a thought i had while reading la symphonie pastorale by andré gide:

how do you explain to a (congenitally) blind person what sight is, to a deaf person what sound is? do they feel like they're missing a sensory modality if they've never experienced it? all the languages that i know of base their descriptive capabilities on separating the sensory modalities, so i think it would be nearly impossible to effectively communicate what sight is to a person that's never had it in terms, for example, of sound, or of taste or touch or smell.
- posted by Maxime @ 10:09 PM