«Um homem fica cego, inexplicavelmente, quando se encontra no seu carro no meio do trânsito. A cegueira alastra como «um rastilho de pólvora». Uma cegueira colectiva. Romance contundente. Saramago a ver mais longe. Personagens sem nome. Um mundo com as contradições da espécie humana. Não se situa em nenhum tempo específico. É um tempo que pode ser ontem, hoje ou amanhã. As ideias a virem ao de cima, sempre na escrita de Saramago. A alegoria. O poder da palavra a abrir os olhos, face ao risco de uma situação terminal generalizada.»
Blindness tells of an epidemic where the world sees white. The result is a societal dystopia, first in quarantine and then in a world of the blind. Food is scarce, filth is everywhere, and any small injury could be fatal.
José Saramago was one of a kind, a unique storyteller and gifted artist who always had something to say, and always said it with such a brilliant prose, translated with equal skill by his two main translators. This is among his best books, an example of how he can make the societal personal, and can make even a very unlikely story seem deeply real and troubling.
Das Buch während einer echten Pandemie zu lesen, kickt auch noch mal anders.
Hier greift eine Seuche um sich, die die Menschen plötzlich blind werden lässt.
Zuerst versucht man, die Infizierten in Quarantäne zu stecken, doch nach und nach bricht alles zusammen und das schlechteste im Menschen kommt zum Vorschein.
Nur eine Frau die nicht blind ist (aber so tut als ob, damit sie bei ihrem Mann bleiben kann), hat zumindest die Möglichkeit, den anderen ein wenig zu helfen und geht dabei weit über ihre Grenzen.
One can think of COVID-19 as a pandemic of the loss of the sense of smell, what if it was a another sense? Saramago wrote this story. Loved the writing and I couldn't put it down (finished it in two days). Nothing, from what we know about how people, the body or epidemics work, is realistic and it is of course quite cruel to blind people but still a damn good story.
Review of 'Ensayo Sobre La Ceguera (Biblioteca Jose Saramago)' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Una obra excelente que nos lleva a reflexionar sobre grandes vicios del ser humano ante situaciones de crisis, donde la mayoría piensa solo en sí mismo, busca compañía solo por conveniencia, pero sin buscar en realidad el bien común. El virus de la ceguera blanca va afectando gradualmente a toda la población, pero aún no saben lo contagioso que es, por lo que se opta por segregar en condiciones insalubres a los afectados y los que han estado en contacto directo con esto. ¿Les suena a algo conocido recientemente? La reacción inicial de los enfermos es luchar por si mismos, luego se van haciendo bandos, pero en su mayoría, nadie quiere por su propia voluntad aceptar el gobierno de una o varias personas, por lo que surge las “dictaduras” de unos pocos por el bien de los demás. ¿Les sigue sonando a algo conocido? En medio del caos, las costumbres …
Una obra excelente que nos lleva a reflexionar sobre grandes vicios del ser humano ante situaciones de crisis, donde la mayoría piensa solo en sí mismo, busca compañía solo por conveniencia, pero sin buscar en realidad el bien común. El virus de la ceguera blanca va afectando gradualmente a toda la población, pero aún no saben lo contagioso que es, por lo que se opta por segregar en condiciones insalubres a los afectados y los que han estado en contacto directo con esto. ¿Les suena a algo conocido recientemente? La reacción inicial de los enfermos es luchar por si mismos, luego se van haciendo bandos, pero en su mayoría, nadie quiere por su propia voluntad aceptar el gobierno de una o varias personas, por lo que surge las “dictaduras” de unos pocos por el bien de los demás. ¿Les sigue sonando a algo conocido? En medio del caos, las costumbres que rápidamente se instauran y se toman como norma, donde el poder del más fuerte es que manda, surgen los que predican sin dar soluciones, y aunque parezca paradójico, el que aún puede ver no sería aceptado, por lo que prefiere callar y preocuparse únicamente de los suyos…. Nadie tiene identidad, ni nombre, cada quien responde a una característica, pero puede ser cualquiera. ¿Qué pasará, podrán volver a ver, cómo resolverán entonces todo el caos que han ido provocando? …”si alguna vez vuelvo a tener ojos, miraré verdaderamente a los ojos de los demás, como si estuviera viéndoles el alma” Una excelente obra, muy recomendada su lectura.
Dieses Buch wollte ich schon lange lesen - und ich wurde nicht enttäuscht. Zunächst war es schwer, in den Erzählstil hereinzukommen, der aber wunderbar zu der Geschichte passte: Der Text wirkt wenig strukturiert, mit langen Sätzen, nicht durch Interpunktion angezeigte wörtliche Rede, Kapitelunterteilungen. Außerdem haben die Figuren keine Namen. Für mich hat aber genau das das Gefühl, in eine fremde Welt gestoßen zu sein, in der keine der früheren Regeln mehr gelten und in der man das Gefühl hat, im Chaos zu versinken, noch verstärkt. Erschreckend realistisch finde ich den Umgang der Gesellschaft mit den Erblindeten, die in eine Art Internierungslager gesteckt werden. Allerdings steht der Umgang der Blinden untereinander dem kaum nach - die Bande, die die Versorgung kontrolliert und jede Form von Vorteil für sich herauszuschlagen versucht, ganz gleich wie widerwärtig, ist nicht weniger schockierend.
Ein sehr heftiges Buch - aber definitiv lesenswert.
Review of 'Ensaio sobre a cegueira' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Blew my mind. It was a lot more... Fucked up? Than what I expected"Nobel Prize" literature to be. Super weird and kinda hard to read, but with a unique voice for the unique situation of the characters. Very good!
If one can say anything about this book without spoiling some of the elements, Iâd say you cannot even move past the first page, so for those paranoid, read no further!
This is an absolutely marvellous book on a seemingly rampant blindness that leave its victims in a visual sea of milky white. Saramago delves into what this blindness means on many levels, foremost individually as well as for society in large, and shows humanity from within its core in a variety of ways.
To me, this book displays humankind and the surrounding world at the base level. When stripped of sight, our senses are shocked, and then, as through cooking, reduced to display our core values.
I havenât read Saramago prior to this novel, but I hear his way of writing is the same almost everywhere: long sentences, few punctuations and no quotation marks to show whoâs saying what …
If one can say anything about this book without spoiling some of the elements, Iâd say you cannot even move past the first page, so for those paranoid, read no further!
This is an absolutely marvellous book on a seemingly rampant blindness that leave its victims in a visual sea of milky white. Saramago delves into what this blindness means on many levels, foremost individually as well as for society in large, and shows humanity from within its core in a variety of ways.
To me, this book displays humankind and the surrounding world at the base level. When stripped of sight, our senses are shocked, and then, as through cooking, reduced to display our core values.
I havenât read Saramago prior to this novel, but I hear his way of writing is the same almost everywhere: long sentences, few punctuations and no quotation marks to show whoâs saying what in dialogue. Itâs very interesting, yet I think some may dislike it.
Unfortunately I'd seen the film, so it'd been kinda ruined. Would have been 4 or 5 stars otherwise.
It's tight, economical, clear and overall well done. Almost sculptured at times. Character development and small spiritual journeys. Unique. All good.
Has a weird 'morality', lots of sayings and religious references, interrogations about good and evil, and hell scenes for the wicked and, later, the innocent. This morality and the hints and reality of the bad being punished was interesting but didn't really add anything.
If one can say anything about this book without spoiling some of the elements, I’d say you cannot even move past the first page, so for those paranoid, read no further!
This is an absolutely marvellous book on a seemingly rampant blindness that leave its victims in a visual sea of milky white. Saramago delves into what this blindness means on many levels, foremost individually as well as for society in large, and shows humanity from within its core in a variety of ways.
To me, this book displays humankind and the surrounding world at the base level. When stripped of sight, our senses are shocked, and then, as through cooking, reduced to display our core values.
I haven’t read Saramago prior to this novel, but I hear his way of writing is the same almost everywhere: long sentences, few punctuations and no quotation marks to show who’s saying what …
If one can say anything about this book without spoiling some of the elements, I’d say you cannot even move past the first page, so for those paranoid, read no further!
This is an absolutely marvellous book on a seemingly rampant blindness that leave its victims in a visual sea of milky white. Saramago delves into what this blindness means on many levels, foremost individually as well as for society in large, and shows humanity from within its core in a variety of ways.
To me, this book displays humankind and the surrounding world at the base level. When stripped of sight, our senses are shocked, and then, as through cooking, reduced to display our core values.
I haven’t read Saramago prior to this novel, but I hear his way of writing is the same almost everywhere: long sentences, few punctuations and no quotation marks to show who’s saying what in dialogue. It’s very interesting, yet I think some may dislike it.
