The Country of the Blind [short story]

“En el país de los ciegos, el tuerto es rey”

H.G. Wells es uno de esos escritores que puede tomar algo que todos tomamos por cierto, como este refrán, y demostrar lo equivocados que estamos.

Este es un libro que va de lo que es ser minoría, Núñez, el protagonista, cae en el país de los ciegos y, creyéndose superior, se topa con que el verdadero poder y grandeza está en la pertenencia no en la diferencia.

En muchas ocasiones me he encontrado con personas que hablan de la reivindicación de las minorías que hace este libro, con lo cual difiero grandemente, aquí no es que se muestre que las minorías lo pueden todo (que lo pueden) sino que el mundo se adecúa a lo que es predominante, en el país de los ciegos ser invidente show more es la norma, por lo que cada aspecto de su vida y entorno está perfectamente adaptado a las condiciones de sus habitantes, mientras que Núñez, que como persona vidente representa a una minoría, no sólo no puede aprovechar su visión, dado que nada ha sido hecho para ser utilizado mientras se ve, sino que su condición diferente lo ha llevado a ser considerado un loco: al final del día él es diferente y el país de los ciegos no está hecho para él. Entonces, ¿Qué es lo que trata de mostrar el país de los ciegos? Sencillo: que no importa lo hábil que seas, sí el mundo en el que vives no fue hecho pensando en tus condiciones particulares, estas subiendo una colina por el camino difícil.

A pesar de que la historia es interesante, y las peripecias de Núñez nos llevan de detestarlo a compadecerlo, el verdadero valor de la misma radica en que nos hace cuestionarnos nuestra propia naturaleza ¿Por qué creemos que tenemos todas las ventajas? ¿Cómo reaccionar ante un cambio total en nuestro mundo? ¿Realmente somos una raza tan perfecta como nos creemos? Al final, el mensaje de Wells lo dice fuerte y claro, el problema no es tener desventajas, el problema es ser diferente y debes cuestionarte que es lo que estas dispuesto a hacer para pertenecer.

Esta es una historia poderosa ,con un fuerte mensaje que se presta a ser interpretado constantemente, además es ideal para ser leída en diversas ocasiones, en mi opinión está 100% recomendada. show less

Entré con muchas expectativas (después de todo es H.G. Wells). Al principio consideré dejarlo. Cuando iba a hacerlo de repente se puso realmente interesante. Es oscura y reflexiva. No sé si es intencional o no, pero para mí es una buena historia de cultura, de libre albedrío y de no dejar de ver la belleza en el mundo para satisfacer a los demás (incluyendo a la verdad como algo bello), aunque te cueste a personas queridas.

¿En tierra de ciegos, el tuerto es rey?

H.G. Wells nos plantea a modo de una metáfora lo que significa vivir en una sociedad donde uno individuo es diferente, donde se vive la intolerancia, la incapacidad de comprensión, el señalamiento ante el ir contracorriente, donde para el individuo es casi imposible ir contracorriente a la opinión de la generalidad, no hay razón que valga, no hay explicación suficiente, el miedo de aceptar el cambio y la imposibilidad del individuo de ir en contra de lo que se cree y se piensa.

En este pequeño relato donde Wells nos ubica en un pueblo perdido de Dios y donde por cuestiones del destino quedan absolutamente incomunicados y que por razones casi desconocidas, la población quedó completamente show more ciega y así viven por varios siglos, no conocen otro estilo de vida, no saben que existe algo más allá de su pequeño pueblo y por supuesto la palabra “ver” no existe en su vocabulario, ahí llega Núñez y la emoción de estar ahí se convierte en algo inesperado.

Un relato corto que en independencia de su final y la metáfora que encierra es una joya de la narrativa y la prolija escritura de Wells, una delicia de lectura. show less

This is without reservation one of the best short stories I have ever read. There is so much going on beneath the surface and so many questions it raises. During an avalanche, Nunez falls into a valley that has been cut off from the rest of the world, and in which all the inhabitants have been blind for generations. The story has many themes working in it: what constitutes a handicap? Can a thing we think of as universally good be so disruptive that it is bad? Can the truth be stamped out simply because the masses agree to what is not true? And, most importantly, the dangers of a society that suppresses anyone or anything that is different.

In the interest of not revealing any of the plot for those who might not have read this, I am show more putting the remainder of my review in spoilers.

Nunez sees the blind as different when he first arrives and he wants to tell them about sight and introduce them to what he thinks they are missing, but for them this is utopia and they do not want any ideas voiced here that change that view, even if they are true.

They led a simple, laborious life, these people, with all the elements of virtue and happiness as these things can be understood by men. They toiled, but not oppressively; they had food and clothing sufficient for their needs; they had days and seasons of rest; they made much of music and singing, and there was love among them and little children.

Does sound ideal, doesn’t it.

So, the easiest thing is to disbelieve the outsider, never listen to what he says, and try to force him into being just like everyone else. The temptation to let them do that is very real, Nunez wants to fit and be accepted, and far from being seen as a superior being (which was his expectation), he is seen as an idiot, ranting and imaginative.

He began to realise that you cannot even fight happily with creatures who stand upon a different mental basis to yourself.

To fit, however, would require the loss of everything that makes Nunez an individual. He can be like them, but he must first surrender all knowledge and embrace a lie. Sadly, even If he loses his eyes, he can never be anything but inferior because they have acquired skills that make up for that loss, while he has not.

I wondered if Wells was trying to say that it was immoral to diminish the gifts God has bestowed on us, whatever they may be, and however difficult they might be to live with. While looking at nature, Nunez ponders:

It seemed to him that before this splendour he and this blind world in the valley, and his love and all, were no more than a pit of sin.

I loved the ending of this story and was disappointed to find that Wells had given in to pressure and changed the ending later. I think the original is, in fact, perfect. I will be thinking about this story for a long, long time. I believe it has extreme relevance for our own times. I often think we are the blind, and at others I think those who have glimpses of the truth might have the arrogance of Nunez and believe that means they should be king. show less

This is a review of:
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories in the Oxford World Classics Edition. It weighs in at 500 pages, and is a substantial sampling from Wells' stories. The bulk of his productivity was novels, and I do not think you can gain a sum total appreciation for the author's immense talent from the stories alone. Why did I rate the book 4 stars? Quite simply, there is no way all of these stories merit 5 stars. The stories 'The Country of the Blind,' and 'The Star' are masterpieces. The other 31 stories would score 3-4 stars.

The Oxford Edition, and the similar Penguin edition contain a 60-page introduction, which I felt did more to spoil the plots of the stories than add anything to my understanding. There were some show more useful tidbits about Wells, and one gains an immediate appreciation for his productivity, despite starting out life in less than desirable circumstances considering his artistic ideals. His political concerns, while important in their time, do not hold the same significance today - at least based on my limited familiarity with his later, more political work. The man had a thing for Utopias, apparently.

Taking the stories alone, one finds a preponderance of surreal and cosmic descriptions, sometimes to excessive lengths, which add a picaresque aesthetic to the often inconsequential plot. A couple of the stories I found downright bad and offensive, taking as they did a hackneyed view of racial stereotypes. Wells, unfortunately, has aged. His stories don't hold a candle to Ray Bradbury's. Stephen King could outwrite him in some ways. Wells' descriptions alone, are overwrought and uneven. At his best, he is about as good as Edgar Alan Poe, but Poe is far more consistent and terrifying. Wells is only mildly scary. Like Poe, when publishing these works in newspapers, he didn't have room to fully develop some of the ideas and he had to keep in mind the type of audience they were aimed at. Those factors worked to the detriment of many of them.

These are the best stories in the collection in my humble opinion:
The Country of the Blind,
The Star
"The Truth About Pyecraft"
"The Man Who Could Work Miracles"
"The Crystal Egg"
"Under the Knife"
"The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes"

These stories were okay. They are worth reading once, but I would never anthologize them.
"A Vision of Judgment"
"The Valley of Spiders"
A Dream of Armageddon"
"The Magic Shop"
"The New Accelerator"
"Miss Winchelsea's Heart"
"The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham"
"The Purple Pileus"
"The Cone"
"The Treasure in the Forest"
"The Stolen Bacillus"
"The Flowering of the Strange Orchid"

These stories were not anything special and detracted from the collection. Honestly, these were not worth reading. At best, they we hastily written, outdated, and insignificant.

"The Beautiful Suit"
"Jimmy Goggles the God"
"A Slip Under the Microscope"
"The Moth"
"The Jilting of Jane"
"In the Avu Observatory"
"The Lord of the Dynamos"

Overall, this collection is not the best place to start with Wells, but I am going to read many more of his works, knowing that he holds a unique place in English letters, rivaling Kipling.

But when the man wrote close to 100 books in his lifetime, I don't think it is necessary to judge him too harshly on his stories, especially the early ones. Such classics as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, Invisible Man and several others are enough to earn him a place in the canon. He is a very similar writer to Jules Verne, but where Verne seemed only capable of writing in the adventurous tone (as his 50-book contract obviously required him to) Wells seems to have made several departures into romance, history, nonfiction, comedy, and highbrow academic papers. show less

Another remarkable short story from the previous century, first published in 1911. It re-examines the old saying that "in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" and gives it a completely different perspective.

Körler Ülkesi'ni sesli kitap olarak bitirdim. Kitapta bilge bir adamın cahil bir topluluğu nasıl aydınlatamadığı metaforlar üzerinden anlatılmış.