My eyes were blind with stars and still I stared into the sky

[tahariel]

It may sound like my bringing my work home with me, but I've always really enjoyed blindfic. I think it's the way it changes the character's behaviour, and the restrictions it places on them and the people around them - and the way it limits and changes the relationship that builds between them and whichever character is the love interest. As well, in good blindfic, the writer uses other sensory details to bring the world to life, and when it's done well, it's so immersive. I love it. I even tried my hand at it myself, with one of my original projects - it was a fantastic challenge.

What I don't get, though, is why people always seem to feel the need to 'fix' it at the end of the fic, no matter what the original cause of the blindness was. Surely the fact that it is a lifelong disability is the whole point of making the character blind?

It's like I was saying to ionaonie about an episode of House MD I watched today, in the space of one episode a main character gets a brain tumour, loses her sight, then is 100% cured with no repurcussions. Medicine doesn't work like that,, and while professionally I wish it did, narratively it never should. There should be no easy-outs.

I went to try and find a blindfic on my delicious for today's daily rec, but found that I have been remiss in my tagging and couldn't find the one I wanted. So, have this one instead! It's deep and painful and beautiful, and though the pairing seems impossible, Julad is a clever enough writer to make it seem inevitable.

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Night-blooming Heartsease by julad. Extract: Eventually Snape did appear, and he had that washed-out look of people who've done too much apparating. He ignored Neville and tore open his sack, inspecting what was inside.


Tags: harrypotter, snape/neville, slash, fic, angst, a:julad

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Comments

[jedihawkeye.livejournal.com]

I've read a few good blindfics, although the titles escape me now. There have been a few good Naruto ones, although there was one or two where Naruto lost his ability to speak which were just as interesting - as his loudness is one of his defining traits to begin with.

One of the episodes of MASH that sticks in my mind (although it isn't necessarily one of my favourites) is one where Hawkeye gets temporarily blinded when a stove explodes in his face. It gets a little too sentimental at the end, but the part where he explains to BJ about how rain falling outside sounds just like a steak grilling or how funny it is to hear someone trip in the mud, I always found really enjoyable. And when he asks a patient to read their own chart for him, not knowing that the guy had also been blinded, and the conversation they have.

None of which has much to do with what you were saying, but I thought I'd share :D

[tarayith.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'd always be very careful when stating that something isn't medically possible. Anything is. Obviously, I haven't seen this episode of House (since I don't watch it--too much like work!), but if, for example, she had a pituatary tumour acting as a space occupying lesion and compressing the optic tract/chiasm, it's likely that visual loss would be her first presenting symptom and that a speedy excision would lead to visual recovery (though not immediate, as I imagine it probably was for dramatic effect!)

Obviously, I can see where you're coming from in that it makes the whole storyline a bit anticlimactic, but then, House is all about miraculous diagnoses and recoveries as far as I can see. It would be far more annoying in a story where the blindness was central, rather than a passing episode.

Truly, medicine can provide any number of real-life miracles. You only need to look hard enough. I saw a patient with end-stage renal disease spontaneously go into remission for no reason. His tumour just up and vanished over several months without any form of treatment!

PS. I remember your blind fic! I liked it :D I also remember your blind Gundam Wing fanfic...lol, going back a long way there!

[tahariel.livejournal.com]

It is a chiasmal tumour, but they don't excise the tumour, they irradiate it. Also, I'm not only talking about visual complications, I'm talking about other things, too, like her third through sixth nerve pathways, internal carotid, other brain functions... nothing else is affected AT ALL. It's medically ridiculous. I love the character interactions, but loathe the medicine.

Also, noooooo, why you gotta drags up my high school crackbabies?! 0-0 my blind GW fic was pretty awful. As I recall, I too fell into the 'fix it' trap. In my defence, I wasn't as knowledgeable about eyes and vision at the time!

[tellezara.livejournal.com]

I'd love to try writing a blindfic someday. Unfortunately my medical geekiness would make it far too accurate and therefore I'd probably make everybody cry XD I do love the idea of them - sadly I've yet to find a good one within any fandom I've been a part of D: