MIND MELD: Disabilities in Speculative Fiction

[davidgillon]

New article on disability in specfic at SF Signal:

MIND MELD: Disabilities in Speculative Fiction

To summarize: Aaaargh! *Headdesk* *Headdesk* *Headdesk*

The Ship Who Sang suggested as an example of positive depictions of disabled characters - just shoot me now....

Disability overwhelmingly presented as a struggle, people coping with disability dismissed as non-representative, not a mention of the Social Model or the disability rights struggle, a panel that's clearly overwhelmingly non-disabled. There are one or two who have a clue, but overall, just no.

I have committed (possibly harsh) commentary.

Comments

[kaberett]

I am currently 30 pages into a novel that was recced by a friend-of-a-friend, and thus far it is very much about the protagonists' disabilities... and a ~permanent cure~ being held over them in staggeringly unethical ways. I strongly suspect the entire damn thing is going to be a cure narrative and I Am Cross.

[davidgillon]

Just had a tweet from Djibril al-Ayad saying he likes my comment, which is at least a good sign for where they'll be going with 'Accessing the Future'

And now one from Kathryn Allan saying thank you, so looks positive for AtF.

[kaberett]

w o w every single author the first panellist mentions is male. OKAY SO HOW ABOUT THIS FOR AUTHORS WHO REPRESENT BIPOLAR IN GOOD WAYS: the Vorkosigan saga (not completely explicit, but, and not the only visible disability) and DIA REEVES (Bleeding Cherry, which is just brilliant).

... hmm. Second author recs the book I am currently incredibly cross about - Ascension - so we will see if it improves.

Ugh. I am... actually kind of horrified by the extent to which the majority of that column reads like anthropological fetishisation.

[davidgillon]

Glad it's not just me, I suspect an overwhelmingly non-disabled panel, and most of them utterly clueless about the disability movement - in which case, why ask them to comment, as I point out in my comment.

[jadelennox]

yeah, definitely vis-à-vis the anthropological. Some of those people might be disabled, but the ones I know on that list certainly aren't. And some of them made it clear that they had actually never thought about these issues before, so why were they even being asked? At least one person mentioned an (albeit somewhat embarrassed) fondness for magical cure books, and that should not have gone in writing into the article.

BLEEDING VIOLET is absolutely brilliant, and so is SLICE OF CHERRY -- although it is much less explicitly a book with disability in it.

One of the things I love about Bujold is that she has a huge range of people with disabilities -- you know, just like planet Earth does? -- so she has a huge range of ways of coping, some people in pained misery, some people (Mark, for example) turning into a feature, some people doing intentional body mod (quaddies), some people almost certainly practicing benevolent eugenics (Beta colony). She has chronic health problems as well, and she brings them up pretty much just the right amount, such as Miles's and Aral's reflux and ulcers. I've been rereading the sharing knife books,, and I really like the balance of how sometimes Dag's modular prosthetics are actively handy, sometimes they are an inconvenience, sometimes he can work around them with magic, and sometimes he breaks his other hand and everything goes to hell. (How much do I remember the time I broke my foot and had a total of ONE WORKING LIMB.)

I was glad nobody recommended EON. I absolutely loved every part of the disability representation in that book until I got to about three pages from the end at which point I actually literally threw it across the room I was so angry.

[anke]

One thing that was little but really stood out to me in the Sharing Knife books was when Dag was with Fawn's family, and nodded to the room on general before leaving, he remembered to say something so the blind grandmother wouldn't be left out from the little polite gesture.

[davidgillon]

Yes, that's a nice piece of observation - evidence for LMB thinking herself right into both character and scene.

[davidgillon]

Have now had 4 of the 9 authors on the panel say 'good point'. [smug]

[soc_puppet]

I'm not at all surprised that Jim Hines is one of them. He's diabetic and has recently been struggling with clinical depression, his wife has a chronic illness or chronic pain issue of some sort (I don't recall the details, if he's shared them, though he has mentioned that the insurance plan that covers her is one of the reasons he chose his current job), and his son is on the autism spectrum - all of which he's written about on his blog. He also has a pretty solid history of listening to marginalized groups when they speak up and owning his own mistakes when he makes them.

[sqbr]

I really like your comments apart from you saying "people wouldn't do this with LGBT or POC representation". Because they do, constantly. Anyway, thanks for fighting the good fight. *reads some more*

[davidgillon]

Fair comment, I'm probably writing from a semi-privileged position there. OTOH I'm manipulative enough to use it to make people think about their attitude towards my disadvantaged group, so apologies.

[sqbr]

Well, there'd be nothing wrong with "This is just as bad as an lgbt panel with only straight people" etc.

[davidgillon]

Again a fair point. My perception, as straight, white and disabled, has been that people are taking less care to ensure that the disabled cultural PoV is represented in articles on Disability in speclit than would be the case for PoC or LGBT, however I'm perfectly willing to be told that's just my privileged misconception and that we're being treated equally badly.

(frozen comment) Asked and answered: MOD freezes the thread

[access_fandom_mods]

sqbr has twice made the point "this oppressed group has it easier than us disabled people" is ineffective and offensive. davidgillon seems to be requesting harsher discourse. Time to recognize this and move on.

Jesse the K for Access Fandom Mods

talk to the mods here, this thread is frozen

[pebblerocker]

OH WOW. Ugh.