Life in a one-eyed world

Press, 15 July 1980, Page 12

Life in a one-eyed world

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DAVID GUNSTON

~ “On,e-eyed” is a convenient and vivid metaphor for. anything backward and lacking in. pep, but what is it really like to live literally” in a oneeyed world —r always to view everything through a' single eye, thanks to disease, injury, accident, ill iniitine or the result uf war?

Anyone who, for whatever reason, loses a good eye. seems to themselves ahil others to have suffered a terrible catastrophe. Ye’t, as those who have .only one eye from hirth teadily confirm, life in a one-eyed world is not so bad. '

A missing eye usually ■has no direct effect on its .remaining good fellow ■(unless', disease threatens) and contrary to general belief, the remaining good eye has no more work to do because it is the only one.

In fact, life for one-eyes carries on much as normal, except that they naturally tend to take much greater care of their sight than the complacent test of us. A solitary eye certainly does not "wear otii” more quickly because, it does-all rhe’ seeing. Nor, as'a general rule,, is keeness of sight affected. The chief difference, as hoih victims ami rye specialists agree, is the total loss of the sense of perspective and the power of stereoscopic, or 3-D vision. This is. something normal-sighted people take yery much for granted, and if an eye is lost suddenly, the one-eyed person finds it very strange, even bewildering. Whereas the individual who has only ever had one good eye

automatically uses various tricks to compensate for this lack and to judge distance and perspective, the newcomer to the ranks of the one-eyed has to learn them from scratch.

He quickly discovers this, comparing the relative size of distant objects, watching the way the furthermost objects seem to move relative to the nearer ones when the head is turned. At first puzzled, he swiftly picks up the necessary visual tricks, and before long is faring very welt indeed, much'to

his relief and surprise Even fears for personal appearanbe are nowadays soon dispelled because modern artificial eyes, made of acrylic plastic, not of glass as of old, are incredibly realistic.

Above all is the heartening way one-eyed people have gone through life most successfully in spite of this unique disability. Consider some of the most successful one-eyed ]>erSons in history — they make a very varied and inspiring list.

The purl John Milton’s left eye failed him when he was 40, but that in no way dampened his inspiration or his ardour for human liberty, and much of his finest work was written afterwards.

Admiral Lord Nelson’s right eye was lost at the age of 36 at the Battle of Calvi, in Corsica, when he was serving under Admiral Hood. Yet, as is well known, the injury did nothing to upset his brilliant career as Britain s

greatest admiral. In ’fact, his prominent eye-patch enhanced his reputation for self-will and sheer courage: remember all that business with the telescope and the missing eye? Distinguished ‘ soldiers Field-Marshal Lord Wavell and General .Carton' de Wiart. V.C.. both of whose contributions to the winning of World War 11 were great, each lost an eye in battle during World War I. Wavell’s. eye was destroyed in the Battle of Loos in 1915, but he never

wore an eye-patch or falsri eye, and never considered his lack any kind of infirmity. General Moshe Dayan, Israeli war leader and Defence Minister, lost his eye in conflict too. but proudly, almost defiantly, flaunts his black’ eye-patch as a badge of heroism and determination.

Guglielmo Marconi, father of both radio and radar, lo.sl an eye in middle age in a road accident, but he went on to make many important discoveries without it.

Lord (Herbert) Morrison of Lambeth, distinguished Labour politician,,and onetime British Foreign Secretary. lost the sight of one eye in babyhood through an infection caused by a nurse’s carelessness, but his grasp on life was never lessened by it for one moment, and he never tried to conceal his defunct eye. His last official job. which he revelled in and took very seriously, was as Britian's chief film censor.

■Alsp -in. the “ world of films, where perfect' sight migh.t be thought essential, the veteran Hollywood Western director John Ford worked for many years with a single eye, ■ usually , wearing a black patch, but his genius for camera, actors and landscape composition never faltered even in his old age. The gently reflective Irish author, Stephen Gwynn, careless when chopping -lirewood one 'day, wrote after having his injured eye removed: “Still, I was thankful, to Providence for what it provided. Sight, even with one eye, is a very wonderful thing.”

The-world-famous author Aldous Huxley, after suffering aiT’eye infection (inflammation of. the cornea, or keratatis punctata) while a'schoolboy at Eton, found himself left' with one eye completelv useless and the other only', three-quarters efficient. He was thus de-, barred from active service in’World War 1, much to his chagrin, but not from his masterly and visionary writing.

Joe Davis, for 20 years the unbeaten world snooker champion who died recently, played all his many millions of brilliant and concentrated strokes with only a single working eye. From other areas of the world of entertainment, notable one eyes include the ebullient Sammy Davis Jun., the rumbustious character actor Leo McKern, and most surprisingly of all, the debonair and engaging Rex Harrison. In his autobiography, “Rex,” he tells how he lost the sight, of one. 'eye in childhood, and how he coped with the disability in countless stage and screen performances, con<

cealing his lack with amazing skill. A leading bird photographer, Eric Hosking, has many times told, notably.in in his aptly-titled autobiography, . “An Eye for a’ Bird,” how he Jost an eye to an over-anxious nesting tawny owl that he was photographing from a hide in Wales in 1937. But that dramatic accident never interrupted his highly successful career as a\ wild bird portraitist. The only despaired of facing life in be operated at will ■— without investigation, or their ,• example remains a shining one.