dubiousmedia

dubiousmedia

95p

2 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

5 years ago @ Mark Watches - Confirmed Shows for th... · 1 reply · +11 points

The Dragon Prince!

7 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'A Wizard A... · 5 replies · +25 points

(discussion of ableism and homophobia, contained within)

Another thing, in addition to what people have already added, to this comment:

One of the big problems of the old edition, to my mind, wasn't just the 'cure' thing, but exactly what you just said, the idea of 'sacrifice'.

That is autism was a *separate part of himself*, something that he could 'give up', and still remain, well... Darryl McAllister.

That everything that made him unique, everything that made him *himself*, everything that made him capable of being an abdal and a wizard, would safely remain, and the only things he would lose were the nasty burn-out parts.

Which....

I hate, honestly.

Like the idea of 'autism' being a separate part of who Darryl is, that he could remove it, and still *be* Darryl, is....

Really not great?

There's this idea I've heard from a lot of other autistic people, and something I agree with, myself, about the idea of wanting to be called an *autistic person*, rather than a *person with autism*.

We ARE autistic. We don't 'have autism'. It's not an unwanted roommate in our own head. It's not baggage.

I *am* autistic, the same way I'm gay, or I'm female.

You can't change that, and still have the same person left over.

Like I just said. I'm both autistic, and gay.

If Darryl was a gay character, who 'gave up their homosexuality' in a 'sacrifice', that was seen as a positive thing for the character, because, say... He was bullied for being gay, and now he didn't have to worry about that, and he was seen dreaming of a future girlfriend in the end of the book... How would you react? Would feel that was in keeping with the core values of wizardry? Probably not.

For me, it's the same thing. Yes, being gay is hard sometimes. Yes, it makes dealing with the world more difficult! But there's a lot of good, too, and more than that it's part of the base code of my existence. It's in my kernel. It's who I am, and I wouldn't want to change that, I wouldn't ever want to rewrite that not with any amount of magic in the world.

Same with being autistic.

Because, yeah, I don't *have* autism, I *am autistic*.

It is part of my own Life's 'I Am's, to borrow from The Book Of Night With Moon type parlance.

It's... The lens through which I see the world, it's inextricable from how all of my interests and emotions and experiences and memories and experiences are filtered through.

Changing that isn't something that could possibly be done lightly, and it would be, to me, wholly *against* the wizardly principles of letting things exist *in their own way*, and guarding that growth.