Audrey’s Question
I said what do you really, really want to know about face blindness. What is the one thing. Audrey said it. “Can you see the scars on your face?”
I can see my face when I am looking in the mirror. I can see your face when I am looking at it. When I look away, try to summon an image of my face or your face, I can’t get a face. I don’t get a non-face. It’s just literally drawing a blank. It doesn’t feel wrong, of course. I can remember Audrey’s hair, the blonde kitchen curtains of it, but not her hands or her feet, of course. In my mind’s eye, she’s not faceless, she’s just Audrey in all her Audreyness.
So, no. I can’t “see” my face with the scars unless I am looking in the mirror. Lots of times looking in the mirror, I do not notice them. Then one day, they’ll jump out at me and I am shocked I walk around like this, and sad that I have them, and I wish they’d disappear. (Then, they sort of do.)
It shouldn’t be called face blindness. It should be called face forgetfulness. Or prosopagnosia, which is a good word, and very like the disorder in that it’s difficult and off putting and no one has heard of it.
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Fascinating: your desciption of when you do and don’t see your scars–I think it’s the same for many of us without face forgetfulness. I know it is for me.
my one face blindness question is whether or not you know what the faces of the characters you write about look like. when writing, do you describe their faces ever? or are their other features more prominent to you, just like in your real life?
thought about this the other day, just a random question
it is a relief to me that you can see the faces in front of you. i was confused by the picture on your website where the face disappears. now i realize that is the point – the face disappears.