Blindness / Jose Saramago ; translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero.

 

Speaker: Dr. Lo Wing-lok 勞永樂醫生
Date: 14 December 2006 (Thursday)
Time: 7:15 - 9:00 pm
Venue: Special Collections, 1/F, Main Library, The University of Hong Kong
Language: English

 

About the book

Blindness / Jose Saramago ; translated from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero.

It is originally published in English in Great Britain in 1997 by The Harvill Press.

"A city is struck by an epidemic of "white blindness." The first man to succumb sits in his car, waiting for the light to change. He is taken to an eye doctor, who does not know what to make of the phenomenon - and soon goes blind himself." "The blindness spreads, sparing no one. Authorities confine the blind to a vacant mental hospital secured by armed guards under instructions to shoot anyone trying to escape. Inside, the criminal element among the blind holds the rest captive: food rations are stolen, women are raped. The compound is set ablaze, and the blind escape into what is now a deserted city, strewn with litter and unburied corpses." "The only eyewitness to this nightmare is the doctor's wife, who faked blindness in order to join her husband in the camp. She guides seven strangers through the barren streets. The bonds within this oddly anonymous group - the doctor, the first blind man and his wife, the old man with the black eye patch, the girl with dark glasses, the boy with no mother, and the dog of tears - are as uncanny as the surrounding chaos is harrowing. Told with compassion, humor, and lyricism, Blindness is a stunning exploration of loss and disorientation in the modern world, of man's will to survive against all odds."--BOOK JACKET.

盲目 / 喬賽‧薩拉馬戈

盲目是1998年諾貝爾文學獎得主薩拉馬戈在1995年發表的重要作品。以卡夫卡式筆調敘述人們突如其來淪入荒謬的失明境地，是一部極富哲理意涵之作。

這部幫他戴上桂冠的傑作，薩拉馬戈如是說，「盲目並非真的盲目，這是對理性的盲目。我們都是理性的人，但是沒有理性的行為。」

個開車者在繁忙的路口突然眼盲而無法動彈。一個「錯誤」的好心人開車送他回家，卻成了第二個犧牲品。眼科醫生成了第三個……。疾病蔓延開來，城市一片混亂。於是，當局下令將所有的盲者都趕進一間精神病院，派武裝士兵把守，並開始開槍。此時，罪惡的因子也在倖存的盲者中萌芽，口糧被偷走，婦女遭強姦。所有的一切都落入醫生太太眼中，她為了照顧失明的丈夫，而偽稱自己也是瞎子。

結局和最終周圍的騷亂一樣離奇而又可悲……

 

About the speaker

Dr Lo is a specialist in infectious diseases. He is a member of the Advisory Council on Food and Environmental Hygiene of the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau and a long-serving member of the Council on Smoking and Health. He was a member of the Legislative Council and President of the Hong Kong Medical Association from 2000 to 2004. He was appointed a Justice of Peace in 2003.

勞永樂是感染及傳染病專科醫生。他是衛生福利及食物局轄下的食物及環境諮詢委員會成員，並長期擔任吸煙與健康委員會委員。。2000至2004年期間，他出任醫學界立法會議員及香港醫學會會長，並於2003年獲委任為太平紳士。