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Author of speculative fiction

Author of speculative fiction

Tag Archives: Diversity

Another Perspective

26 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by amidtheimaginary in Messages

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Disability, Diversity, Speculative Fiction, Storytelling

When I was ten years old I began experiencing a persistent pain in my lower back, usually while walking. Since I hiked about a mile to elementary school each morning, you can imagine this became a frequent annoyance. Interesting thing about kids: they don’t always know when something is wrong. At least I didn’t. The pain was there when I walked but I just dealt with it and got on with things.

It all came to a head when my mother returned early from work one day and saw me struggling home while clutching my lower back. After a short conversation in which I explained I always had back pain, off to the doctor we went. Being a mother now, I can understand that what looked like anger on her face for my omission was actually fear. A few X-rays later and the doctor returned to our little room and announced unceremoniously, “Well, she’s going to need surgery.”

Not sure what he said after that. My entire being snagged on those words. My mother too I think because the doctor darted a look between us and murmured he’d be right back. As soon as he left the room the two of us clung to each other and dissolved into frightened tears.

The Diagnosis: Spondylolisthesis

I nicknamed it “Spondy” because, really, why are these medical classifications so ridiculous? This condition results when one vertebra slides over the bone below it, causing pain, numbness, and weakness in one or both legs. And there was ten-year old me walking a mile to school each way every day with it. I was a scrappy kid. Spindly, but scrappy.

I’ll spare you the gritty details of the days leading up to the surgery, the waiting room outside the prep area on the day itself, the wacky anesthesia induced hallucinations as I went to surgery (they used gas on kids back then), and the two week recovery in the hospital. When it was all over, I was looking ahead at three months in a body cast to give my spine time to heal while immobilized. The cast encircled my ribs and encased one leg to just below the knee. Being the kid I was, I took it in stride. Hey, the pain was gone. Things aren’t so bad. Of course, I hadn’t figured out that I’d have to deal with the world while wearing this thing. In point of fact, I didn’t realize there was anything to deal with at all. Then came school.

bus

Having been able-bodied all of my life up to that point, I knew full well what other kids called the handicapped school bus I had to ride. I’m betting the disabled kids knew it too. The Retard Bus. The one that doesn’t look like the other normal buses. Everyone’s head swiveled to watch us unload from it and my awesome body cast made me walk with a hampered, jerky limp. Oh the stares. The frowns. If reality had text bubbles that showed people’s thoughts, they would’ve read, “What’s wrong with her?” “She walks funny.””I don’t like it.” That last was the big one, the way people seemed simultaneously repulsed by the way I moved and drawn to watch.

Yet, I was lucky. I had an amazing homeroom teacher who took the time to explain what was going on with me to my classmates (after clearing it with me), what surgery was, what a body cast was, and most importantly, that I was still me while inside it. She normalized it. She made it okay and everyone followed her lead. She also threw down the hammer, telling them that if anyone knocked me over that person would be in more trouble than they ever thought possible. To this day I appreciate her ferocity and her understanding. (Ms. Seamen, you’ll always be my favorite.)

It occurred to me, even then, what might things have been like if she’d been like the ones who stared? While we can forgive little kids for not knowing how to behave, what does it say about our society when adults do the same thing because, oh man, I experienced plenty of that. Sometimes I rode in a wheelchair, particularly in malls where my limp made distances difficult. I was never prone to self-consciousness until then. It came with the unease of others, the way people avoided looking at me but looked at me when they thought I couldn’t see, the way they edged away, the way I existed too much or not at all. There was never a moment when I could simply be in a place as myself and not as the disability they observed. It was impossible to ignore. That was hardest, this loss of self. Am I still me when no one else sees me?

wheelchair

The answer, if I could talk to my ten-year old self, is yes, of course you are still you, but you’ll have to fight for it because the rest of the world will try to tell you that the extent of your “self” is the body you inhabit, not the soul inside. As an adult I look back on that glimpse I had of disability and imagine what it’s like for those who can’t remove it like I did the body cast. It’s something I reflect on frequently, especially these days, and is an influence in my writing.

Over on Intisar Khanani’s blog, she is doing an amazing series of posts on disability in fiction which everyone should check out (The first post can be found here). As a kid I loved books and the adventures they took me on (ahem, and as an adult too) though I find it hard to come up with a title with a hero/ine who wasn’t able bodied. There’s the occasional side-kick or family member (or villain), but even if those character presences aren’t polluted by unflattering tropes, they aren’t the main character. The absence of these voices in fiction and on TV deprive society of truly understanding itself. If there was more visibility would it improve the way the disabled are viewed/treated? I think it would.

Need an example?

tyrion-armor

Take Tyrion from Game of Thrones, a favorite character for so many. Have you seen the forums? They discuss the man inside, his intelligence, his empathy, his smart mouth. They also discuss the things he deals with because of his dwarfism. The show and books bring that experience to light for those who know nothing about it. Now imagine the story without this voice. It would be lesser for it. The same is true for every world, with or without dragons.

What are your thoughts on disability in fiction? Are there any titles you would recommend?

Diversity Training

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by amidtheimaginary in For Writers

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Diversity, Indie Writer, Speculative Fiction

At my corporate day job, or as I affectionately call it, That-which-pays-the-bills, the bosses are currently on a “diversity” kick. You might be thinking, “Hey, that’s a noble pursuit in a corporate environment.” And you’d be right. It is important to view the workplace as a plurality of culture, rather than a monoculture. But whenever “diversity training” comes up (and it rears its ugly head at least once every couple of years), rather than being informative and insightful, it’s more indicative of how desperately proper training is actually needed.

Case in point, those in charge of the upcoming bout (a pair of in-house colleagues chosen by leadership) sent out questions to allow us to prepare answers before the meeting.

They were:

  • Has anyone ever had a preconceived notion about who you are that isn’t true?
  • Can you share something you have struggled with in your life that you have had to overcome?

So, after we discuss how much it has sucked to be us (I may be paraphrasing the email here) then we’ll talk about how we celebrate who we are…Because that’ll be the general mood after all that.

Setting aside the fact that these questions are incredibly personal and, in my opinion, inappropriate to ask of people in a compulsory workplace meeting, my greatest concern is this: Rather than deconstructing categories of thinking, the questions ask us to point out to our colleagues the ways in which we have been viewed as an “Other”, something they may previously have never done but may possibly do now. Contradictory to the point of diversity, to say the least.

pencils-top

Naturally, my brain turns this idea towards writing as well. In speculative fiction, it has been said that diversity of characters is on the short side or portrays them as victims/stereotypes. Sure, there may be the main character’s quirky friend, distant relative, or (hopefully not exclusively) villain who is non-white, but essentially the hero/heroine tends to be white, good looking, able-bodied, and straight. There is of course nothing wrong with these types of characters, but it’s their predominance in fiction, as opposed to roles of people of color, that is cause for concern.

Why the concern? It’s those darn categories of thinking again. Race is a social construct. It assigns meaning and value based on outward appearance. We are not born with these ideas in our heads. They are accumulated over time based on what we observe actively and inactively from the world around us.

An example: Mainstream media finds the word “exotic” to be complimentary when describing a beautiful woman of color. The thing is, it’s not really complimentary. It’s boxing her into a specific type of beauty, a construct that has additional meaning beyond how beautiful she is. Why the moniker? If she is beautiful, is it necessary to describe her beauty as “non-white”? If beautiful is the normal word, what does it mean that non-white beauty must be described using a different word? They’re insidious, these categories.

Apply the questions to storytelling: Why are main characters usually white, and the secondary “side-kick” characters non-white? In main characters that have multiple backgrounds, do they have brown/black eyes, or are they frequently given “green/blue” eyes, and if so, why? Are those considered more attractive? Why? Are villains always dark haired/dark eyed/unattractive? (Anyone seen the new Star Wars villain? Or any Disney movie?) Why are villains portrayed this way?

Authors have an awesome job. They get to create fantastical worlds, fascinating characters, and amazing adventures to share with the world. But they are also burdened with a duty to ask themselves these types of questions. A willing burden, yes, but one that should be held at all times in the forefront of the creative mind. Because if we are not aware of how categories of thinking can manifest themselves, the complexity and accessibility of our work is likely to be inhibited by them.

As for my work training…yeah, wish me luck. Given the nature of the questions we’re supposed to answer, something tells me the expectation is to talk about “what” I am, which is too bad, because the more interesting story is who I am on the inside.

Amid the Imaginary

I'm a Hapa Haole Hawaiian girl living in chilly Minnesota, reading, writing and working full-time while raising my family.

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