Week 12: There I am
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| Source: Clear Vision |
“ Watch where you going!” I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was very angry. I did hear something crash. I know he didn’t mean any harm by it. Not a lot of people had disabilities in this day and age, let alone blind like me. The government had nearly eradicated every possible element. I was apart of the older generation and my parents didn’t see the need to be a “ government guinea pig’. I had never had eyesight, but I can tell when a light is on. Now that I am in my thirties I well passed the age to receive the cure-all shot. I still had hope that I would see the sunset. I would one-day experience color.
I settled into my apartment, music and audible books were my preferred choice of entertainment. It was a little hard to paint a picture of some of the things that they said because I had never seen them but I love it when they talked about textures which is how I usually view the world. I was listening to an audible book and I heard an ad from the Queen. Queen S as she liked to be called. “ The Gods have promised me a son. They have also given me the ability to heal. If you still suffer from elements in this day and age come and see me be our new test subjects.” The Queen was a huge company that tested out new medicines and technologies on the public and the Gods were the government. They didn’t think the term ‘Big Brother’ was fitting anymore. I had lived my whole life without sight, I wasn’t lacking in anything else. Life was pretty great as far as I could tell.
A month had passed and all I could think about was the ad. I finally decided to go and see if they could give me sight. Getting into the trails were simple. They were a little perplexed to see me there for they thought they would be getting extreme cases. They set me in a chair and told me they would infuse contacts on my eyes. They were meant to enhance the sight of a person with vision. They thought it would be perfect since I could sense light that this may be the best best. Custome contacts take less than three minutes to make. They popped them in on me and told me to test them out for a few days.
At first, there was nothing. Then bam I could see the people operating on me and I was amazed. The first thing I wanted to do was see my face. I asked for a mirror and there I was.
Author’s Note: I got this story from The Life of Buddha. It mentioned how the Queen at the time was healing people that were blind. I thought it would be neat to place the story in the future and have a company doing it through the government instead of an old-time story. I also don’t want this story to sound ableist at all. You can lead a perfectly healthy and full life without vision.
Bibliography: Life of Buddha
This is such a compelling story, it totally reminds me of the book/movie "The Giver." I wonder if you're familiar? That being said, I think this would make for a really interesting show or film from the first person perspective you take here. I love the thought that when your protagonist gained sight he or she decided the first thing they wanted to see was their own reflection. Just thinking of living life with only some concept of what you look like based on only your senses other than your eyesight is such a strange thought experiment. I appreciate that you mentioned in your author's note that didn't want to come across as ableist, and I assure you that you didn't!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool story! I love stories set in futuristic societies like this. I really like how you use this language of Queens and Gods but then give them an entirely different meaning in your new context. It reminds me a bit of the movie Mr. Nobody, because this guy is one of the last fully mortal humans in a world that's essentially cured aging--that concept of the ones that get a little left behind as technology and society progresses faster and faster is so interesting. Your story also made me curious to read the Life of Buddha now!
ReplyDeleteHi Dacia, first of all, what a great story you wrote! I loved how you made the story more futuristic but at the same time old by keeping queens and gods in it. At the end of the story, I liked how the protagonist gained his vision and chose to see a reflection of himself first rather than anything else.
ReplyDeleteHi Dacia!
ReplyDeleteI love this story! I think it was an interesting way to retell the story. I liked that it was set in a futuristic time. Reminds me of the movie Gattaca with Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman. I think my favorite part about this story is when you mention that the character has a hard time picturing the things people describe because they had never seen them, but they could understand the texture of things. I think this is something we don’t think about if we have been able to see our whole lives. Great story!