David Wooddell
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
As you know, I'm a long-time fan of your books. I've often wondered why you created two of your major characters with physical disabilities? I'm referring to Dag in the Sharing Knife books, and Miles in the Vorkosigan series. The characters have made me think about the limits of human experience (as well as my own limits.) - David W. Wooddell
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can't actually answer that, as they both walked on stage as-is, and could never have been any other way.
So it was never a matter of "I am interested in writing about disabilities, therefore I will compose these characters to frame those issues," but rather, "Huh. That's one way to slow him down a bit. So what is he going to do now? Let's see what happens..."
The first reader to point out that I was writing about disabilities actually fastened on the quaddies, whom I did not think of as handicapped at all, but rather, hyper-adapted -- as long as they were in the right environment. We had some really interesting early exchanges on the subject.
Ta, L.
So it was never a matter of "I am interested in writing about disabilities, therefore I will compose these characters to frame those issues," but rather, "Huh. That's one way to slow him down a bit. So what is he going to do now? Let's see what happens..."
The first reader to point out that I was writing about disabilities actually fastened on the quaddies, whom I did not think of as handicapped at all, but rather, hyper-adapted -- as long as they were in the right environment. We had some really interesting early exchanges on the subject.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Mike
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
First I want to say I love The Miles series and I've always wanted to ask if the condition of Miles bones was based on a real condition or just something you came up with? The reason I ask is I have a bone disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta a.k.a. Brittle Bones disease so i can relate in a way to Miles in a strange way.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more




