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

ext_209138

May 24 2012, 16:49:34 UTC 5 years ago

Okay, now that I've read the entire trilogy I guess I can finally ask this: can you explain how retinal KA causes light sensitivity, please? I know it's mentioned but I either missed some crucial bit of information or I'm having a mental block in my understanding...

Here's my reasoning: for the most part I think you've done a fantastic job of portraying George's disability, for lack of a better word. I found it all pretty much spot on and that especially includes her dealing with no longer having this problem. (Though, I can't say I have any experience with that but it actually jives with my thoughts on the psychology of being born blind.) However, I'm still vaguely confused about one almost throwaway statement from the first book where George's asserts that she doesn't need to blink because her eyes no longer require lubrication...which doesn't really mesh with my understanding of light sensitivity coping methods. In specific, squinting and blinking become almost involuntary as a means to deal with nasty, painful light sources. Or at least the ones that don't completely wipe out a photophobic person's vision. Unless that's not an issue for someone with retinal KA, which brings me back to my question above.

Anyway, I read Blackout yesterday and I am reeling from it to the point that any coherent thoughts are currently beyond me. So, well done and thanks for an awesome ride. :-)

seanan_mcguire

June 12 2012, 15:51:35 UTC 5 years ago

Georgia's eyes need lubrication, but her tear ducts don't work normally, and don't produce the same amount of moisture as a non-infected person's tear ducts. She's lost some surface sensitivity as a consequence, and doesn't always realize when she gets dust, etc. on her eye. Blinking is thus no longer an autonomic function, but something she does to clean her eyes. She does squint and blink when she has to deal with bright lights, but not to lubricate.

Georgia's condition causes light sensitivity in part because the person her eyes were modeled off of has light sensitivity (she has Georgia-eyes in the real world, it's very strange to see), but largely because her pupils no longer contract at all. Technically, she should have detached retinas from muscle atrophy, but I decided not to deal with that. It was my cut corner.