Seeing is the follow-up story to Blindness, which was an awesome read but a terribly bad, horrific movie. The premise, during an election a high percentage of votes cast are blank. The government, suspecting something sinister at play, withdraws and begins investigating to find the subversive element responsible. It's almost a comedy of errors with one colossal mistake after the next. When word comes that there was a lady who survived the blindness that befell the nation four years ago, she becomes the prime suspect. I don't recall Saramago's other books written in this style but the effect is such that you have extremely long passages that include both dialogue and narrative. It's a bit tough on the old eyeballs. 11 down, 15 to go.
The question, as well as being superfluous, was, how can we put it, just the teensiest bit dishonest, firstly, because, when it comes down to it, everyone would have found out something, however irrelevant, secondly, because it was obvious that the person asking the question was taking advance of the authority inherent in his position to shirk his duty, since it was up to him, in voice and person, to initiate any exchange of information.
Excerpt 2:
The prime minister's final flourish, Honor your country, for the eyes of the country are upon you, complete with drumrolls and bugle blasts, was ruined by a Good night that rang entirely false, but then that is the great thing about ordinary words, they are incapable of deceit.
No comments:
Post a Comment