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Issue 2 2001

Lost Disability Classics: The Country of The Blind By H. G. Wells I was driving along the freeway in San Francisco when I saw a billboard for Forbes magazine: "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." I was wondering how I could deface the billboard--perhaps change it to "In the country of the blind, there is no prejudice against the blind"? And also if I could request a disability accomodation to get myself up to the forty-foot high billboard in order to exercise my right to creative rewriting? But then, I remembered this story by H.G. Wells--which in many ways is an early vision of how disability is socially constructed. I thought: wouldn't it be a great idea to run a "Lost Classics" column in The Edge -- to print pieces that prefigure disability rights thinking? Here is our first one: The Country of the Blind. (For our web edition, we have linked to the text verson at http://home.eol.ca/~command/theblind.htm) H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was an English progressive and writer. His best known works are The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau --which raises some of the issues that are currently being asked about genetic engineering. Anne Finger, Fiction/Poetry Editor Back to table of contents