I was recently talking with [livejournal.com profile] calzephyr77 about how so few SF pieces include people with disabilities. The only book/series I could come up with, The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey has the same problem with disability as her other novels have with feminism, in that although she puts the disenfranchised individuals in the limelight, she does nothing to challenge the discriminatory nature of either present day or her fictional society. The only movie I could come up with while thinking then was Avatar, though Daredevil could also do.

I'm currently rereading Heinlein's "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls," my intent being to examine his treatment of women with my current understanding of feminism, rather than how I thought about the issue when younger. I have been pleasantly surprised when ever half hour or so something reminds me that the main character uses a prosthetic leg. It's an unavoidable part of the narrator's life and affects fro the little things like his walking speed to his choice to live in a low gravity environment, but it's not something that permeates every moment of his (or the reader's) thinking.

Can anyone make any other recommendations of SF books with characters with disabilities for me to read? The overall read needs to be good, but I'm curious about both good and bad treatments of disabilities.
I just reread Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (first read in high school). The edition I had included two afterwords, one of which discusses some letters he received from readers in this and other books of his. A number of these letters, he says, criticize his treatment (or lack thereof) of blacks and women. Bradbury harshly rebuts that this is the first step of censorship, and that changing his works to appease the many different minorities present in a large and populous society such as ours would be changing the essence of his pieces and would destroy his artistic creation. Unfortunately the afterword is still under copyright so I'm not easily finding the relevant text - anyone happen to have a link?

I'm disappointed by this attitude. Bradbury lumps underprivleged minorities (such as blacks and women) with privileged or neutral "minorities" such as dog lovers. He doesn't show understanding of the distinction between elective special interest groups, and minority status imposed upon one by society, and he also doesn't show understanding of the privilege/status/power involved in the involuntary minority statuses. He also doesn't show any interest in increased inclusivism in future works, applying the criticisms only to past completed works - altering completed works wouldn't be right IMO, but I do feel it is worthwhile to portray a more ideal society in pieces one writes in the future, without as many boundary lines of privilege between different members of society.

Findings

Aug. 12th, 2007 10:51 am
For my next copious free time project, I will start converting a milk-crate's-worth of scrawled notes and formerly typed completed short stories into again-typed short stories posted on LJ. I was surprisingly prolific when younger, now I want to do something with it all. I found a few unfinished stories that frustrate me b/c I want to know how they end - mayhaps I'll invite ideas from others.

While I'm thinking of it, in the various LJ/6A fandom Deletegate shitstorms, did they tag anyone for deletion based upon material that was posted behind a friendslock? As I understand it, the community or account had to be tagged by someone, so my small audience to start, combined w/ putting anything potentially questionable behind a friendslock (which even further weeds down the potential audience) should keep me safe. (Not that I have all that much questionable, but I did find one story about a recovering child murderer, a story which was even published in my HS Sci/Fan journal.) I'll probably friendslock everything anyway to keep the copyright infringement down.

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asterroc

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