Being Marie-Laure: What did you feel?
BLINDNESS EXERCISE:
1. How did this imitation of Marie-Laure help you get a small sense of what blindness is?
2. Was there any way, in this case, that being blind helped you “notice” things your eyes may
have overlooked or ignored?
3. Did this help you understand Marie-Laure’s world any better? How?
"Feels kinda like a seashell, like the curly kind, fits in the palm of your hand. Smooth on the inside, not heavy- heavy as 3 quarters. Smooth only on the parts with no lines, the lines move up to the top. One rough edge, that feels like sandpaper. The top is pointy, but not too pointy. The inside goes for a while. Don’t hermit crabs live in these kinds of shells? So I guess as deep as a hermit crab. Almost feels fake- plastic. Maybe it is. Maybe it’s a tan- like khaki. Tan on the outside, and white on the inside. It definitely has some shine, but it’s not super shiny. Like the shine of modge podge. Remind me of the ocean. Kinda reminds me of order and organization, because it’s so specific in it’s design, I guess, like I don’t feel any mistakes in the shell. It definitely doesn’t feel like the one you’re find at the beach. It’s been polished. Thinking a lot of hermit crabs and Dory, because she likes to collect shells. In the middle- not the youngest shell, or the biggest. Definitely a Caribbean shell. I guess it’s an empathy sort of emotion when I hold it. Calmness. Serenity. Feels nice to hold.
ReplyDelete1.) This imitation was really helpful because I had to tap into a variety of senses besides my eyes. I had to use my feeling of touch in or around the shell in order to get the general shape and what it felt like. It definitely made me realize the struggles of what blind people go through and that they need to rely on their other senses in order to figure things out.
2.) There were definitely places that being blind helped me "notice" the things my eyes may have missed. My eyes wouldn't have been able to understand just how smooth the shell was or the different textures of the shell depending on where the spiral began and ended. I wouldn't have been able to feel the different sections of the shells if I were to only use my eyes.
3.) This helped me understand Marie-Laure's world a lot better. She wasn't born blind, so she had previous knowledge of what certain objects were and she is able to use context clues to fill in the blanks. It really helped me understand how her dad made that model of the city for her to feel with her hands. Touch is a very important sense and because she lacks sight, I think that by far the sense of touch is her best bet.
1. “What is it about the size of?”
ReplyDeleteIt’s like an elongated golf ball
2. “What kind of shape does it have? How would you describe it in detail?”
The end of a knife but more 3D and the size of a medium rock. The inside is very smooth but also my finger catches on it so it’s not soft. The outside has very shallow ridges, like very shallow. The very top of it feels like a spiral staircase. The end of it, no that’s all it feels like. The edges feel very thin so I could break it
3. “Can you use any figurative language to help us understand it?”
It is like it is turning into itself. That’s about it. I’m in South Carolina on a beach with my sisters. We are looking hermit crabs, I am 6 years old, it takes me back to this memory. One of them pinched my dad’s finger and he yelled “Ow”
4. “Try synaesthesia: What color or emotion is your object?”
A bright yellow, like really bright yellow. It’s a happy emotion because you’re on the beach on vacation doing something fun. If it was a song it would be a classical song, like a cello song. Specifically, a prelude but you could make it work. The inside of it is like a bright, baby pink, but like the two-color contrasts remind me of pink lemonade. That’s it.
1) Not being able to see what you are attempting to describe or learn about makes me realize how frustrating not having one of the five senses actually is. I truly did not know how to describe things without seeing them.
2) I don't know if it helped my notice things more, maybe just that I paid more attention to the texture than I ever would had I been able to see it. I also heavily relied on my previous knowledge of shells and the shells that I had seen before. Having to connect it to different things to help describe it also made me notice more about how big it was and the overall shape of the shell.
3) I think that it helped me understand how hard it is for her to learn things and retain the same knowledge that we do, but on the other hand this is just a simulation and we only practiced being blind for about 7 minutes. Meaning we can never truly understand the struggle she is facing every single day and how she must overcome ad adapt because of that.
Feels fresh out of the ocean. Like really gritty especially on one side of it. Not a point--something fell off, sand? The shell has been rolling around in the sand. Kind of like when you take a piece of paper and spiral it- that's what the shape is. Spirals in. Gets thinner at the edge of the spiral, a lot thicker on the inside. It’s smooth on the inside. Darker color--darker than the color of the desk, kind of not a warm color, kind of bluish--blue-tinted. The inside is a little bit lighter but still not very shiny. Nothing shiny on the shell. It’s a lot heavier than the other shell, it’s about the weight of a phone--no a little lighter than a phone--it’s the weight of a cutie. Reminds me of the coast, a cold coast. I used to go to the Oregon coast, this shell is like from that coast, it’s not really smooth. It could’ve definitely had a crab in it, but it was a MEAN crab, not one you’d wanna pick it up from a tide pool. It could have a snail in it instead of a crab because the snail would need more protection because it’s softer than the crab. It’s rainy, overcast, but it’s during the day. The only bright colors on the beach are the people in raincoats, the shells are dull. It’s pretty chilly, too. It’s kind of sad, because the shell is making a spiral but it’s not, it’s kind of a weird extremity instead. My finger gets caught trying to do the spiral. There’s a ridge stopping it. The shell emanates contentment, nostalgic, but it’s not super sappy sweet. Just kind of a content-nostalgia. Pens and pencils that are stacked and you put your hand down on it--a bunch of screws that you press down on, on the shell--what is it? A few random grooves and spikes--does not remind me of anything uniform, kind of the way that it wants to be. Has a ridge like a dinosaur, that’s how the spiral goes. Not a shell you buy at a gift store because so much stuff is falling out of it.
ReplyDelete1- This imitation exercise gave me a sense of how much imagination is involved in blindness. When you don't have vision to guide you, your imagination has to take the wheels, and sometimes comes up with very absurd and unique images.
2- Being blind definitely didn't help me "notice" things that my eyes make have overlooked in a very direct way. I felt how the ridge along the spiral of the shell is very defined, which isn't something I would have noticed if I was just looking at the shell. It's very small details, mostly about texture, that I was only able to "see" once my vision was gone.
3- I can imagine how overwhelming and stimulating Marie-Laure's world must be. I even noticed that people's voices seemed louder when I had the blindfold on. I could imagine that without guidance from someone, she could feel very helpless.
I definitely think that this exercise provided me with a new sense of understanding for the blind borne out of personal experience. I've never tried to explain an object using only my sense of touch, and It's something I want to do more because I think that I rely too heavily on vision to inform my view of the world. For me, being blind opened my perspective to things I wouldn't have necessarily otherwise considered. Without vision, the texture of the object played a much more pronounced role in my own understanding. It's really, really, difficult to gain a sense of texture through sight alone and this exercise helped me realize that fact.
ReplyDeleteI at least feel that I understand Marie-Laure's world a bit better now. Obviously, it's incredibly hard to understand losing functionality in your eyes, but I can definitely empathize more with her situation simply because I experienced it, even if only for a few brief moments. The difference in our experiences is, of course, totality. After indulging in part of Marie-Laure's world, I was thankfully able to take off the blindfold and return to my own. It's important to acknowledge the number of people without that privilege.
3 inches tall
DeleteSpiraling upwards, thicker at the bottom and more slender
Outside is rough
Bumpy on outside of sell
Dusty
Bottom has an opening
Not sharp angle and terminates at top
Bottom is smooth, inside is also smooth but it is rough on the outside definitely shaped by nature
1. This imitation activity helped me to understand how much you would really need to rely on other senses if you were blind. I obviously assumed that blind people use hearing and sight to aid them however it is so much harder than you could imagine. Even just having to sit down from tying my blindfold standing up was a surprisingly big struggle. Blindness is truly a handicap, it just affects every tier of human movement and trying to move without my eyes felt so foreign and impossible.
ReplyDelete2. Being blind did help me notice things my eyes overlooked. When I am usually faced with an object such as a seashell I would really only look it over, identify it as a seashell and then move to another thought. However being blind and having to describe the seashell I learned things I never usually notice like the texture and roughness of the shell as well as the size and the patterns of the spikes.
3. This definitely helped me understand Marie-Laure's world better. For the small time I was blindfolded I couldn't stop thinking "imagine if you were in WW2 France right now." This activity gave me insight to the character of Marie-Laure, she must have been so so scared but also brave. Because her housing situation is so tenuous, Marie-Laure must know her town very well and always be on alert. In the dangerous situations she lives in, she has to be capable of getting out of houses and area fast and by herself which is no small feat for a young blind girl. So more than anything it makes you understand how Marie-Laure is feeling and also makes you respect her as a character.
DeleteSpiky
Like a hedgehog
Circular at base with a tail-like structure protruding
Size of a golf ball or pear
On the inside there is a smooth cavity
Spikes are organized in ridges
Weathered --- imperfections
The shell is sturdy
Almost akin to a soft rock
Angsty object
Rough texture
What is it about the size of?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of shape does it have? How would you describe it in detail?
Can you use any figurative language to help us understand it?
Try synaesthesia: What color or emotion is your object?
Its 3 in tall and 2 in wide. A seashell
Circular with two holes in it one on either side feels kind of broken with sharp edges and the other side has spikes and feels rigged. Ridges down the length.
It’s very natural and has lots of parts sticking out of it. It’s like a seashell. It’s like a funnel inside. It’s like a tornado. Like a stone. It is wavy.
Color- Blue and Gray. Feels stoney. Grayish blue or gray.
Emotion- Sadness and loneliness because its hollow and a gray color and its spiny.
Has two holes in it
A swirl and very spiny and pointy or a tornado
Top side is point.
A few random little points/bumps on it
The edges feel rigged.
Rough on the inside and rough on the outer part.
Inside is smooth and finger slides across.
Inside is a sea vibe and wavy so it reminds him of ocean and a blue color
Outside is rough and gives a brown gray color.
There is a hole in the top.
This exercise helped me get a since of blindness since I really had to focus on using my sense of touch and emotions to be able to describe the object.
Yes, I feel that if I wasn't blindfolded it would be more difficult to get a sense of the "synaesthesia" aspect of my description. If i was able to see the seashell, I don't believe I would be able to make emotional connects to the object.
I feel it did. In the book she spends a lot of time handling objects in the museum, but since she has blindness, she only has access to the same sensations that I did during the activity.
Spikes on ends
ReplyDeleteFeels like a ribbon of string thats folded but with an inch hanging out
Smooth but folds out
Like shirts with wrinkles
Chip in it
Inside feels like glass tube but is very hollow
White brown
Smells weird like a box
More smooth on the inside
Bumps like a toad
Fits in hand
Some people are rough on the outside but smooth on the inside
Reminds natalie of santa clause 3 movie and jack frost being melted
Hear a faint whisper of the sea
Emotion is sad because it is partly broken
Color is brown and white light brown and white cream but more of beige
More white on the inside which represents the cleanliness
Spirals are open
Ridges don't fold over all the way
Feels fragile
Easily crush in hand
Totally tubular
Edges feel like flathead screwdriver
Reminds of fake fingernails would be for a toddler
In the book, when Marie was getting asked how it was like being blind, she described it in an interesting way. She says that all of her other senses became a lot more apparent to her even with her sight. While I was blind, I had to really focus on all of my other senses to replace what seeing can do for me. I had to concentrate a lot more on what was in front of me. Walking places would even be more difficult because although it’s difficult to envision something just right in front of you, describing whole places would be even more challenging.
I think that I would have overlooked what it smelled like and I might not have tried to listen to it either. This made me feel a lot more empathy for Marie because everything around her is chaos. And it would make life even more scary if you couldn’t see where you were trying to go or who even was talking to you. Having her father there with her helps but the whole scene when she is walking to the the train station made me feel uncomfortable while I was blind. I wouldn’t like not being able to observe everything around me. It makes me feel safer and it would make Marie feel and be very vulnerable. Especially since people might not have the best interest in mind for her.
Ooh, a trinket, like a conch, chalky surface, inside like a marble floor; feels rough on the outside, when you go to the museum, you can touch an asteroid, little spiky mountains. It feels really random, but an even amount of big & little bumps; in spots there are taller mountains, around the edges, almost as if shaped by the ocean & the way waves move. The inside feels like the inside of a blood pressure cuff, like it was made for my finger, like it was made for a really small person. I think of putting it to my ear, to hear the ocean. One side is flat, the other has this bump; it kind of feels like a snail, like this is the head, and this is the tail. Feels like there’s something hidden inside it, like a little treasure that you can’t reach with your finger. It hides in there, in a little pocket, so we’ll never know what it is. I’m guessing it’s a sandy peachy tan color & the spikes have a darker spot on the ends; the inside I picture as having tan veins, since it feels like a marble floor.
ReplyDeleteThis imitation of Marie-Laure made me tune in my my sense of feeling much more than it usually is tuned to. I felt an appreciation or shape, texture and size. At first I felt lost and nervous because my daily life and activities rely so much on my sight, but then I grew more comfortable to the fact that I am surrounded by people who only have the best interest in me, and I trusted my own judgement to guide me towards an accurate description of the object.
I feel that being blind actually helped me describe the object more profoundly and creatively. I had to brainstorm objects that I have encountered previously in my life that felt like the seashell and compare their similarities and differences. In my head, I imagines the sea shell as dozens of different objects, as if I were holding something different whenever i got tired of the previous comparison.
This exercise helped me understand Marie-Laure's world because it made m realise how much trust she has to have in people to guide her towards truth. If Mr. Miles had told me that the seashell was yellow instead of brown, I would have sent the rest of my life thinking it was yellow, and would have no way of verifying its true color.
1. “What is it about the size of?”
ReplyDeleteA very large lemon
2. “What kind of shape does it have? How would you describe it in detail?”
A spiral but its like open on one side it goes inward, its very bumpy on the outside with groves like a vinyl but exaggerated, inside is also bumpy but more smooth, where it spirals is really rough and the edges are jagged
3. “Can you use any figurative language to help us understand it?”
I don’t know probably not, it opens inward if that makes sense, it’s like… it’s like kind of like a spiral staircase, this side feels like a lemon but then it extends and gets bigger
4. “Try synaesthesia: What color or emotion is your object?”
Well i like picture it as like a tan, only because of previous knowledge, the groves on the outside are like ripples in the water, so its like a blue but then also the shape of it feels like a folding over wave so that adds to the blue, the outside is like the blue and then the inside is like the sea-foam, it reminds me of the opening scenes of lilo and stitch where she goes to give the ham sandwich to the fish and shes swimming in the ocean because you can see her under the wave and when it spirals out from the top. It feels like a slide but then it stops so it’s like a short slide it’s more white on the inside than the outside, it could be like a light pink, like a nursery pink
I think reading from Marie-Laure's perspective and then also doing this exercise has helped me gain respect and more understanding of blindness. Obviously blindness is not something that you would want, but I think it's pretty amazing to have the entire world up to your imagination. When you see things for how they are, it's almost like everything is already determined for you. But Marie-Laure has the power to "see" the world whatever way that she wants to. Being blind gives you the power to make an entire world for yourself. It allows for more focus to be placed on the emotional significance of an item because physically you are so limited. Because of this, objects almost have an emotion or a story about them which I have never really noticed until reading this novel. This exercise allowed me to see what it is like for Marie-Laure to make things connections as she describes what she feels, I was able to make an image in my mind just as she does and it was very specific to my own beliefs. In a way, I think that her blindness gives her almost like a sense of power because her outlook on the world is solely reliant on her imagination, and I was able to understand this more after this exercise.
Definitely have a shell . to me feels like it was made on spindle. There's a clear top and bottom. On top there is a mountain, I predict that the tip of the mountain on top it spirals down, i can feel it. As it spirals is broadens and blooms into a skirt. The opening has a little snag where a finger gets caught. About the size of my finger. there's a big opening that's quite large, I imagine creature who lived in it had a big foot that traveled across the ocean. Hole feels flat, I imagine creature could hug a rock and pull its shell down around itself. At the tail end it tapers to a nice tip but its not sharp I don't know if it was broken off or it was designed like that. I'm going to guess its a brown, maybe a caramel color. The outside has an even texture like ridges that are repeated like ripples in the sand. About the size of a golf ball or a racket ball but extends and tapers, not a full ball shape. When I run fingers on end the sounds reverbertes like its thin, like a guitar. I feel a calmness like when I listen to a bach feud, very orderly. Feels like an ancient design that's been perfected over millennia. Not much figurative language but when I touch the tip it reminds me of throwing a boomerang, like a handle. Also feels like there's not a lot of curls for the animal for the animal to retreat into.
ReplyDeleteI found that being blinded really did help me to pay more attention with my hands and fingers to what I was touching. If I weren't blinded, I would take in more information with just my eyes, and I noticed that while I was touching the shell, I was relying on my previous visual knowledge of shells, so I felt a bit like I was "cheating" unconsciously, and couldn't help it. Marie Laure would not have that advantage, and would, I'm sure, be much more attentive in her fingertips, to the shape for sure. I'm not sure how a blind person could guess color, but perhaps there are certain textures and patterns that correspond to particular colors. It would be so hard to be blind, but it would also force one to sense things in other ways, and really feel and listen to the world. I imagine blind people perhaps have a greater sensitivity to music, for example.
1. This imitation of Marie-Laure helped me with realizing there is more to objects then just what you see. Each object has a different feel and description involved with it along with emotion. I found myself trying to imagine what it looked like and trying to see seashells in my head instead of focusing on what was in my hand. It also felt as if it had more value something more than just a seashell.
ReplyDelete2. I think being blind helped me notice the almost ceramic feel of the seashell and the glassy inside. I definitely felt that before but never to the extent as I just did. The glassy inside felt like it was covering something. It opened up to a large almost cavern like interior that felt empty yet full in its own way. It also felt more fragile than a sea shell normally feels. When I hold a sea shell my first thoughts are "Wow cool a shell" and then it becomes almost meaningless however when just using touch it felt like it had much more worth.
3. I think it gave me a little bit more insight but not a lot. Being blind is much more different then just blind folding yourself. While being blind you have time to adjust and to imagine something greater, less then, or exactly the same as whatever the object in your hand is. Not being blind has caused a reliance on my eyes. So when I put a blind fold over them I still know the object and what it looks like. I can imagine what it looks like so in a sense I'm still using my eyes. However being blind takes away that reliance. It creates images in the head that might be unlike someone who is not blind. It helped me realize more or less that I feel bad for her and that I don't want to blind. But it did give me some insight on what its like to touch and describe what I'm feeling from an object I cannot see.
What is it about the size of
DeleteFits in my hand palm
Sort of small
Rounded bottom but then goes outwards
Thin on one side
Bumps on one side of it
Spikes for protection
What kind of shape does it have? How would you describe it in detail?
Ceramic kind of feel
Fake stone that you buy from zoos
Glass like texture
Dry and smooth
Something underneath the smooth portion that feels like glass
A layer under the smooth glassy part
Can you use any figurative language to help us understand it?
Like a seashell
Empty inside with a big ole cavern
Like a cave inside of it
Try synthaesthiesia: what color or emotion is your object?
Blue
It is not associated with any emotion
Fragile
Red or white color
Reminds of blue that fades into white with red inside
Almost like a ear
With the inner workings that you can’t necessarily see
cream color on outside, blue on the inside of the shell but fades into red
What is it about the size of?
ReplyDeleteIt's like the height of a golf ball. It's like a funnel
What kind of shape does it have? How would you describe it in detail?
It's like a funnel, gets pokier at the top, as you go down it gets less bumpy. Textured like how some walls are painted, bumpy, Inside is smooth. The edge where it becomes hollow is jagged. One side is flat, while the other is curved. The bumps on top create a spiral to the uppermost point. This bottom piece feels like a half-circle, but it starts out as a smaller circle and gets bigger. Reminds me of the Incredibles 2, reminds me of the big Mole-Dude. There’s a large Earth boring drill in the movie that reminds me of the object.
Figurative language to describe it?
It's like a tornado, that’s pretty much what it is. Feels like elephant skin, or like a large animal skin, rhino or elephant.
Synaesthesia?
Feels red, or blue, but more red. It brings the emotion of stress, it stresses me out a little. White on the inside, like most seashells.
1)The imitation of Marie-Laure helped me understand blindness because it helped put me into a situation where I was blind for a time. I couldn't imagine the shell exactly how it looks and how I see it but I noticed many small texture details that I would never have noticed or pointed out had I just been looking at the shell.
2) Being blind did help me notice smaller things that I would never had noticed. I noticed more textures and more patterns than I would have ever noticed with my eyes. It also helped me notice the small changes in texture that you can’t visually see on the shell.
3)This helped me understand Marie-Laures world because it put me in her shoes for like 7 minutes. It helped me understand why she may like to touch the shells and it made me realize that its nearly impossible to perfectly describe something that you can't see. It also showed me how scary that can be and how scary it must be to have to navigate the world in that state.