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The Flowers of Vashnoi
2/5. Ekaterin is involved in an experimental project to try and cleanse the radioactive site where the Cetagandans dropped a dirty bomb decades ago. This unearths an ugly secret.
Hm. This is a good idea done without much of the richness I was expecting. This is a story that, by its shape, literally goes to the radioactive heart of this culture's ableism. Most of the story is set on the bomb site which started this supposed deep-rooted phobia of mutation. And yet it somehow manages to not … really … be about that? And I'm not sure how? Partly it's that Ekaterin drives this story, rather than Miles, though Miles is the one who personally owns the site and whose personal baggage re disability it encapsulates. That's fine – and it makes sense – but Ekaterin has basically nothing to say about disability or this culture's view of it that I found interesting or illuminating.
Also, here's my real problem. ( spoilers )
So yeah. I don't think this story is being honest about what ableism is and how it functions and how you combat it. And it feels that way – dishonest – rather than merely ignorant.
Content notes: Infanticide; child abandonment; attempted murder; ableism everywhere.
2/5. Ekaterin is involved in an experimental project to try and cleanse the radioactive site where the Cetagandans dropped a dirty bomb decades ago. This unearths an ugly secret.
Hm. This is a good idea done without much of the richness I was expecting. This is a story that, by its shape, literally goes to the radioactive heart of this culture's ableism. Most of the story is set on the bomb site which started this supposed deep-rooted phobia of mutation. And yet it somehow manages to not … really … be about that? And I'm not sure how? Partly it's that Ekaterin drives this story, rather than Miles, though Miles is the one who personally owns the site and whose personal baggage re disability it encapsulates. That's fine – and it makes sense – but Ekaterin has basically nothing to say about disability or this culture's view of it that I found interesting or illuminating.
Also, here's my real problem. ( spoilers )
So yeah. I don't think this story is being honest about what ableism is and how it functions and how you combat it. And it feels that way – dishonest – rather than merely ignorant.
Content notes: Infanticide; child abandonment; attempted murder; ableism everywhere.