Characters With Invisible Disabilities
'Miraculously recover or die. That is the extent of our cultural bandwith for chronic illness.'
--S. Kelly Harrell
In spite of the fixation medical dramas have with rare diseases, Fictionland has a serious dearth of characters with health problems. If these characters appear, they generally have a very visible problem (ie, are completely blind, use a mobility device, are obviously mentally ill or intellectually challenged to the point of not functioning, etc); they are either shown as having superpowers, or as 'overcoming' their condition to 'inspirationally' do various ordinary things.
What we don't see a lot in fiction is characters who have a health condition, but mostly get on with supernatural detective work and/or bartending*. From a baldly utilitarian perspective, writers are missing out on a lot of good plotlines. By necessity, someone with a chronic health problem will have needs outside of the 'norm', and this can be used in all kinds of ways to advance, complicate, or add surprise to the plot. Maybe the character has gained medical knowledge from managing their condition, and use that to save the day; maybe it gives the villain a way to poison them while maintaining plausible deniability; maybe their plan gets derailed by a illness flare-up and they have to make a new scheme on the fly. Those are only a few possibilities.
The barrier, I think, is the 'recover or die' dichotomy in our collective conception of illness. The idea that someone could get used to managing a condition long-term and go about their daily lives in a reasonably normal way challenges that notion, but in my opinion, it's a notion well worth challenging.
*Career day in Urban Fantasy City must be very very short.
--S. Kelly Harrell
In spite of the fixation medical dramas have with rare diseases, Fictionland has a serious dearth of characters with health problems. If these characters appear, they generally have a very visible problem (ie, are completely blind, use a mobility device, are obviously mentally ill or intellectually challenged to the point of not functioning, etc); they are either shown as having superpowers, or as 'overcoming' their condition to 'inspirationally' do various ordinary things.
What we don't see a lot in fiction is characters who have a health condition, but mostly get on with supernatural detective work and/or bartending*. From a baldly utilitarian perspective, writers are missing out on a lot of good plotlines. By necessity, someone with a chronic health problem will have needs outside of the 'norm', and this can be used in all kinds of ways to advance, complicate, or add surprise to the plot. Maybe the character has gained medical knowledge from managing their condition, and use that to save the day; maybe it gives the villain a way to poison them while maintaining plausible deniability; maybe their plan gets derailed by a illness flare-up and they have to make a new scheme on the fly. Those are only a few possibilities.
The barrier, I think, is the 'recover or die' dichotomy in our collective conception of illness. The idea that someone could get used to managing a condition long-term and go about their daily lives in a reasonably normal way challenges that notion, but in my opinion, it's a notion well worth challenging.
*Career day in Urban Fantasy City must be very very short.
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