[stylist] New Book, blindness on TV

[Henrietta Brewer]

You guys make me laugh. You're right, Sighted people can't imagine the blind being the hero. At Christmas, when the power was out in our town, I had twenty five or thirty people here most days. We had a generator so we had a few lights but not in more then half the house. 

I didn't think much of it while everyone was here. Though I was tired of doing all the fetching because no one could find anything in the dark. When everyone left and I was cleaning house, I saw how difficult it was for our guests. They had only a flashlight in the bathroom and their bedroom and nothing was where it should be. 

they all mention now, that they will call me in any black out. But it took reality to get even family to realize that a blind person can be helpful in a black out. lol
Henrietta
On Feb 13, 2014, at 12:10 AM, Bridgit Pollpeter wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> stylist:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/bpollpeter%40hotmai
> l.com
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Writers Division web site
> http://writers.nfb.org/
> stylist mailing list
> stylist at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for stylist:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/gary.brewer%40comcast.net