In The Future of Bodyminds, Body Minds of the Future, Sami Schalk discusses the issues of speculative fiction and the conflict that arises when these written works ignore difference and intersectionality and frame them to be a problem of the past. The issues that Schalk points out are that fiction—particularly science fiction or futuristic fiction—portray diversity but ignore the systematic ways in which this diversity was able to be achieved within the story. Schalk writes, “discrimination and oppression based on difference is resolved here [Women on the Edge of Time] and in many speculative fictional futures through the erasure of difference altogether, or what smith refers to as ‘elminationist ideal.'” Schalk then goes on to explain how disability is unquestionably the most erased of them all. Schalk explains how situational fiction depicts disability as something to be fixed or an unwanted trait that needs to be eradicated from society in order for all individuals to be happy—able-bodied.
Through the example, situational fiction story, Parable, which features a heroine black female with disabilities, Schalk conveys that a utopian future does not have to be dependent on able-bodies; that disability is not a trait that needs to be erased. She writes that “the representation of hyperempathy in the Parable novels theorizes the possibilities and meanings of bodyminds, especially disabled bodyminds, in a number of important ways which require a change in how we read and analyze these texts and their implications.” Schalk dicusses the four “totalizing” approaches to hyperempathy—ignoring or erasing the disability completely, a disability with negative connotations, a disability as positive with a special power or gift, and disability as a uniqueness—and how these approaches obscure the “materiality of disability and its role in the plot, character development, and themes of the series,” and limit our understanding of disability. Schalk also discusses how Parable encourages a new way to view disability with less abilist understanding because it is a fictional disability set in a futuristic world. The series also challenges the notion that in a futuristic world technology will eradicate disability in order to produce an ideal society. Instead Parable “resists assumptions through depictions of the unpredictable nature of future technology and the possibility of a disability-related pleasure.” Schalk argues that the Parable series opens the doors for new possibilities for how to view disability in speculative fiction and creates a new meaning to bodyminds in ways that “require attention to the context and relationship of (dis)ability, race, and gender in interpretation and analysis.”
I really enjoyed this reading and its emphasis on viewing disability in a different way than how it is commonly viewed in speculative fiction. This issue has never been something that I’ve noticed while reading or watching futuristic fiction stories and I can now see the negative implications to this notion. I look forward to discussing this piece further in class.
I agree with your last point about disability not being something that is always noticed/that I have noticed or fully considered when watching or reading speculative fiction. It can be really easy to fall into what Schalk points out as “passive ableism,” especially in some speculative fiction stories that showcase disability as something that is “supernatural” or “magical,” rather than presenting it in a more complicated way that reflects the experience of it. Also, Schalk’s referencing of “disability-related pleasure” was a point I found interesting as conversations around disability in literature or media tend to center on disability as only contributing to a fully negative, painful experience. To add, the ways that disability intersects with race, gender, etc. is not something I’ve seen a lot of representation of when/if there is a disabled character in a story, so I getting to read some of Octavia Butler’s work.