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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 5, Winter 1944-1945
Page 75
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 75 Soon the overhanging rocks do indeed slide down into the valley, and in the final moments Nunez and Medina-sarote win through to freedom by climbing out the newly-created rift. After several days of wandering the two are found by native hunters in an condition of near-starvation, and brought back to civilization. They marry, and settle in Quito with Nunez' people, Nunez himself becoming a prosperous tradesman. The couple have four children, all of whom are able to see. Though happy with her husband and loved by her children, Medina-sarote after many years still thinks of her former peaceful life with regret, silently mourning its irrevocable loss. Steadfastly she refuses to consult oculists who might remedy her blindness. A conversation with the narrator's wife reveals her attitude: "I have no use for your colours or your stars," said Medina-sarote… "But after all that has happened! Don't you want to see Nunez; see what he is like?" "But I know what he is like and seeing him might put us apart. He would not be so near to me. The loveliness of your world is a complicated and fearful loveliness and mine is simple and near. I had rather Nunez saw for me--because he knows nothing of fear." "But the beauty!" cried my wife. "It may be beautiful," said Medina-sarote, "but it must be very terrible to see." In his introduction to the Golden Cockerel Press edition of The Country of the Blind Wells gives his reasons for rewriting the original story in this new form. The essential idea...remains the same throughout, but the value attached to the vision changes profoundly. It has been changed because there has been a change in the atmosphere of life about us. In 1904 the stress is upon the spiritual isolation of those who see more keenly than their fellows and the tragedy of their incommunicable appreciation of life. The visionary dies, a worthless outcast, finding no other escape from his gift but death, and the blind world goes on, invincibly self-satisfied and secure. But in the later story vision becomes something altogether more tragic; it is no longer a story of disregarded loveliness and release; the visionary sees destruction sweeping down upon the whole blind world he has come to endure and even to love; he sees it plain, and he can do nothing to save it from its fate. Regardless of whether or not the reader agrees with Wells that changing world conditions have necessitated a change in this story's outlook, he will probably regret that such a change was actually made. Firstly, all allegorical purpose aside, that quality of insulation that made the original so memorable is completely lost. In the first version Wells draws his circle and wisely remains within it to cover the ground thoroughly and completely. But in the second, with the expansion of the locale from the small isolated valley to the larger canvas of the outside world, the author cannot---and does not---succeed in working up the area properly. The result is a certain lack of convincingness that is unmistakable. Even granting his wish to change "the value attached to vision"
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 75 Soon the overhanging rocks do indeed slide down into the valley, and in the final moments Nunez and Medina-sarote win through to freedom by climbing out the newly-created rift. After several days of wandering the two are found by native hunters in an condition of near-starvation, and brought back to civilization. They marry, and settle in Quito with Nunez' people, Nunez himself becoming a prosperous tradesman. The couple have four children, all of whom are able to see. Though happy with her husband and loved by her children, Medina-sarote after many years still thinks of her former peaceful life with regret, silently mourning its irrevocable loss. Steadfastly she refuses to consult oculists who might remedy her blindness. A conversation with the narrator's wife reveals her attitude: "I have no use for your colours or your stars," said Medina-sarote… "But after all that has happened! Don't you want to see Nunez; see what he is like?" "But I know what he is like and seeing him might put us apart. He would not be so near to me. The loveliness of your world is a complicated and fearful loveliness and mine is simple and near. I had rather Nunez saw for me--because he knows nothing of fear." "But the beauty!" cried my wife. "It may be beautiful," said Medina-sarote, "but it must be very terrible to see." In his introduction to the Golden Cockerel Press edition of The Country of the Blind Wells gives his reasons for rewriting the original story in this new form. The essential idea...remains the same throughout, but the value attached to the vision changes profoundly. It has been changed because there has been a change in the atmosphere of life about us. In 1904 the stress is upon the spiritual isolation of those who see more keenly than their fellows and the tragedy of their incommunicable appreciation of life. The visionary dies, a worthless outcast, finding no other escape from his gift but death, and the blind world goes on, invincibly self-satisfied and secure. But in the later story vision becomes something altogether more tragic; it is no longer a story of disregarded loveliness and release; the visionary sees destruction sweeping down upon the whole blind world he has come to endure and even to love; he sees it plain, and he can do nothing to save it from its fate. Regardless of whether or not the reader agrees with Wells that changing world conditions have necessitated a change in this story's outlook, he will probably regret that such a change was actually made. Firstly, all allegorical purpose aside, that quality of insulation that made the original so memorable is completely lost. In the first version Wells draws his circle and wisely remains within it to cover the ground thoroughly and completely. But in the second, with the expansion of the locale from the small isolated valley to the larger canvas of the outside world, the author cannot---and does not---succeed in working up the area properly. The result is a certain lack of convincingness that is unmistakable. Even granting his wish to change "the value attached to vision"
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