In June, I streamed a panel called Disabled Literature that was part of a virtual conference put on by Renaissance Press, a small publishing company (that, to me, is local) specializing in diverse Canadian talent and content.
Panelists were discussing Nothing Without Us, an anthology of realistic and speculative (sci-fi/fantasy) fiction featuring characters with disabilities, written by disabled authors. The book sounded like something I'd like, so I eventually bought it.
While I liked everything, I thought the speculative stories were the best.
Fantasy elements meshed really well with the subject of disabilities. The first story featured a small golem being made to assist the main character as a sort of personal service worker, then being passed on to do the same for another disabled individual.
Another story was about a wizard wanting to see an oracle. As with similar stories, the wizard had to take on a challenge first. Only here, instead of climbing a mountain or jumping over a bottomless chasm, the wizard's task was to descend a flight of 99 stairs, a real feat due to the character's multiple sclerosis, which itself was externalized as a doppelganger because of a curing spell gone wrong.
In my opinion, the stand-out story of the anthology was one called "Search and Seizure", about a young woman with a condition that causes her to have intense seizures. Throughout her young life, this girl is made to feel like the condition is all in her head and is essentially blown-off by doctors, until one day when a doctor thinks it's okay for her to drive home from the hospital and she has a seizure which causes her to crash and die. The story finds her ghost stuck in the hospital, along with the ghosts of other patients whose complaints have been ignored.
One day, the young woman is passing by a playroom and notices a copy of The Hobbit she had lost. It's the only physical object she can connect with, so she continues to leave it at the desk of the doctor responsible for her death, hoping to be acknowledged. He doesn't, so she follows him around. One day, she's observing him with a patient; a girl with a condition similar to hers. This girl gets ignored and put down, until the main character gets fed up and causes power to flicker. After that incident, she outright haunts the doctor, appearing to him in a mirror at the end of the story.
When I finished reading it, the only descriptor I could think of was "beautifully @$&!ed up", and I mean that in the best possible way!
One final story actually made me question my own advocacy, and whether I might be being a bit too passive at times.
As far out as some of them were, each story had roughly the same message of taking ownership of your condition and feeling comfortable with it and yourself, which I appreciated.
While it wasn't perfect, I really enjoyed Nothing Without Us. Well written, unique, and entertaining.
Cheers!
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