning, all the people who the man has been in touch with go blind. This blindness is different from normal blindness, people see a white curtain in front of their eyes in the place of darkness – minor detail. The doctor also goes blind, his wife doesn’t. Government authorities order all those who have become blind to be quarantined and they are sent to the mental hospital. The doctor’s wife who can see pretends that she is blind and goes with him so that he is not alone.
Initially a group of few folks who have gone blind including the doctor and his wife are sent to this hospital. They are able to live with slight discomfort but there are beds to sleep upon and clean toilets. The group naturally gets by with each others’ help since they are blind but there is order. Soon more and more people are sent to the hospital since the blindness is spreading rapidly now. The hospital is now getting cramped and conditions are fast deteriorating. In addition, armed soldiers keep guard at the gates so that no one can escape. The residents are provided food twice a day by keeping the vessels in the open ground outside the hospital. Soon more and more blind people arrive and the place now becomes squalid and dirty. In one scene, the doctor’s wife goes to the toilet at night but steps over feces of people all the way.
The place starts getting more and more violent as order starts breaking down. Soon the stronger ones start dominating and push people around. After a while, the stronger and crooked people form a gang and steal all the food vessels. People start going hungry and go to these crooks. They ask for women in return for provision of food. No amount of cajoling works. Then there ensues a debate between the women and men of the other quarters from where the women are going to be supplied – the men say why don’t you do it and the women are refusing, they ask the men, what if they were asking for you, would you go. Anyway, the women go and food is supplied. This goes on for some time until the day no food is provided.
The people inside tentatively go out and find that there is no guard around. The whole world has gone blind now and there is no government or order in society. The doctor, his wife who can see and the original group of people with them move out and start looking for food. Things are pretty bad outside since most of the shops have been vandalized by gangs of people looking for food. People have now become adept at picking scent of food and there are violent fights between gangs for the last remaining bits of food. The doctor’s wife now leads the group and takes them through streets where anarchy reigns in search of food. Once they find food in the basement of a shop, but the place is immediately ravaged by another gang looking for food.
Finally, after many tribulations, the group ends up at the doctor’s apartment where they get something to eat. The doctor’s wife washes all of them and they settle down peacefully. The end of the book comes up with dawn coming over the city and the first man who had gone blind saying “I can see”. The sight starts returning to people in the order it had gone away.
This is a very simplistic narration of the book because the plot is very simple and also because I want you all to read it and experience the thrill. I’d like to share my thoughts on the book now. First thing – epidemics that are infectious and society’s response to them. Didn’t we all observe this during the swine flu scare – people freaking out, everyone wearing masks, masks running out in medical stores. Remember people being quarantined in hospitals, patients running out of the quarantine, general panic. I have heard stories of groups of people standing and turning back travelers alighting from buses from Pune at Kolhapur. People had horror stories of them being looked at with fear when they sneezed or coughed. Any absence from work was looked at as “Swine flu?”. Do we remember the deserted streets in Pune and no traffic for those few days. This is what epidemics are about, needless panic and overbearing measures by authorities to contain them.
The second point that I can think of from this book is what happens when the thin fabric of order that holds the society breaks down. The moment these bonds of shame/conduct are broken down, chaos reigns and anarchy sets in. This mostly happens when there is competition for limited resources, I have seen it happen even in the US, I was flying out to another city on Christmas eve and it was absolutely crowded, there was murderous rage in everyone for seating, getting into the plane, placing cabin baggage etc. In our country, it is common in most of the situations since we are so crowded. Haven’t you seen queues breaking down, the strong pushing the weak, or stampedes happening – remember the sari distribution that went awry in UP and people dying. Bottomline, it takes a very gentle push for the animal in us to come out and the bonds that hold the society together in order need to be handled delicately and protected.
So much for my interpretations, go and read the book, it is a fantastic read, would teach you a thing or two about civilization and epidemics