Ablism In Sci-Fi

nenena  had a fascinating linkspam about ablism in sci-fi and fandom that was really thought provoking and caused me to check my privilege, so I thought I'd pass some of the posts on, with commentary.

SF & Ablism

This one really struck a cord with me. Because my first thought was 'well, it's the future - isn't it better to imagine disability gone?' (And I say this as someone who is sick of every character in a wheelchair having an arc about getting out of the wheelchair.) And then I thought, 'well, it's human to imagine that things are perfect... but it's the same kind of human as all the fantasy stories about a beautiful, beautiful princess who all good people love and bad people hate and who has a pony – ultimately very limiting.' Because, as another article mentions, it's highly unlikely that diseases won't keep pace with medicine or that we won't get new disease due to technology and advancement, in the same way that we have new diseased now which are caused by stress and didn't exist thirty years ago.

So Fucking Special

Now, I had my issues with this write-up. While I agree with her main premise, that people with mental illnesses can lead full and complex lives, I think River Tam is a HORRIBLE example of a character to discuss consent issues with. The thing is, 'insane' is a legal definition, to categorize people who can be held legally accountable for their actions and people who can't. Someone who is has a mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior, is legally insane. River Tam is in the care of her brother, cannot prevent the thoughts of others from her awareness, has had violent episodes, and has thought a gun was a tree branch. MANY people with mental illness are capable of consenting. Legally, River isn't.

I do appreciate all the lists of books who deal realistically with mental illness, though.

rachelmanija 's amazing post on PTSD:

Part I: What I Did In The War.
Part II: What Does A Flashback Feel Like?
Part III: I Don't Have To Do This Any More.
Part IV: Postscript.

Yes, it's long, but it's fantastic.

And for the writer's one my flist, The Future Imperfect, a writing contest about this issue.

Oh, Eric, You Have No Fashion Sense Whatsoever

( I Just Finished Tonight's True Blood )

 

John Green Binge

A couple weeks ago I finally went on a John Green spree and read (almost) all of his books.

Looking For Alaska was good but I felt that Alaska was too much (and I'm sorry, I cannot for the life of me remember the trope name for this) the magical (not in the sailor moon way) girl who makes the life of the normative male lead interesting. While I think Green was trying to deconstruct that trope, I don't think he quite managed it.... until Paper Towns, which was funny and epic and had a magical (not in the sailor moon way) girl who had relationships and issues of her own. In fact, where I think Paper Towns shines is in the complex friendships and relationships of the teenagers.

I actually copied a page of the book and taped a line to my bedroom mirror. ("It's so hard to leave – until you leave. Then it's the easiest goddamn thing in the world.")

I tried to read An Abundance of Katherine's but I found the main character terminally boring.

The Moral Of This Story Is That When You See A Bestselling Novel You Want To Read At The Supermarket

for  4$, you buy it, because otherwise you are going to have to wait for the 35 people who put a hold on Girl With The Dragon Tattoo before you to read one of the four copies the public library owns.

And in some insane twist of economics, despite it being a best-selling novel which means there must be hoards of copies out there, no one is selling it for 1.50$ on amazon.com.