[LMB] sharing knife discussion

[Kait Bessing]

I'm sorry, I never meant to offend! I guess I forgot about Nattie's 
arthritic knees. Of course she would need a stick to support her.

It's difficult to get away from our own culture's images and concepts. But I 
do know our current white sticks were a product of the 20th century, and I 
didn't exactly imagine Nattie's stick to look like that.

I am however very glad and relieved to be told that her shuffling is due to 
her knees, not to her blindness. I should have seen that, of course. Please 
put it down to my own - well, blindness.

Kait



Lois McMaster Bujold wrote:
> [LMB] sharing knife discussion
> Kait Bessing kait.bessing at comhem.se
> Sun Dec 2 16:19:28 GMT 2007
>
> I wrote:
>>> I really like Aunt Nattie, although I could give Bujold pointers
>>> about how blind people look and behave (having grown up among blind
>>> people). However,
>>> that's a minor detail.
>
> Tzivia Adler wrote:
>> really?  do tell.  minor details are fun!
>
> Oh, it's all that shuffling and groping bit. Sighted people seem to
> think that blind people always do this, presumably because that's
> what THEY would do in the circumstances.
>
> But Nattie's been blind for years, and she's moving around in her own
> home, where she knows every inch of the space. Why should she
> shuffle? My blind friends don't do that in their own homes.
>
> And why a stick indoors? Unless, of course, her legs are acting up. I
> can't remember exactly if that's the case.
>
> A stick for support is one thing. But a stick for feeling her way
> around - in her own, familiar home - that strikes me as quite
> unnecessary.
>
> Again, none of my blind friends use their sticks in their own homes or
> their
> offices. They keep the stick in the hall, where you hang your coats
> and things. You pick it up as you leave the house - along with your
> coat and your bag.
>
>
>
> ***  Huh!
>
> Nattie's cane is a short, stout job for holding her up despite her
> arthritic knees, as is the shuffling.  It has little to do with her
> blindness.
>
> I never imagined anyone picturing it as one of the long white
> feeler-canes the blind use -- that's such a 20th C. - Our World thing,
> it would be like Dag pulling out, if not a cell phone, at least a
> telegraph key.  Now I wonder how many others mis-pictured Nattie's
> cane
> in this fashion?
>
> Herding readers is worse than herding cats, I swear.
>
> Ta, L.