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The Ship Who Sang 4: Prejudice and disability
There's a lot of prejudice highlighted in the book - most obviously the reactions of some people to the whole concept of brain ships and severe disability, but also a mirror process where brain ships are dismissive of some humans. Indeed, the whole brain/brawn nomenclature is potentially inflammatory (with the similarly fraught shellperson vs softshell in other books). Did this ring true for you or was it too much of a plot device?
Disability and in particular birth deformity features heavily. Some of the time the brain ships are seen as weak and in need of absolute protection, other times as stronger and more capable than other humans around. Did you find this done sympathetically or not? How have other authors tackled this subject?
Comments
Classic SF racism discussion couched in different terms. Far less heavy handed than aliens who are human looking except they are pitch black on one half of their bodies and snow white on the other and it it vitally important whether you are white on the left side or the right side... But pretty obvious. At least it is a prejudice that is not often highlighted, and that is a good thing. But it is of course a plot device. I'm happy just being not hit on the back of the head with a nine pound sledge.
Yeah, I found it interesting. I'm not especially in tune with these sorts of things, myself, so I didn't see much to offend. I think it's more than a plot device, but a theme that McCaffrey really wanted to explore in the stories. I mean, it didn't only act in moving plots forward. I'm now reading Blindsight and seeing some of the same. In Blindsight we have a whole crew of differently abled people, including a ship AI, a gestalt person, a sort of autistic narrator, a vampire (which species was brought back from extinction through DNA).
I think the prejudice is very much of its time, perhaps a counter to the then-prevailing view that physically disabled people are also mentally retarded and therefore can't have any agency ("Does he take sugar?"). Helva comes across as a confident and able person, so clearly goes against that idea.
There's also a lot of other reinforcement of other stereotypes, and some behaviour that would be unacceptable now: consider how much slapping and punching takes place as casual violence, as part of the normal interaction between conflicting colleagues. There's also a lot of sexism, and acceptance of traditional gender roles, in the way characters interact. But again, I think that's background that comes from the time, while McCaffery was dealing with other issues.