Discussion: Magical Disabilities
When we talk about disability and sci-fi/fantasy, the first thing many will think of is the magical disability trope. But what does this trope entail and imply? And how can you subvert it?
Browsing: fantasy
Post listing
Review: Graceling and Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
This series is a fascinating look at how a writer can acknowledge the “magical cure” trope and improve on the portrayal in later books.
Interview with Courtney Summers about This Is Not a Test
We invite Courtney Summers to the blog to discuss researching and writing mental illness, disability in her zombie novel, and the lack of diversity in apocalyptic narratives.
Review: The Shattering by Karen Healey
Keri’s anxiety seems more of a framing device than anything else; The Shattering doesn’t contain as thorough a portrayal of anxiety as I’d hoped for, though its representations of other kinds of diversity more than make up for that.
Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Despite reservations about the ending, I would recommend The Rest of Us Just Live Here; it’s a welcome addition to YA novels involving OCD and anxiety.
Overcompensating: Magical Erasure of Blindness in SFF
These magical or futuristic “fixes” seem rooted in a discomfort with disability: many writers cannot (or don’t want to) imagine a life without sight and therefore create excuses to give their character equivalent sighted experiences.
Review: Young Knights of the Round Table by Julia Golding
Linette is more a convenient plot device than a protagonist, and disabled readers deserve more. Young Knights of the Round Table is a prime example of incidental disability done wrong.
Discussion: Fictional Disabilities
In science-fiction and fantasy, you invariably run into fictional disabilities and allegories. Do these “count” as disability? What makes them work successfully in a book?
Review: Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves
Hanna is a character with bipolar disorder; she’s not “bipolar disorder, the walking human diagnosis.” I think people who share the disease will find something soothing in seeing someone who both manages and mismanages her illness realistically.
Disability Metaphors in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
While I don’t think disability metaphors are sufficient disability representation, I do think that they’ll come up naturally in many stories, and that they’re relevant to the discussion of disability in SFF.