Andrew Leland The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight-失明者的国度

在这本感人的回忆录中，安德鲁·利兰讲述了他从拥有视力到失明的历程，追溯了他不断变化的人际关系与视力下降的关系。在书中，利兰探索了失明的历史和文化，展现了它如何与医学、技术和体能主义交叉。

他还记述了自己前往一所盲人寄宿学校的经历，他在那里学习如何在失去视力之后做饭和过马路。一位曾在这所学校待过的学生告诉他：“除非你彻底迷失了方向，并且知道自己有能力摆脱迷失，否则你就没有接受过训练——直到你知道这不是紧急情况，而是一个巨大的谜题。”

书名：The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight《失明者的国度》

作者：Andrew Leland

简介：A witty, winning, and revelatory personal narrative of the author’s transition from sightedness to blindness and his quest to learn about blindness as a rich culture all its own

“ The Country of the Blind is about seeing—but also about marriage and family and the moral and emotional challenge of accommodating the parts of ourselves that scare us. A warm, profound, and unforgettable meditation on how we adjust to new ways of being in the world.” —Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves

We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades. He grew up with full vision, but starting in his teenage years, his sight began to degrade from the outside in, such that he now sees the world as if through a narrow tube. Soon—but without knowing exactly when—he will likely have no vision left.

Full of apprehension but also dogged curiosity, Leland embarks on a sweeping exploration of the state of being that awaits not only the physical experience of blindness but also its language, politics, and customs. He negotiates his changing relationships with his wife and son, and with his own sense of self, as he moves from his mainstream, “typical” life to one with a disability. Part memoir, part historical and cultural investigation, The Country of the Blind represents Leland’s determination not to merely survive this transition but to grow from it—to seek out and revel in that which makes blindness enlightening.

Thought-provoking and brimming with warmth and humor, The Country of the Blind is a deeply personal and intellectually exhilarating tour of a way of being that most of us have never paused to consider—and from which we have much to learn.