Willful Blindness?

Hello writers:

I'm wondering if an idea I have will work without invoking What An Idiot so I just wanted some feedback. It's about the backstory of a character I'm creating. We'll call her Miza for the purposes of this (I always come up with names after backstory, so...)

Anyway, Miza broke into a temple and stole a miraculous shield that could block anything as long as the weilder could react in time to intercept. However this angered the shield's guardian spirit and it cursed Miza with blindness until she returned the weapon to its rightful place and mad ammends.

("Ammends in this case is basically just giving a heartfelt apology to the monks at the temple).

However she refuses to do this and so lives with the blindness, and hones her other senses to combine with the shield's invincible blocking power.

I guess what I'm asking is can this be done in a way that doesnt make her look like a complete idiot? It isn't like she needs the weapon for any dire purpose; she just likes the power of it and the recognition that comes with owning it. Also the blindness is pretty disadvantageous, her honed senses aside.

(Oh and while we're at it, is there a way to portray her blindness without going the Milky White Eyes route?)

Thanks

edited 16th May '16 11:55:22 AM by Swordofknowledge

Is there a reason why her blindness couldn't simply be made permanent? Of all their senses humans are most reliant on their sight, so I have a hard time believing someone would willingly stay blind... especially since the payoff in this case is having what is essentially just a Captain America type shield that requires sight to be used effectively anyway. If you make it so that the spirit wont return the sight of your character then she has no choice but to learn to live with it, making the setup more believable.

The "keeps the shield just for the recognition" part is also a bit questionable: if I was in the same situation I would be terrified of the thought that someone would steal the shield from me leaving me both blind and without the shield. Then I would have basically sacrificed one of my senses for no gain whatsoever.

What it comes to conveying the blindness of your character, typically you can tell someone is blind from the way they position their eyes while talking. A blind person doesn't need to direct their eyes towards the people they are interacting with so they always look like they are staring at nothing. Sunglasses are one visual signifier you can use to show a character is blind since many blind people use them to make it less awkward for people who can actually see where their glassy eyes are directed at.

edited 16th May '16 12:13:41 PM by Paradisesnake

This person is guaranteed to look like a complete idiot to someone who values sight. In the same way that someone who values honour thinks cowards are complete idiots and someone who values their own lives highly think the foolhardy are complete idiots. Anyone who reads or enjoys watching television is going to have a hard time understanding. There are people out there who value being good at their own jobs above all else.A slight advantage in combat would be worth a considerable penalty in one's ability to find entertainment. Maybe this is not a person who reads or watches television anyway.

edited 16th May '16 12:20:48 PM by war877

Another thing to add to that which is already written above by others is that it will look like much less of an act of idiocy if you establish the character as someone who doesn't particularly value sight over other senses: she'd still use it as she goes through life because people use all the tools they have, but she's more of a listener rather than watcher, or something like that, and thus when her sight had been taken from her she saw it as a disadvantage she can overcome rather than something completely crippling or ruining her enjoyment of life, and decided that once she gets good enough losing her sight for the shield will pay off.

Because really, people will judge her with their own values if given the chance. So if you don't want her to be treated as an idiot for her choice, establish her well enough as far as that choice goes that the people would have no choice but to see the “why” of her choice before judging, thus possibly judging the reasoning rather than the choice itself.

I don't know... blindness is a pretty big handicap what it comes to your everyday life. If you're deaf you can still do stuff like drive a car, move around freely without needing outside help, and work at a day job. Even if you lose a freaking limb you can still be up and going with the help of crutches only after some days or weeks of recovery.

If you go blind you have to learn a completely different way of living: You have to learn to fold different value bills in a certain way to know how much money you have in your wallet. You have to learn Braille in order to be able to read books. To have to get a special setup that reads text that's on screen aloud in order to be able to use a computer. People can learn all kinds of things when they are forced to but when you actually have a choice...

I guess one way I could see this working is if something happened when the character got hold of the shield, for example a friend or relative of hers died as a result of her actions. The guilt resulting from the event might cause her to make a Heroic Vow to remain blind as a sort of self-punishment.

Could be that too. Point is, it's about making the decision make sense from the character's perspective, not objectively. Having the character vow to remain blind as a result of something would work just as well as any other option for as long as they accomplished that.

In fiction, many competent blind people get around and do things nearly as well as sighted people. As long as there isn't much in the way of, say, paperwork.

One of my protagonists encountered a similar situation (his eyesight had been destroyed by his enemies, but magic existed in this world sufficient to heal them). Although he didn't really have to fight once he finished the adventure, I ended up changing it to make the damage more extensive than I originally had intended to justify it.

I'd say as long as it make sense in-character, you're fine, but that I'd make sure it's not too easy for her to changer her mind if you want it to be permanent, ie make sure that it's harder for her to get them fixed in a moment of weakness.

I figured out one way to really increase the intelligence of this decision.

If she has a partner in crime. With a partner, she won't run into problems interacting with people, reading what must be read, moving around, spotting trouble, safeguarding equipment, and all the other stuff a warrior needs sight for, except for combat. With a reliable partner who becomes her eyes, the shield could dramatically improve their combined effectiveness, while only slightly impacting the bearer's quality of life.

Thanks for all of these responses; I had a lot of time to think on the ideas presented here, and I agree with a lot of the "bugs" pointed out in these observations. I've sort of got a feel for how I'll make the "willingly blind" situation go now so again thank you all.

I don't know... blindness is a pretty big handicap what it comes to your everyday life.

The thing is that people adjust to disability. People with sight think of it as a life-ending tragedy because they imagine all the things they couldn't do or would have to do differently (in some cases incorrectly). Whereas someone who is already blind for a while has already gotten used to it and don't really see it as that big a deal, apart from needing the occasional help.

So I think all you would really need to do is to get readers to empathize with the character's perspective.

so I have a hard time believing someone would willingly stay blind...

You would be surprised then. Obviously there are a lot of blind people who would become sighted if it were possible and safe and effective, but there are also a number who wouldn't, especially those who have been blind from an early age.

(Oh and while we're at it, is there a way to portray her blindness without going the Milky White Eyes route?)

In real life, the appearance of blind people's eyes varies a lot depending on the actual cause and circumstances of the blindness. In some cases, you wouldn't even be able to tell that someone is blind from looking at them. Of course, since in this case, the blindness is supernatural, you can pick pretty much anything you want. You could even go with something explicitly supernatural like just having the eyes be black voids or something.

You have to learn Braille in order to be able to read books

P.S. Many blind people no longer learn braille nowdays. Physical braille books are extremely inconvenient anyway, and you can just get an ebook and use a screen reader instead.

and work at a day job

The biggest impediment to getting a job is discrimination. And depending on the place, transportation. There's a lot of jobs blind people could do if they managed to get hired.

edited 28th May '16 6:01:29 PM by storyyeller