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WAYS OF SEEING

Program 06-04-09-A

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Susan Krieger knew she was losing her sight, but she still didn't want to admit she was going blind. The one day she stepped off a curb and a car hit her. After that, she took lessons walking with a white cane, and learned how to hear buildings as she passed them. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll hear how Susan Krieger lost her sight but found her vision. We'll also talk about different ways of seeing. John Updike describes how he looks at a painting. And we'll hear how some 19th century photos changed our understanding of time.

SEGMENT 1:

Susan Krieger is the author of "Things No Longer There: A Memoir of Losing Sight and Finding Vision." She tells Jim Fleming how much she can actually see and what sight and vision have come to mean to her. And we hear selection from her book read by Catherine Brand. You can find alternate versions of her book at http://susankrieger.stanford.edu/versions.html

SEGMENT 2:

Novelist Susan Vreeland ("Girl in Hyacinth Blue" and "Life Studies") tells Anne Strainchamps she remembers painting with her grandfather; that she renewed her interest in painting during a bout with cancer and that she is interested in the stories of the lives of the people around the artists. Also, John Updike is celebrated as a novelist but is also an essayist and art critic. He talks with Steve Paulson about American art touching on topics raised in his book "Still Looking: Essays on American Art."

SEGMENT 3:

Film critic Roger Ebert muses on the glories of black and white photography and mourns what we've lost since modern audiences only see movies made in color. And we hear lots of clips. Also, Rebecca Solnit is the author of "River of Shadows," a book about Eadweard Muybridge and his stop-motion photography. She tells Steve Paulson how this technology later created motion pictures and revolutionized how people experienced time and space.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 06-04-09-A.

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Books:

• Susan Krieger, Things No Longer There: A Memoir of Losing Sight and Finding Vision (Terrace Books; ISBN: 0299208648)
  
• Rebecca Solnit, Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (Viking; ISBN: 0670031763)
  
• John Updike, Still Looking: Essays on American Art (Knopf; ISBN: 1400044189)
  
• Susan Vreeland, Life Studies: stories (Penguin; ISBN: 0143036106)

Music:

• After Return:
  Elvis Costello w/ "Black and White World"
• In Krieger
  "Dawn in the Sonoran Chihuahua Deserts" from earthear.com.
• After Krieger:
  Don McLean w/ "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)"
• After Vreeland:
  Jonathan Richman w/ "Vincent Van Gogh"
• After Updike:
  The Lonesome Organist w/ "The Multiplier"
• In Ebert:
  --"The Big Sleep" soundtrack
  on "Now, Voyager: Classic Film Scores of Max Steiner"
  --"Jewish Town"
  on "Schindler's List" soundtrack
  --Fred Astaire w/ "Dancing in the Dark"
  on "The Fred Astaire Story"
• After Solnit:
  The Lonesome Organist w/ "Walking to Weston's"
  

Distribution dates:

week of 03/04/2007 - hour 2 week of 04/09/2006 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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