Alzheimer's AU prompt JUDGED HARSHLY
I follow some "Imagine..." prompt blogs on tumblr and recently, someone proposed an AU where either Steve Rogers or Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes discover that his/their boyfriend Tony Stark is in the in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
I'm not just in the nopeNopeNOPE camp, I'm horrified that someone even thought that was promptable, which engenders a small amount of guilt, quickly squashed because Alzheimer's. So, every time I saw a reply to that post, I scooted right past it because nopeNopeNOPE.
Then I saw a post where two people the prompter had been tagging asked not to be tagged and prompter became huffy because s/he wasn't forcing anyone to participate. S/he went to the extent of making a separate post wondering when Marvel fandom got so touchy? S/he wasn't ever going to prompt anyone for anything again.
My response in general:
1. This individual doesn't know enough about Alzheimer's to know better than to prompt it.
2. This individual does know enough about Alzheimer's to know better and prompted it anyway because s/he is a horrible human being.
My response in particular:
HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO TONY?
So, one my wonder why I think that with all the various disease, disability and deathfic going on out there, why is Alzheimer's extra special horrifying?
1. Too many people are living in its shadow for it to be entertainment, which I thought was the idea behind prompts. In my case, it's in my family and science has 30 years to get off the dime and fix that shit before I hit the age at which women in our family start showing symptoms. Nota bene: science has been working on it for longer than that with little progress beyond thinking they know what the problem might be. (Brain plaque build up might not be the only root cause.)
2. There is no happy ending to Alzheimer's. Unlike cancer, there is no possibility of a cure. There are no "I survived Alzheimer's" T-shirts for people who had it. Unlike HIV/AIDs, there's no "living with" Alzheimer's past a certain point. Left to its natural progression, there is certainly no death with dignity. An author can either go full comic book and cure it with a wave of the magic pen (bitter pill for those of us in its shadow) or opt their character out with some form of suicide, a trigger warning all its own for the tumblr audience.
3. Back to HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO TONY (STARK)? If this man has a superpower, it's his genius, the first thing Alzheimer's attacks. After that, Stark is a known sensualist, and what does Alzheimer's go after next? Then, the prompt is assuming two immortal supersoldiers get to look after the wreck their boyfriend will become?
I know there are bittersweet and downright dark fic prompts out there. The enthusiasm that met this one, though, set me back on my heels.
Yes, I will judge this prompt very harshly.
I'm not just in the nopeNopeNOPE camp, I'm horrified that someone even thought that was promptable, which engenders a small amount of guilt, quickly squashed because Alzheimer's. So, every time I saw a reply to that post, I scooted right past it because nopeNopeNOPE.
Then I saw a post where two people the prompter had been tagging asked not to be tagged and prompter became huffy because s/he wasn't forcing anyone to participate. S/he went to the extent of making a separate post wondering when Marvel fandom got so touchy? S/he wasn't ever going to prompt anyone for anything again.
My response in general:
1. This individual doesn't know enough about Alzheimer's to know better than to prompt it.
2. This individual does know enough about Alzheimer's to know better and prompted it anyway because s/he is a horrible human being.
My response in particular:
HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO TONY?
So, one my wonder why I think that with all the various disease, disability and deathfic going on out there, why is Alzheimer's extra special horrifying?
1. Too many people are living in its shadow for it to be entertainment, which I thought was the idea behind prompts. In my case, it's in my family and science has 30 years to get off the dime and fix that shit before I hit the age at which women in our family start showing symptoms. Nota bene: science has been working on it for longer than that with little progress beyond thinking they know what the problem might be. (Brain plaque build up might not be the only root cause.)
2. There is no happy ending to Alzheimer's. Unlike cancer, there is no possibility of a cure. There are no "I survived Alzheimer's" T-shirts for people who had it. Unlike HIV/AIDs, there's no "living with" Alzheimer's past a certain point. Left to its natural progression, there is certainly no death with dignity. An author can either go full comic book and cure it with a wave of the magic pen (bitter pill for those of us in its shadow) or opt their character out with some form of suicide, a trigger warning all its own for the tumblr audience.
3. Back to HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO TONY (STARK)? If this man has a superpower, it's his genius, the first thing Alzheimer's attacks. After that, Stark is a known sensualist, and what does Alzheimer's go after next? Then, the prompt is assuming two immortal supersoldiers get to look after the wreck their boyfriend will become?
I know there are bittersweet and downright dark fic prompts out there. The enthusiasm that met this one, though, set me back on my heels.
Yes, I will judge this prompt very harshly.