Disability in SF.
I've seen a lot of blogs about the lack of disabilities in futuristic Science Fiction, and how it frustrates the folks who have to work around them. I hadn't given it a lot of thought until today.
In the story I'm writing, I have to seriously limit my futuristic technology or the story is too perfect and therefore has no tension. One of my aliens becomes blind, and has to rely on my humans for assistance. I thought it'd be interesting to have my main character's grandmother be blind, and train seeing-eye dogs. (This is mostly an excuse to write lots of Labrador Retrievers into my books. I love labs.)
I've been struggling with the "grandma, my alien friends need help" reveal. In one version, the MC concealed the aliens' nature from her blind grandmother, but that made the grandma seem stupid. My next attempt had the aliens cure grandma, but if felt...wrong. At the gym today, I realized I was bothered by the act of taking away the character's disability. It felt like I was doing a disservice to the people who have to live with handicaps, who spend their lives struggling to overcome them.
I'm re-writing the scene so that they restore grandma's vision for a few minutes, proving they have super!tech, and then it fails and grandma's
In the story I'm writing, I have to seriously limit my futuristic technology or the story is too perfect and therefore has no tension. One of my aliens becomes blind, and has to rely on my humans for assistance. I thought it'd be interesting to have my main character's grandmother be blind, and train seeing-eye dogs. (This is mostly an excuse to write lots of Labrador Retrievers into my books. I love labs.)
I've been struggling with the "grandma, my alien friends need help" reveal. In one version, the MC concealed the aliens' nature from her blind grandmother, but that made the grandma seem stupid. My next attempt had the aliens cure grandma, but if felt...wrong. At the gym today, I realized I was bothered by the act of taking away the character's disability. It felt like I was doing a disservice to the people who have to live with handicaps, who spend their lives struggling to overcome them.
I'm re-writing the scene so that they restore grandma's vision for a few minutes, proving they have super!tech, and then it fails and grandma's