[stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

When I wrote a short mystery story for a detective fiction class I took
at university, I made my main character blind, which is the first time I
did this. Anyway, at one point, the house the two main characters are
sleeping in goes up in flames, and the blind character navigates them
out of the house. Using his other senses, he makes it out the front
door. I did do some research before writing the scene, but mostly based
it off my own knowledge of what a blind person might do in that
particular situation. When critiqueing our stories, a classmate said, to
my face, it wasn't believeable that a blind person could do that and I
should change that scene. Another classmate, to my surprise, said who
better than a blind person to navigate through a situation where sight
wouldn't be much help because of the smoke, and that by smell and
feeling heat, surely a blind person would be able to navigate just as
well, if not better, than a sighted person. After considering this
point, the first person half-heartedly agreed. My point being that I
agree with Chris that even though these stories are being written by
blind people, most of the sighted world can't, or won't, buy a blind
person doing the things we make them do, living as independent, active,
vital people.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris
Kuell
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 7:47 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] New Book, blindness on TV


Donna,

I'm generally skeptical by nature, but I really hope they do a good job
with 
this show. It's exactly what we've been talking about here--an
opportunity 
to crush the stupid stereotypes and let the public see a guy who is 
interesting, and just happens to be blind. If it does a good job, and if
the 
public enjoys it, it could open the door to more blind characters in the

arts. Personally, I feel certain that the reason books like yours and
mine 
aren't getting read by agents and traditional publishers is because we
have 
blind protagonists. An agent, or more likely, an agent's assistant reads
my 
query and thinks--a blind protagonist? Nobody is going to buy that. It's
too 
outside mainstream experience.

Hopefully, the times, they are a changing.

chris


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