I have been thinking about writing and about seeing because one of my characters is blind. And to some extent we all are. See the crowd at the bottom of the picture, ignoring the wee man standing at the top of the building. Of course not all of us are looking for an Icarus man everywhere we go, but there he is, being ignored again. As Auden reminds us,
"...the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy
falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on."
Isn't it just the case. Anyway, my brand new character is called Grace and I rather like her impish sense of humour, which is based on her own sightlessness. But that's the fun of writing, seeing the characters becoming something you hadn't anticipated at first and then they shout at you, demanding attention. At that point, you stop talking to yourself and start listening to the ghost of yourself in the shape of an actor playing a character you had previously brought to life in your own image. Uncanny and magic at the same time, it goes on to become normative and normalising - at least it does if the story is to exist at all. Hence the Icarus idea as it travels through the centuries. Me, I am on a southbound train:
