The Blind and the Seers?
March 29, 2017 2:39 PM   Subscribe

Looking for a character from myth, legend, fiction, or history who famously couldn't see. Whatcha got?

Bonus: also looking for a character who had perfect vision and/or insight.
posted by Mystical Listicle to Writing & Language (46 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Zatoichi, the blind swordsman.
posted by Comrade_robot at 2:42 PM on March 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


Like Tiresias and Oedipus?
posted by Omnomnom at 2:44 PM on March 29, 2017 [5 favorites]


He didn't lose his sight until later in life, but: Jose Luis Borges.

For the character with perfect insight: Cassandra.
posted by holborne at 2:47 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Blind Hodr was tricked into killing Baldr by Loki.

Odin gave up one of his eyes for wisdom.

The cyclops Polyphemus was blinded by Odysseus and his crew.

Argus had up to 100 eyes.
posted by bunderful at 2:49 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Graeae
posted by aniola at 2:50 PM on March 29, 2017


And of course Homer was blind.
posted by bunderful at 2:50 PM on March 29, 2017 [5 favorites]


Toph!
posted by Mchelly at 2:53 PM on March 29, 2017 [5 favorites]


Also I hate myself already, but this important nameless woman.
posted by Mchelly at 2:56 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Wikipedia has a list of (real) blind people - any good to you?
posted by paduasoy at 3:01 PM on March 29, 2017


From Marvel comics I can think of Daredevil, Alicia Masters, and Madame Web.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:04 PM on March 29, 2017


On the perfect vision side Marvel comics has Heimdall.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:07 PM on March 29, 2017


Gloucester in Macbeth ("I have no way and therefore want no eyes;/ I stumbled when I saw")

Cassandra wasn't blind. (whoops NM I see there was a subsidiary request for perfect vision!)
posted by praemunire at 3:07 PM on March 29, 2017


There's also the blind beggar Jesus healed.
posted by praemunire at 3:10 PM on March 29, 2017


Paul Atreides
posted by oflinkey at 3:18 PM on March 29, 2017


Tiresias was the first one who came to mind. Gloucester is from King Lear, not Macbeth...
posted by katie at 3:19 PM on March 29, 2017




I instantly thought of the blind woman in Don't Look Now: 'This one who's blind. She's the one that can see' - Laura Baxter (Julie Christie's character).
posted by HandfulOfDust at 3:38 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


King Dhritarashtra from the Mahabharata was famously blind; his adviser/charioteer Sanjaya was given divine vision in order to narrate the events of the battle of Kurukshetra to him. Dhritarashtra's wife, Gandhari, functionally blinded herself after marrying him, by tying a cloth over her eyes. She lifted it only once, at which point the power of her gaze burned Yudhistira's toe.
posted by staraling at 3:42 PM on March 29, 2017 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Biblical: Samson, after being betrayed by Delilah and captured by the Philistines, has his eyes put out.
posted by tivalasvegas at 3:46 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark.
posted by JimN2TAW at 4:02 PM on March 29, 2017 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Why, John Milton.
"By 1654, Milton had become totally blind; the cause of his blindness is debated but bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma are most likely. His blindness forced him to dictate his verse and prose to amanuenses who copied them out for him; one of these was poet Andrew Marvell. One of his best-known sonnets is presumed to date from this period, 'When I Consider How My Light is Spent,' titled by a later editor 'On His Blindness'."
posted by ourobouros at 4:04 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Perhaps apocryphal but Isaac Newton?
posted by songs_about_rainbows at 4:18 PM on March 29, 2017


Paul Atreides? Latterly, obv.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:22 PM on March 29, 2017


Justice.
posted by effluvia at 4:26 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]


Joe Engressia, possessed of perfect pitch, who manipulated in-band phone signalling for free long distance calling.
posted by the Real Dan at 4:26 PM on March 29, 2017


On the perfect seer theme, you might find Minority Report interesting Steven Spielberg film, Philip K. Dick writer on the notion of precogs, altered humans that can see into the future.
posted by effluvia at 4:31 PM on March 29, 2017


Well, she did have one working, removable eye, but how about Aughra from The Dark Crystal?
posted by DingoMutt at 4:52 PM on March 29, 2017


Even pre-Marvel, Heimdall could see everything and anything in all the worlds. . . post-Marvel, it's too dark to read.

JS Bach went blind, and then regained his vision immediately before dying of a stroke.
posted by jamjam at 4:53 PM on March 29, 2017


Almost everyone in Blindness by Jose Saramago
posted by danabanana at 5:07 PM on March 29, 2017


Mad-Eye Moody had a magical eye that let him see perfectly even behind his back.
posted by Mchelly at 5:09 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Homer
Handel
Milton
Justice
Helen Keller
posted by SemiSalt at 5:41 PM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]


Romo Lampkin from the Battlestar reboot.
posted by vrakatar at 5:49 PM on March 29, 2017


X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes

Riddick can see in the dark, and not so well in bright light.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:20 PM on March 29, 2017


Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and a whole lot of blues singers starting with Blind Lemon Jefferson - presuming that "history" includes "music history".
posted by clawsoon at 6:35 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]




Ben Underwood used echolocation.
posted by aniola at 8:58 PM on March 29, 2017


more human echolocators
posted by aniola at 9:56 PM on March 29, 2017


My favorite blind blues singer is the Rev. Gary Davis.

(The Rev. Davis sings Twelve Gates to the City.)
posted by bertran at 11:23 PM on March 29, 2017


A blinded man is the protagonist of the obscure sci-fi novel Nightwalk.

(But not famously.)
posted by bertran at 11:30 PM on March 29, 2017


There's a not very famous but quite good film, Proof, whose main character, played by Hugo Weaving, is blind.
posted by bertran at 11:57 PM on March 29, 2017


The blind Irish harper, Turlough O'Carolan, still remembered for works like O'Carolan's Concerto
posted by Azara at 4:04 AM on March 30, 2017


Isaac, in the Bible, was blind. His younger son, Jacob, exploited this to obtain the blessing that was supposed to go to his elder brother, Esau.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:31 AM on March 30, 2017 [1 favorite]


Gloucester's in King Lear, not Macbeth.

Also, how about Treasure Island's Blind Pew?
posted by Paul Slade at 4:40 AM on March 30, 2017


Historical
Sir John Fielding, eighteenth-century magistrate and social reformer.

Fictional
Ivy in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 5:27 AM on March 30, 2017


The first thing that came to mind for me was Cyradis, from David & Leigh Eddings' Belgariad/Malloreon cycle (spoilers at the link).
posted by miratime at 5:29 AM on March 30, 2017


The three daughters of Phorcys from Greek mythology, called the Graeae. Technically they weren't blind because they had one eyeball between the three of them and shared it taking turns to be able to see until some jerk swiped it while it was in transition. They also had only one tooth, also shared, but he didn't swipe that.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:19 PM on March 30, 2017


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