Things I have been thinking
Aug. 5th, 2007 01:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo the other night I was thinking about Stuff (while trying to get to sleep, as per usual), specifically my preference in characters. I always like the simply human characters, the ones with skills hard learned rather than powers simply granted, the regular people. Watchers not Slayers.
So I was thinking, how come I'm a fan of the only genres where you'll find any other kind of hero?
And then I was, like, *facepalm*, because -
I like the stories where the world is full of people who are more powerful, faster, stronger, able to read minds or move things without touching them or whatever - and some regular person who can't do any of that is sitting in the middle trying to cope.
I like disability stories.
Oh I'd already noticed I tend to read the classic setups in terms of disability. Ghosts are clearly profoundly physically disabled (and I got all wound up when they didn't get Spike any assistive technology and just ignored him a lot). Werewolves controlling it with herbs and chanting are pretty much controlling a mental health issue with meds and meditation (no, I'm not saying mental health = werewolves, just werewolves = tiny subset of mental health). Vampires have a whole addiction metaphor going on as well as their obvious physical limitations (daylight, etc, adding up to greater restriction than most people have to cope with... although I did go through a not-goin-out-in-daylight phase once).
But the other thing, the regular people in a world where they're trying to cope with people having powers - it's like disability without any of the day to day junk. It sees coping without a superpower as a tale of heroic deeds, without getting all condescending about 'aren't you brave, dealing with all that!' about the routine stuff. It's dealing with a world where everyone important can do things that you can't, yet there's so many people with your ability set you're still normal, still part of a community that simply values the skills you do have.
You don't get that so much on a level playing field, with stories of humans in a human world, but humans in science fiction, fantasy, comics? You get that *all the time*. And I'd rather read about how a team copes with some members not being able to fly (easily, routinely, copes without even mentioning it) than I would about how some mundane world team copes with someone in a wheelchair (partly because it's always such a Thing, to even have a character in a wheelchair - like that godawful episode of DS9 where her mere presence made the whole episode plot).
It's not that I don't also want to read about people in wheelchairs kicking arse - I read Birds of Prey, Oracle rules. It's just I looked at my usual story preferences - regular people coping with more-than-regular problems - and suddenly I saw the disability thing.
And like I said, *facepalm*, because now I'm feeling all obvious.
Of course the thing where I then also like characters who take those human skills and hone them through practice to superhuman levels, or learn esoteric arts, or simply turn science into gadgeteering and magic wand things that way... That's not so much about that. That's just damn cool on it's own. Because they work and they study and they get good at stuff and anyone could do that, given the time and resources. (And I just noticed another reason I don't so much like Harry Potter - only getting to go to magic school if you've already got magic takes away the whole thing I like best about the idea of magic school. Study magic = become magic, not have to be it to start with!)
It's why I like immortals, like Highlander, without thinking about it as being the same as superpowers. I mean, it clearly is - no more worrying about the physical stuff FTW - but really, every cool thing they can do? It's just time and study, or as Duncan says trial and error. Lots of error.
I could do that.
So I was thinking, how come I'm a fan of the only genres where you'll find any other kind of hero?
And then I was, like, *facepalm*, because -
I like the stories where the world is full of people who are more powerful, faster, stronger, able to read minds or move things without touching them or whatever - and some regular person who can't do any of that is sitting in the middle trying to cope.
I like disability stories.
Oh I'd already noticed I tend to read the classic setups in terms of disability. Ghosts are clearly profoundly physically disabled (and I got all wound up when they didn't get Spike any assistive technology and just ignored him a lot). Werewolves controlling it with herbs and chanting are pretty much controlling a mental health issue with meds and meditation (no, I'm not saying mental health = werewolves, just werewolves = tiny subset of mental health). Vampires have a whole addiction metaphor going on as well as their obvious physical limitations (daylight, etc, adding up to greater restriction than most people have to cope with... although I did go through a not-goin-out-in-daylight phase once).
But the other thing, the regular people in a world where they're trying to cope with people having powers - it's like disability without any of the day to day junk. It sees coping without a superpower as a tale of heroic deeds, without getting all condescending about 'aren't you brave, dealing with all that!' about the routine stuff. It's dealing with a world where everyone important can do things that you can't, yet there's so many people with your ability set you're still normal, still part of a community that simply values the skills you do have.
You don't get that so much on a level playing field, with stories of humans in a human world, but humans in science fiction, fantasy, comics? You get that *all the time*. And I'd rather read about how a team copes with some members not being able to fly (easily, routinely, copes without even mentioning it) than I would about how some mundane world team copes with someone in a wheelchair (partly because it's always such a Thing, to even have a character in a wheelchair - like that godawful episode of DS9 where her mere presence made the whole episode plot).
It's not that I don't also want to read about people in wheelchairs kicking arse - I read Birds of Prey, Oracle rules. It's just I looked at my usual story preferences - regular people coping with more-than-regular problems - and suddenly I saw the disability thing.
And like I said, *facepalm*, because now I'm feeling all obvious.
Of course the thing where I then also like characters who take those human skills and hone them through practice to superhuman levels, or learn esoteric arts, or simply turn science into gadgeteering and magic wand things that way... That's not so much about that. That's just damn cool on it's own. Because they work and they study and they get good at stuff and anyone could do that, given the time and resources. (And I just noticed another reason I don't so much like Harry Potter - only getting to go to magic school if you've already got magic takes away the whole thing I like best about the idea of magic school. Study magic = become magic, not have to be it to start with!)
It's why I like immortals, like Highlander, without thinking about it as being the same as superpowers. I mean, it clearly is - no more worrying about the physical stuff FTW - but really, every cool thing they can do? It's just time and study, or as Duncan says trial and error. Lots of error.
I could do that.