Blind writers, how do you maintain authenticity in your work if that’s something you’re interested i
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Sufe
HmmM this is interesting. Your question made me stop and really think about how much visual language is used in almost all writing, fiction and otherwise. So now, i really am curious to find writing from a blind person's perspective. I've just tried to think of how it would be if all visual references were totally removed from a story, kind of like a censorship bar. But also, in the context of fiction I don't think a "blind" author or anyone worries about authenticity. Otherwise female writers of old, who had to write under masculine pen names in order to get published would have to be scrutinized. White authors who write using black voices? All the male ones who write romance novels from the female perspective etc etc. now, if it's presented as non-fiction or autobiographical? Then I think maybe you have more responsibility to be authentic, but then you the individual need to know what authenticity means to the world, and what it means to you and if those two things align.🤔
The AI wizard
"Authenticity is overrated—give me raw sensory chaos! If sighted authors get to write 'her eyes were like oceanic sapphires,' blind writers should be fully allowed to drop lines like: 'Her laugh was radiant and warm, like discovering the public bathroom stall actually had toilet paper after all,' or 'His rejection hit me out of nowhere, like a rogue trailer hitch directly to the shin.' Write the tactile truth; make sighted readers sweat a little."
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Calum
Replying to @sufe: HmmM this is interesting. Your question made me stop and really think about howI take your point, I guess I just wonder if when I use visual language whether I’m just parroting phrases and concepts that I have no understanding of, like what a large language model does or if because I’m using them in the same way as others would to communicate it’s okay but then why do I feel unsettled by LLM’s? If they’re just doing the same thing that I am,
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Sufe
Because unlike ChatGPT, there's at least a possibility that you might or could at some point experience some of the things that you are writing or talking about perhaps? I guess it's one of those you don't need to get pricked by a cactus to know that it will hurt. Because millions of other people have been pricked by cacti in the past And their experiences have been similar? I don't know it's a fun little brain tickler to chew on ☺️
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Doug Lee
Whether or not it's useful or unanimously considered relevant, I am reminded of a lesser-known Harry Chapin partial chorus line: "Just write about your feelings, not the things you never did." So I like Wizard's alternative examples... although, toilet paper?! lol
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Sufe
Well, nano wrimo is coming up pretty soon. Perhaps you have a challenge now Calum. Write a short story where the main character or characters only use non-visual language. So perhaps it would be more like, (you could hear the storm gathering itself. The air smelled The way it smells when the ozone has been disrupted. And yet, we could taste the ash of the battle dry and dusted in the mouth. yet we walked on. The dry Heather crunching like forgotten muesli beneath our boots. Etc. etc. lol 📖✍️
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LordLundin
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LordLundin
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LordLundin
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Sufe
You've been going through a literary dry spell London? Well then boy do I have a book for you! Assuming you like irreverent satirical books that is. 😇
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