Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: geeky
  • Music: Taylor Swift, "Long Live."

BLACKOUT open thread!

To celebrate the release of Blackout, here. Have an open thread to discuss the book.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Seriously. If anyone comments here at all, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. So please don't read and then yell at me because you encountered spoilers. You were warned. (I will not reply to every comment; I call partial comment amnesty. But I may well join some of the discussion, or answer questions or whatnot.)

You can also start a book discussion at my website forums, with less need to be concerned that I will see everything you say! In case you wanted, you know, discussion free of authorial influence, since I always wind up getting involved in these things.

Have fun!
Tags: blackout, mira grant, zombies
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  • 357 comments
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dornbeast

May 25 2012, 23:14:13 UTC 5 years ago

Retinal KA doesn't cause light sensitivity, it locks the iris at maximum opening. Think about the last time you woke up in the middle of the night, and turned on the light. That blinding flash of light from what should be a 100-watt bulb, before your eyes adjust to the increase in light? That's Georgia's world, all the time.

Squinting and blinking are impractical solutions - as I remember from the scene at the horse barn, even with her eyes closed, daylight is difficult for her to handle. (My copy of Feed is still on loan to a friend.)

ext_209138

May 26 2012, 12:49:18 UTC 5 years ago

Okay, we're talking apples and oranges here. I never said that blinking and squinting were logical solutions. I stated that they ARE the defense mechanisms that light sensitive people employ. George isn't wrong, they aren't practical solution. That was never my point. I was stating that regardless, those ARE the solutions that photophobic people employ unless she's trained herself to not do those things. And even then I still don't think it's something that can be completely gotten away from because, well, it's uncomfortable and painful.

I think my curiosity and confusion about retinal KA is because I'm trying to understand the light sensitivity coupled with the better night vision. Night vision is based on the rods, which is why it's harder to differentiate colors when there isn't good light and why that 100 watt bulb essentially blinds you. Rods saturate at high light levels and they don't filter color vision. It's also your cones that give you that crisp clarity to your vision, which you lack as light levels drop off not so much because of the lack of light but because the part of your eye responsible for it isn't working any more.

Is my confusion a bit more understandable now?

seanan_mcguire

June 12 2012, 15:53:04 UTC 5 years ago

The KA virus does lead to an increase in rods in the infected, over time. No one as yet knows why.