In a glass darkly? Writing as blurred reflection

Abstract

Someone says, ‘I see what you mean’ – a moment of relief. So, the reader has taken up‐what I know, it is clear, they understand my point of view – they see what I see. But who is it that sees, and how exactly do they see? What if I cannot see what you see – if you cannot have my vantage – what if my vision was blurred, or dimmed, or absent? When I started a PhD on the representation of blind men, I believed that what was required was the production of something that proclaimed my knowledge and my expertise – to get the reader to see what I mean. This essay explores the fragmentary and blurry fragments and with blurred edges to investigate the possibility that knowledge is not the same as clarity, and that reading and writing are as much about the spaces between words as the words themselves.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the following for their assistance and guidance with this paper and the research process: Margaret Somerville; Phoenix de Carteret; Fiona Utley; Heather Attrill; Janeen Kirkham; Ian Olorenshaw; Felicity Plunkett; Jane O’Sullivan, and the reviewers.