Andrew Leland’s Country of the Blind: It’s the Same World

05/10/24 • 53 min

Andrew Leland is a major figure as a writer, editor, producer, teacher, and podcaster across the mainstream American cultural landscape. He has contributed to the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Believer, McSweeney’s, Radiolab, The Organist, and 99% Invisible among other respected sources, and has taught at prestigious universities. Amidst it all, he has been progressing towards blindness as a result of retinitis pigmentosa. As his sight diminished to the extent he needed assistance, Leland became motivated to investigate what the world would be for him when his sight was all but gone. In his book, The Country of the Blind, he reports his findings and conclusions. He shares this title with the H.G. Wells story he uses as a touchstone and through line. Cohosts Russell Teagarden and Dan Albrant talk about what can be drawn from Leland’s experiences and from the writers and artists he calls mentors, and how he expects his world will be the same when he is blind as it was before.
Citation:
Andrew Leland, The Country of the Blind, New York, Penguin Press, 2023. (The paperback edition will be available on July 23, 2024).
Links:

Andrew Leland’s website.
Russell Teagarden’s blog piece on Andrew Leland’s book, The Country of the Blind.
A pdf of H.G. Wells’ story, The Country of the Blind.
Trailer for the Apple TV+ series, See.
Video clip from Seinfeld featuring Kramer acting as patient for medical students.
Video clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail about burning the witch.

Thanks to Andrew Leland for permission to use a clip from the audio edition of his book, The Country of the Blind.

Please send us comments, recommendations, and questions to this text link, or email to: [email protected].
Thanks for listening, and please subscribe to The Clinic & The Person wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website.

Executive producer: Anne Bentley

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Andrew Leland’s website.
Russell Teagarden’s blog piece on Andrew Leland’s book, The Country of the Blind.
A pdf of H.G. Wells’ story, The Country of the Blind.
Trailer for the Apple TV+ series, See.
Video clip from Seinfeld featuring Kramer acting as patient for medical students.
Video clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail about burning the witch.

Thanks to Andrew Leland for permission to use a clip from the audio edition of his book, The Country of the Blind.

Executive producer: Anne Bentley

Previous Episode

What Desire Will Shape a World We’re Left?: Poet Micheal O’Siadhail on Covid

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Four years after the Covid pandemic began, as daily life has returned in large measure to its pre-pandemic shape, assessments and reflections about how the pandemic was able to wreak such havoc and how it could be prevented from occurring again are coming forth. Many are technocratic in nature and assume our aims and pursuits will remain the same as before. Micheal O’Siadhail (pronounced mee-hawl o’sheel), in his new book of poems, Desire, says that in addition to technocratic responses to the pandemic (and other threats to civilization covered in the book), we should give serious thought to what we desire. We talk to O’Siadhail about this idea and he reads selected poems from the book that characterize many aspects of what the pandemic put people through collectively and individually. He also talks about how the forms of his poetry convey his thoughts just as his words do, and how poetry, through syntax, sound, meter, and intensity, can add clarity and effectiveness to prosaic prose communicating complex concepts.
Citation:

Micheal O’Siadhail. Desire. Waco, Tx; Baylor University Press, 2023.
Links:
Micheal O’Siadhail’s website.
Russell Teagarden’s relevant blog pieces in According to the Arts:

Previous podcast episode with Micheal O’Siadhail featuring his poems recounting his late wife’s final years with Parkinson’s disease.
Thanks to Micheal O’Siadhail for bringing his enlightened perspectives on what we experienced with Covid through the piercing poetry in his book, Desire.
Please send us comments, recommendations, and questions to: [email protected].
Thanks for listening, and please subscribe to The Clinic & The Person wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website.

Executive producer: Anne Bentley

Next Episode

“I’m Filled with Desire”: Eros & Illness with David B. Morris

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People can have certain desires stemming from their illnesses, for the arts, health, companionship, serenity, and meaning among other possibilities. The scholar, writer, and teacher David B. Morris considers these desires a form of eros that should be taken into account as a part of what people go through with their illnesses and what could potentially help them. We speak with David Morris about the relationship between eros and illness, and evaluate it using examples from art, literature, and theater. We muse about possible applications.
Primary Source Citation
Morris D. Eros and Illness. Cambridge MA; Harvard University Press, 2017
Links
Russell Teagarden’s relevant blog pieces:

David Morris’ book, Eros and Illness
Anatole Broyard’s book, Intoxicated by My Illness
The play, Farinelli and the King
Montaigne’s essays about his kidney stones

Modigliani’s reclining nude series:

David Morris’ CV

Thanks to David Morris for coming on this episode and providing his thinking on the role of eros in illness.
Please send us comments, recommendations, and questions to this text link, or email to: [email protected].
Thanks for listening, and please subscribe to The Clinic & The Person wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website.

Executive producer: Anne Bentley