Reading Faded Sun
Aug. 8th, 2012 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badgerbagI am reading C.J. Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy as I think about the upcoming panel on disability in sf/f and media at GeekGirlCon. I read one of them, maybe the last one, long ago completely at random and was struck by Cherryh's alien race, the regul, and their awesome powersled hovercraft and how status and age correlate for the regul. Older high status regul become physically bigger and bigger until it is difficult for them to move around, and it is part of their high status that they don't do anything for themselves but are served by the young underlings who are more mobile. She writes it very convincingly. Well, in the first Faded Sun book there is also a human envoy who has been sent to deal with the regul, picked in part because he is older and they might respect him. They send Duncan, a sort of space marine, with him to be his "youngling" servant. Right at a crucial moment the elderly envoy has a stroke, his left side is completely paralyzed, and he can't speak. The regul just shrug and stick him in a power sled hovercraft and give him a sort of AAC console which he types on. It feels like he gets more respect from the regul after his stroke.
Cut for mild spoilers.
When the human spaceship finally shows up and it looks like they might "rescue" the envoy, he has already cut a deal and intends to do some super complicated high level politics with this interstellar treaty between human and regul. The humans kind of panic and want to "rescue" him and take him to their medic, but the envoy refuses! He is thinking to himself there is no way he's going to be declared medically unfit! He asserts (over his comm screen or whatever) to the military human commander that he's in charge of this planet and the entire political situation. It's really amazing! He's just like, yeah, don't panic guys, I'm having a little difficulty speaking, but really.... everything is fine, AS YOU SEE....
I was on the plane reading that bit and felt like cheering! It was far beyond Miles Vorkosigan in coolness and complexity in a disabled character and the politics of living with various impairments in cultures/societies that do or don't have infrastructure to deal with those impairments.
Cut for mild spoilers.
When the human spaceship finally shows up and it looks like they might "rescue" the envoy, he has already cut a deal and intends to do some super complicated high level politics with this interstellar treaty between human and regul. The humans kind of panic and want to "rescue" him and take him to their medic, but the envoy refuses! He is thinking to himself there is no way he's going to be declared medically unfit! He asserts (over his comm screen or whatever) to the military human commander that he's in charge of this planet and the entire political situation. It's really amazing! He's just like, yeah, don't panic guys, I'm having a little difficulty speaking, but really.... everything is fine, AS YOU SEE....
I was on the plane reading that bit and felt like cheering! It was far beyond Miles Vorkosigan in coolness and complexity in a disabled character and the politics of living with various impairments in cultures/societies that do or don't have infrastructure to deal with those impairments.
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Date: 2012-08-09 06:57 pm (UTC)(here via /network)
Date: 2012-08-10 01:24 am (UTC)(I have got to reread it myself...)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 01:14 am (UTC)Another book I'd love to explore w/ others is Carol Emshwiller's The Mount. Humans are enslaved to serve as bearers for aliens who can't walk in Earth gravity. There are hints of a rebellion at the end, but I wonder what a shipment of scooters and powerchairs would do.