>> -- It /really/ tends to follow the 'Daredevil' script, better than 'normal', not-really-a-disability, and it /PEEVES/ me to no end. <<
Often, yes. Sometimes the body or brain can compensate for damage and create a new ability. Sometimes replacements are better than the original. People have been telling those stories for thousands of years. The problem is that, if they don't tell the other kinds of stories, it throws off the balance and becomes aggravating.
One thing I liked about the Daredevil movie was that, in addition to how beautifully it rendered his echolocation, it also included several examples of the limitations.
When I'm writing about a disabled character who has superpowers or a terrific piece of adaptive equipment or whatever, I try to keep an eye on the ways that experience differs from the ordinary. So if you look at the daughter of Monster House, she has a seeing-eye gremlin and the Eye of Fate which allows her to see everything that destiny touches. There are still things she can't see. She can move through the world about as well as a conventionally sighted person, but not the same as them.
>> I mean, /honestly/, could you imagine the hue and cry if /all/ redheads were portrayed as psychic? No one, but no one would tolerate that, even if it were /always/ a positive portrayal. <<
It's not that far from the truth. There's a very strong trend for using redheaded characters to mark psychic, psychotic, or other unusual motifs.
>> And what if all blue-eyed people were portrayed as morally 'right' and perf-- (oh, wait... we did that for a long, long time... Sigh.) <<
Yep.
What really matters is diversity. If you have enough characters, and you make a point of spreading out the traits, then you can avoid the repetition problem.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Disability and superheroes
Date: 2014-05-30 05:43 pm (UTC)Often, yes. Sometimes the body or brain can compensate for damage and create a new ability. Sometimes replacements are better than the original. People have been telling those stories for thousands of years. The problem is that, if they don't tell the other kinds of stories, it throws off the balance and becomes aggravating.
One thing I liked about the Daredevil movie was that, in addition to how beautifully it rendered his echolocation, it also included several examples of the limitations.
When I'm writing about a disabled character who has superpowers or a terrific piece of adaptive equipment or whatever, I try to keep an eye on the ways that experience differs from the ordinary. So if you look at the daughter of Monster House, she has a seeing-eye gremlin and the Eye of Fate which allows her to see everything that destiny touches. There are still things she can't see. She can move through the world about as well as a conventionally sighted person, but not the same as them.
>> I mean, /honestly/, could you imagine the hue and cry if /all/ redheads were portrayed as psychic? No one, but no one would tolerate that, even if it were /always/ a positive portrayal. <<
It's not that far from the truth. There's a very strong trend for using redheaded characters to mark psychic, psychotic, or other unusual motifs.
>> And what if all blue-eyed people were portrayed as morally 'right' and perf-- (oh, wait... we did that for a long, long time... Sigh.) <<
Yep.
What really matters is diversity. If you have enough characters, and you make a point of spreading out the traits, then you can avoid the repetition problem.