Here's how to productively pan a book

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks to the Disability Studies in the Humanities listserv, I found this wonderful review from my hometown paper I would have otherwise missed.

Katherine Schneider is a retired psychologist, who coordinated psychologist training at UW Eau Claire. When she criticizes how blind people are portrayed in the book she's to assigned review, she suggests three books which address the same issues and handle blindness adroitly. It's a very effective technique, and one I want to deploy in future discussions (and protests).

Just Read It | Katherine Schneider : WSJ

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In many blindness fictions, blind women show up as someone needing to be cared for and unacquainted with the realities of the world. If your taste runs to romantic fiction, instead of reading Danielle Steele's "A Perfect Life," why not try "The Unexpected Gift" by Berna King. The author is blind and gets the details right about two blind characters. Blindness is part of their lives and people's sometimes misguided attitudes about their blindnesses are also just part of their lives.

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Comments

[chanter1944]

Little me says yay! to accurate portrayals of people like me. :) Now I want to see someone get a blind ace* right in fiction.

*ace as in asexual, although if they're somebody's, let's say, ace war correspondent, all the cooler

[davidgillon]

Yeah, I read a pretty poor example last year, basically an SF romance, with a blind character, you certainly couldn't call her a heroine, who completely lacked agency, until she was 'cured', at which point she turned into a standard issue heroine. Pretty much an instruction manual in how not to do it.