reposted:
He wrote this book by painstakingly blinking one eye
On December 8, 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby's life was forever altered when a part of his body he'd never heard of--his brain stem--was rendered inactive.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, his exquisitely painful memoir, is neither a triumphant account of recovery nor a journey into the abyss of self-pity. Instead, it is a tender testament to the power of language and love. At 43, Bauby was defined by success, wit and charisma.
But in the course of a few bewildering minutes, the editor-in-chief of French Elle became a victim of the rare locked-in syndrome.
The only way he could express his frustration, however, was by blinking his left eye.
The rest of his body could no longer respond. Bauby was determined to escape the paralysis of his diving bell and free the butterflies of his imagination. And with the help of ESA, "a hit parade in which each letter is placed according to the frequency of its use in the French language," Bauby did so. Visitors, and eventually his editor, would read each letter aloud and he would blink at the right one. Slowly--painstakingly-- words, sentences, paragraphs and this graceful book emerged.
Awesome and Beautiful book, that everyone should read at least once..
Dawn x