The Sword and Laser discussion

I'm always interested in the portrayal of disability in fiction I read and Akata Witch features a disabled main character. I'm not personally familiar with albinism so I was curious how the portrayal landed within the community. I was able to find a pretty thoughtful review and analysis by someone with albinism.

https://disabilityinkidlit.com/2015/0...

I believe Okorafor must have received the criticism about the omission of the issues with low vision noted in the review from some source. (Since Sunny is based on a real person, it could have been direct feedback.) The sequel, Akata Warrior, discusses Sunny's new glasses pretty early on and includes from her perspective how her vision impairment was such that she had been able to avoid them for years.

I noticed the way Sunny's initiation and discovery of her spirit face eliminated her sensitivity to sunlight. My guess would be that was spurred because Okorafor *really* wanted to bring in the soccer element and there was no way to do that within the narrative with an albino's extreme sensitivity to direct sunlight. In every other part of the narrative it would have been possible to keep it and have Sunny work around it.

I did appreciate that, as the author of the review writes, "Okorafor pulled no punches in regards to society's treatment of those with albinism." That treatment tends to extend to anyone who stands out as different as I've read people across the spectrum of disability express in many different ways. (I'm personally familiar with the autistic version of that experience.)

Anyway, while the portrayal of albinism was described as "underwhelming" it was described as better than most portrayals. And the fact that Sunny was the main character and portrayed as strong and confident from the outset was certainly a positive aspect.

I'm curious how others reacted to that aspect of the novel.

I found on Nnedi's blog where she had shared an early essay, "Legs," she wrote about her experience with paralysis and resulting life long disability.

https://nnedi.blogspot.com/2009/05/ma...

I was especially taken by her concluding line.

"Once in a while, I look at these legs and wonder what I’d have been doing if this didn’t happen to me. But then I simply fold them underneath my desk and continue writing."

The US has always been and remains a deeply eugenicist country. And people tend to respond by trying to view disabled people as those others, a group that may need special care, but which does not include them. (Others, of course, have more ... overt attitudes toward disabled people.)

The reality, of course, is that every person is one illness, one injury, one accident away from being disabled. Assuming a person doesn't die from other causes, it approaches certainty that almost everyone will experience some form of disability within their lifetime.

For some of us, like Sunny, disability is a lifelong experience. That's true even if the narrative of the book magically resolves the most physically disabling aspect of albinism. Some of the physical aspects remain and the disabling social aspects remain in the background of the story. For others disability is abruptly introduced and changes their world. In still other cases, it can be a slow decline as dementia or physical illness gradually takes away ability.

Anyway, wanted to share the essay. I thought it helpful background.

I agree as a disabled person that disability is a lifelong experience and that is why for me the fact that initiation or mastering an ability seems to have "cured" parts of that disability.

Also, by 33% I'm tired of the anti-medication rants, I'm not sure if meds didn't work Nnedi Okorafor but meds such as Ritalin are helpful to those with ADHD, not everyone but a large number of people.

Final thing, since a disability increases ability this is coming very close to disability as superhero trope which combined with the curing issues makes be unimpressed so far as disabled representation goes.

I guess my take away is that if you aren't familiar with a comunity even if you are a minority yourself you still need a sensitivity reader for that community.