A review by krislenda
Uncanny Magazine Issue 24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue by S. Qiouyi Lu, Dominik Parisien, Judith Tarr, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Elsa Sjunneson, Nicolette Barischoff
5.0
Personal preference: I am going to pass on rating personal essays. I do not feel comfortable judging other people's life experiences, that is just not my place.
That being said, the rest of the work was excellent and touched on aspects of ableism that I barely notice myself as a disabled, chronically ill person (whether that's due to internal ableism or just a lack of thought is another question, frankly I am not opening that can of worms in 2020).
A quote that really had me weeping, however, was this one.
I think this might be the first time I felt really seen in a literary work.
The passageway leads to a spiralling staircase.
Back on Earth, I wouldn't be able to climb anything so steep.
But ability is contextual.
Whatever we're able to do - and whatever meaning we make of that- changes from one environment to another.
We make all of our own environments now.
To design a place that others can't possibly move through or inhabit is the same as raising up a drawbridge, dropping down a toothy portcullis, or punching a row of murder holes through a ceiling.
It writes down a clear, solid message in the language of architecture: You are not welcome here. You don't even have the right to exist here. Please cease to exist as soon as possible.
That's what the stairs would have said to me, back on Earth. But we aren't on Earth.
I bound up that staircase, which cannot object.
For that, thank you.
That being said, the rest of the work was excellent and touched on aspects of ableism that I barely notice myself as a disabled, chronically ill person (whether that's due to internal ableism or just a lack of thought is another question, frankly I am not opening that can of worms in 2020).
A quote that really had me weeping, however, was this one.
I think this might be the first time I felt really seen in a literary work.
The passageway leads to a spiralling staircase.
Back on Earth, I wouldn't be able to climb anything so steep.
But ability is contextual.
Whatever we're able to do - and whatever meaning we make of that- changes from one environment to another.
We make all of our own environments now.
To design a place that others can't possibly move through or inhabit is the same as raising up a drawbridge, dropping down a toothy portcullis, or punching a row of murder holes through a ceiling.
It writes down a clear, solid message in the language of architecture: You are not welcome here. You don't even have the right to exist here. Please cease to exist as soon as possible.
That's what the stairs would have said to me, back on Earth. But we aren't on Earth.
I bound up that staircase, which cannot object.
For that, thank you.