The Country of The Blind
Posted: Sunday, November 30, 2008
by Joel Kontinen
http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/
H. G. Wells (1866-1946) wrote a fascinating short story called The Country of the Blind. "Three hundred miles and more from Chimborazo, one hundred from the snows of Cotopaxi, in the wildest wastes of Ecuador's Andes, there lies that mysterious mountain valley, cut off from all the world of men, the Country of the Blind." So begins the story of a mountaineer called Nunez who fell from a snow covered mountain and found his way into the lost world of blind people.
The impact of Darwinian evolution is also discernible in The Country of the Blind. While Wells points out that the valley people lost their eyesight due to a disease and not to mutations, the entire story could be understood as a parable of ignorant people who fail to embrace the scientific worldview.
The value dwellers think that Nunez, the protagonist of the story, is mad because he is so different from them:
" Why did you not come when I called you?' said the blind man. Must you be led like a child? Cannot you hear the path as you walk?'
Nunez laughed. I can see it,' he said.
'There is no such word as SEE,' said the blind man, after a pause. Cease this folly and follow the sound of my feet.' "
Soon Wells gets a chance to take a swipe at the pre-Darwinian worldview. The valley dwellers thought that there was nothing beyond their world:
"They told him there were indeed no mountains at all, but that the end of the rocks where the llamas grazed was indeed the end of the world; thence sprang a cavernous roof of the universe, from which the dew and the avalanches fell."
Later Nunez falls in love with a girl called Medina-sarote. Her father Yacob would not let them marry because of Nunez' reputation of being a madman. But then a medicine man who "had a very philosophical and inventive mind" said he could cure Nunez. The blind doctor was sure Nunez' brain was affected: "Those queer things that are called the eyes, and which exist to make an agreeable depression in the face, are diseased, in the case of Nunez, in such a way as to affect his brain. They are greatly distended, he has eyelashes, and his eyelids move, and consequently his brain is in a state of constant irritation and distraction."
He tells old Yacob, " I think I may say with reasonable certainty that, in order to cure him complete, all that we need to do is a simple and easy surgical operation--namely, to remove these irritant bodies."
He manages to convince Yacob. "Thank Heaven for science!" Yacob says, and "went forth at once to tell Nunez of his happy hopes."
But Nunez, thorn between his love of Medina-sarote and his even geater love for freedom, repudiates the science of the blind and escapes from the valley.
Wells probably saw this story as a parable of the folly of not embracing a Darwinian worldview. However, our scientific knowledge has increased considerably since Wells' time and we might with good reason ask whether he really could see more than the ones he thought were blind.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Thanks for thisRickHi Rick,thanks for reading.Joel
Joel, I read this twice, each time with interest. Thank you for stretching my mind. I'm thankful it's resilient and flexible.
Blessings,
AvisHi Avis,
Thanks for reading. Years ago, when I read The Country of the Blind for the first time, I didn’t know about his agenda. But he definitely wanted to spread the “good news” that people were just evolved animals.. No wonder then that this led to a pessimistic outlook on the future of mankind, as evidenced in The Time Traveller.
Blessings,
Joel
Hi, Joel, this is an interesting summary. The solution, to remove the eyes, raises all kinds of thoughts about perception of what is true or what is a hindrance to truth. Makes me think of the One who came "to restore sight to the blind." I enjoyed and was also challenged by this. Like Avis, I read it twice, very slowly the second time. smile.Hi Jane,Thanks for reading. Although he did not believe in the supernatural, Wells does include a profound spiritual lesson in the story - but we need to wear the right glasses to understand it.Regards,Joel
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