# 'Cockeyed': An Unsentimental Take on Blindness

Category: book Nook

## Post 1 by TexasRed (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Thursday, 01-Jun-2006 13:59:07

I want this book. I can so identify with this guy.
CJ
'Cockeyed': An Unsentimental Take on Blindness
Author Ryan Knighton
On his 18th birthday, Ryan Knighton was diagnosed with a condition that
would eventually leave him blind. Fifteen years later, with his sight
almost completely gone, he's written a book of his observations.
Cockeyed, which describes Knighton's adventures driving by Braille and his
later diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that steadily
reduced
his ability to see. The book is about denial, anger and fear, but it's also
about slapstick, technology, embarrassment, about what people see and what
they don't.
Knighton talks about how he turned the loss of his sight into a moving and
funny memoir.
Excerpt from 'Cockeyed'
by Ryan Knighton
You might think an appetite for something called a night club would be a bad
idea for someone called night blind. You would be right. Equally wise would
be me joining a gun club. Nevertheless, to this day I owe a debt to punk
rock. Its culture helped me become as blind as I was, but couldn't admit. My
apprenticeship
into the club scene had numerous dangers and disadvantages, although most
were silly. In my time I have argued with empty bar stools, talked to
pillars,
knocked down waitresses, bounced off bouncers, pissed between urinals, drunk
other people's beers and hit on shadows. Even though I routinely tumbled
down
stairs, and plummeted off stages, never, not once, did it convince me to
perhaps take up a white cane. Bullshit, I thought. I'm not that night blind.
I'm
just drunk. When the colored strobes and spotlights did their job, pulsing
and spinning with the music, then I was more or less able to see enough.
Step
off the dance floor into the murky bar, that was a bit of a problem. Slow
songs, too. They always dropped the lights for slow songs, and left me
paralyzed
wherever I happened to be. For a moment, anyway. Then like a gimpy Sid
Vicious I'd careen off the dance floor, knocking people over instead of
scooting
around them politely. Sure I was a poser, not nearly close to hardcore, but
blindness gave an authenticity to my recklessness when I ignored every
social
propriety our eyes manage. That was the best thing about the scene. The
culture camouflaged my inability to cooperate with bodies around me. In
growing
blindness I became, oddly enough, safer and more like the scenesters around
me than I was like my peers out on the street or at school. Booze helped.
Everybody
was loaded, knackered, legless, gassed, goofed and every other word for
blind drunk. Bumping into people was acceptable, even expected, and I was
practiced
at bashing into folks on a regular basis, whether I was in my cups or just
spilling them. Confusion and disorientation ruled the room, too, and that
pretty
much described my sober state. Above all, though, I blended with ease and
advantage on the dance floor. I loved to slam. What blind person doesn't?

## Post 2 by Blue Velvet (I've got the platinum golden silver bronze poster award.) on Thursday, 01-Jun-2006 14:20:06

Sounds like an interesting read.

## Post 3 by Susanne (move over school!) on Thursday, 01-Jun-2006 16:19:24

Have you heard of "Slackjaw" by Jim Knipfel? It sounds amazingly similar to the book you describe.

## Post 4 by TexasRed (I'll have the last word, thank you!) on Saturday, 03-Jun-2006 14:38:33

yes, I read that one sometime ago. It was a good book.

## Post 5 by wahaha (Zone BBS Addict) on Monday, 05-Jun-2006 0:56:21

yeah, there's been plenty of press I've received about Cockeyed, looking forward to it coming out and getting a chance to read it.

## Post 6 by season (the invisible soul) on Tuesday, 06-Jun-2006 8:05:56

when is the official publish date?

## Post 7 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Tuesday, 10-Apr-2007 6:25:42

sounds interesting and hilarious

## Post 8 by japanimangel1 (Veteran Zoner) on Thursday, 19-Jul-2007 12:46:38

I am currently reading this book, and i really enjoy it actually! Its laugh out lloud funny, and there are parts where myself as a blind individual can relate.

## Post 9 by Siriusly Severus (The ESTJ 1w9 3w4 6w7 The Taskmaste) on Wednesday, 30-Jan-2008 18:39:05

Sounds cool! I'll check it out when I get around to it. Lol! Don't know when. I might report back if I remember.