In this expansive piece for Hazlitt, Larissa Diakiw uses the mysterious echolocation skills of bats as a lens to examine how we perceive—and fail to perceive—other forms of consciousness. The essay explores “soul blindness,” our inability to see others as whole beings rather than objects. In mulling how we must learn to recognize the array of selves around us, it asks us to honor what we cannot fully know on faith, as a prophylactic against misunderstanding and fear.
We are so often illegible. We are so often not seen as a whole, instead turned into an object, a part, a limb. This is sometimes called soul blindness and makes it possible to devalue another life so much that we don’t care if a human or an animal lives or die. It makes us willing to kill. But soul blindness is als…
In this expansive piece for Hazlitt, Larissa Diakiw uses the mysterious echolocation skills of bats as a lens to examine how we perceive—and fail to perceive—other forms of consciousness. The essay explores “soul blindness,” our inability to see others as whole beings rather than objects. In mulling how we must learn to recognize the array of selves around us, it asks us to honor what we cannot fully know on faith, as a prophylactic against misunderstanding and fear.
We are so often illegible. We are so often not seen as a whole, instead turned into an object, a part, a limb. This is sometimes called soul blindness and makes it possible to devalue another life so much that we don’t care if a human or an animal lives or die. It makes us willing to kill. But soul blindness is also when we lose the ability to perceive other selves.
More picks from Hazlitt
The Favourite Patient
Richa Kaul Padte | Hazlitt | September 27, 2023 | 3,508 words
“But when it comes to my doctors, not only do I want them to like me—I want them to like me the most. I want to be the favourite patient.”
Home for a Season
Krista Diamond | Hazlitt | June 5, 2024 | 2,349 words
“Maybe there is no tension between settling down and leaving.”
The Hideaway
Michaela Cavanagh | Hazlitt | December 3, 2024 | 6,336 words
“In an abandoned military barracks in rural Germany, Ben Green prepares for the end of the world.”