(no subject)

[chordatesrock]

I do know that accessportrayal is my community and I can make arbitrary decisions about it if I want to, but since the access_fandom crowd is a big chunk of potential membership, I feel like asking opinions. I've been considering adding my own article, not about a specific disability, but about disabilities that magically go away, because I've had this happen to me and putting those experiences into words could be useful for writers who choose (against all attempts to persuade them otherwise) to go that route with their characters. Do you think that's a good idea (especially for fanfic writers who have no choice) or will it just encourage more of this kind of plot twist?

Comments

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I recommend that you try to get
different perspectives on this
(and other controversional
issues), not one article but
several. Aim to discuss the
various reasons why people like
and dislike this trope, what
good or harm it could do, what
some of its variations are,
examples of how it has been done
well or poorly.

This is something I've explored in
different ways, the whole broad
spectrum from "problem cannot
even be ameliorated" through
"can be buffered but not fixed"
and "adaptive equipment is
available but has drawbacks" to
"can be fixed" and even "can be
made better than before." The
point of writing is to
explore, and especially
to explore things that would be
risky or rude or impossible to
do in real life. It lets us
think about issues in new and
different ways.

Suppose a disability does go
away magically. Does the
character just go "yippie!" and
get on with their life? Not
much of a story. But what if
they feel guilty about
it, what if it wasn't a
voluntary change, what if the
cost was too high, what if they
are left with functionality that
is still somehow different
from the usual? Those are
other stories, maybe stronger
stories.

I feel that this is an important
issue, because it touches a
common thread in human experience:
we don't just let problems stay
problems. We try to solve them.
We imagine better options. And
that has taken us from peg legs
to marginally effective
prosthetics to Cheetahs that
wholebodied athletes don't want
to compete against. There are
people discussing truly bionic
limbs, or limb replacement. It's
tricky territory; letting writers
go first might help avoid or at
least anticipate some of the
challenges. We might get more
ideas for stuff that would work
better. We won't know if we
shut off the flow of stories
because some people write ones
that suck.

And that's just one disability.

Think about how people write
about these things, why they
write and read them, what the
variations are that suck or
inspire. That should at least
map out some of the major reefs
to avoid wrecking a ship on,
and some places that might be
worth visiting.