A Bookish Opinion: Disabilities/Medical Conditions in Literature

     Hello! If you've stuck around my blog for a little, you've learned that this month marks the one-year anniversary of my blog, and to celebrate, I'm starting a type of post called Bookish Opinions. This Friday's topic is less clear-cut, but I'm excited to be able to share my thoughts about it with you. The things we're the most passionate about make for the best discussions, right?

The Facts

    With calls for diverse representation in fiction, significantly helped by the #ownvoices movement, more people are asking for stories to educate, inspire, and enlighten the world about various life, social, and cultural experiences that have been underrepresented or unknown in fiction. One of these subjects is the inclusion of well written characters with disabilities or chronic pain. Whether born with or given to them, obvious or not-so-obvious, it's true that more and more readers (and authors!) are hoping to find or write books that feature this element. 

    However, like with all representation, it can be hard to figure out how to include these conditions, especially when there hasn't been many examples of it in the past. Below are the two ways I've seen these characters featured in storytelling, and my conclusions on handling the subject based off of that.

The Overcomer

    This is the most well known example I see right now in disability/chronic illness representation. In this type of story the character realizes they seem different from everyone around them, wishes to be "normal", and eventually embrace their unique talents and skills, finding the issue they're noticed for is a part of who they are. Many, and I'd say most, books with these characters are structured this way. There is also a branch of this where the character is more comfortable with who they are, but the people around them must adjust to their new normal. Often an Overcomer title is set in today's world with well-researched situations. Some popular and well written examples of this are R. J. Palacio's Wonder, Dusti Bowling's Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, and Jamie Sumner's Roll With It. 

    This type of representation is a great way to both introduce not-so-known conditions into readers' lives, while helping people with the disabilities or illness feel heard and known. It also touches on universal themes such as the desire to be accepted and finding one's identity. A pitfall with using this way of writing is that it can run the risk of treating the condition like an obstacle to be fought against. 

The Extraordinary Hero

    The other type of story I've seen used in this context is the one of the "extraordinary hero". In this I mean that the character lives with a disability or chronic illness, but their role in the story is not related to the condition itself. In other words, it is a part of them, but more focus is given to the other aspects of their character. There are a couple of stories with this theme, though not as many as the Overcomer plot. Some well-written examples of this are Elizabeth Eulberg's The Great Shelby Holmes, Michelle Jabukowski's Sidney and Sydney, Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis' The Map To Everywhere, and Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck. Two examples of this I've seen in mainstream media are the portrayals of Hiccup in the How to Train Your Dragon films, and Toph and Zuko in Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

    This type of representation is a great way to foster that "you can't judge a book by its cover" mentality, encouraging people to show more compassion and friendliness in real life encounters. It can be refreshing to read about characters who own who they are, not letting their condition stop them from reaching high, living well, or even finding humor in the situation. One difficulty with authors trying this approach is they can be tempted to focus so much on making the character powerful that they forget to mention how their disability would affect their day-to-day life. It can also be tricky to understand how to include all the research or experience they have on the subject, especially if the representation takes place in a sci-fi or fantasy world. The Extraordinary Hero approach can be rewarding, but it's not easy to write, which may be the reason we don't have more of these stories.

The Need

    I've learned that representation of all sorts, whether it's disabilities, chronic pain, or something else, takes time and perseverance to get accurate and relatable portrayals in the media. For so long various societal, cultural, and physical conditions have been unknown or misrepresented, and while there are people working to change that in today's world, it doesn't mean that it's going to be easy.

    However, I believe that the struggle is worth it, especially because stories impact people in a way that other mediums can't. Joy Caroline, a young author writing a project with a chronically ill character, writes, "I feel like the main reason we don't run into physically weak characters very often is because we don't know how to write them...[W]e avoid those characters in our stories. And that's wrong! If we learn to write these characters effectively, they can add something very special and powerful to our stories."

    I agree with Joy Caroline. We not only want more representation of these characters in stories, but we need them. It's time for more authors' voices to be heard, ones that are willing to do the research, immerse themselves into the community, and fight for a new narrative readers may not be used to. It's time for more stories to be created, both about living with medical conditions and people who don't let it define them. It's time for the literary world to encourage more understanding, inclusion, and broken stereotypes when it comes to these subjects.

In Short...

    

    There is a growing need for disabled or chronically ill characters in fiction, both from readers' and the authors' perspectives. Two prominent ways of including these characters are found in the Overcomer and the Extraordinary Hero methods. Both have the capacity to be written well, and both have their own obstacles to get through when writing or considering writing each type. Overall, though, they aim to accomplish the same goal: welcoming chronically-affected characters to a better place in the literary world.

    Though it can be trickier to pull off, I prefer reading and watching the Extraordinary Hero method, because it gives you an even greater sense of who the person is. Not to say that characters in an Overcomer story are poorly developed, but often I get a better picture of the character themselves through them being an Extraordinary Hero, taking part in the unrelated, exciting plot. Even when an Extraordinary Hero is a side or background character, like Marrill's mom in The Map to Everywhere or Sidney's friend Gomez in the Sidney and Sydney books, the impact they have just by being there can be powerful.

    There's a long way to go before we can claim full representation of physically struggling characters in literature, but the fact that more and more authors, publishing houses, and readers are paying attention to this says volumes about the steps we're taking.

  Thanks for letting me share this Bookish Opinion! I hope you enjoyed reading through it. Don't hesitate to let me know if you have anything to add, have a great example I didn't list on here, or just want to share your thoughts. I'm excited to hear them!

  My blogiversary giveaway is going on all throughout this month, which means you can still enter! Scroll below to see how YOU can have a chance to win free signed copies of Kara Swanson's Dust and Kaley and Rhonda Rhea's Off-Script and Over-Caffeinated!

1. Sign up for a Goodreads account (if you don't have one already!)
2. Follow me (JadeSky: Stepping Stones Book Reviews), Kaley Rhea, AND Kara Swanson on Goodreads.
3. Post a comment below this blog post telling me you entered.
4. Wait for the winner! (Announced June 4, 2021) 

    If you want more information about the details of winning, head over to my previous post and scroll down until you see the banner. 

    Next week, in honor of the Big Anniversary on Tuesday, I'm going to be bringing back my Week of Book Memes! Join me Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday for all new posts, all about some of my favorite book blogging events.

(Note: For further reading on this subject, please check out Book Riot's article on disability representation and Joy Caroline's tips on writing about them. A huge thanks to Joy Caroline for letting me quote from and link to her post!) 

(Photo Credits: Joseph Barrientos, Ricardo IV Tamayo, Audi Nissen, Alfons Morales, Dariusz Sankowski from Unsplash)