Representation
Jan. 8th, 2019 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stainlessA thing I just said on the flaming wreck of Tumblr, in response to a post reading "Disabled characters can get a happy ending without being 'cured'":
I don’t think every story that ends in cure is evil (I’ve had a few friends worry about this and… no, personally I do not want to forbid you from writing anything!! please do not ask me for permission as if i am Vengeful and Capricious Disabled Writer God!), but… why are you curing this character? Does the story call for it for some clear reason (the mindplague wears off and everyone is okay now, say), or are you having it happen because you think it should?
Does your cured character learn something from having been temporarily disabled? Is it something they learned from, or just something they lived through? Is the cure total, or do they have lasting issues like chronic pain or occasional forgetfulness because they did, you know, get sick with the mindplague? If there are no lasting effects, are you sure this doesn’t come off as cheap?
Again, I’m personally very anti “don’t write tropes I dislike!” People should be allowed to tell stories I don't want to read! (And there are several stories that I like that do include a character being cured, so it's not even a Universal Ick.)
But as someone who doesn’t usually like this trope much, I’ll like your book more if I can tell you thought about this.
I don’t think every story that ends in cure is evil (I’ve had a few friends worry about this and… no, personally I do not want to forbid you from writing anything!! please do not ask me for permission as if i am Vengeful and Capricious Disabled Writer God!), but… why are you curing this character? Does the story call for it for some clear reason (the mindplague wears off and everyone is okay now, say), or are you having it happen because you think it should?
Does your cured character learn something from having been temporarily disabled? Is it something they learned from, or just something they lived through? Is the cure total, or do they have lasting issues like chronic pain or occasional forgetfulness because they did, you know, get sick with the mindplague? If there are no lasting effects, are you sure this doesn’t come off as cheap?
Again, I’m personally very anti “don’t write tropes I dislike!” People should be allowed to tell stories I don't want to read! (And there are several stories that I like that do include a character being cured, so it's not even a Universal Ick.)
But as someone who doesn’t usually like this trope much, I’ll like your book more if I can tell you thought about this.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-09 01:32 pm (UTC)But...I think personally I’d like ppl to think about is the impacts of curing on a character more?
For example, if I was cured of my RA and hypermoblilty, that’d be great!
But I’d loose a lot of my emotinal connection to the disabled community. A lot of my identity. I might gain physical stuff back but I’d loose emotional stuff.
I think if the trope was handled with more depth and not just because it should happen/used cheaply I’d...be slightly more comfortable.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-10 03:47 am (UTC)