River Crabbe’s Reviews > How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom > Status Update

:o

Lol @joy I was popping off on goodreads with a hot take cos I was annoyed about it! But it's really rubbed me the wrong way: nothing I've read so far feels new, but is presented as though it's fresh while feeling out of dialogue with disablity theory that extends further than the identity politics focused movements of the last 15 years or so. It's like they're repackaging marxist critiques of productivity without actually referencing the lineage (and breadth) of this (and I'm certainly influenced by reading Empire of Normality at the same time). Relatedly, I'm not seeing a critique of the very idea of 'normal' so far, just a digging into the experience of being outside of it. This feels related to the misunderstanding of neurodiversity in which it's forgotten that the original argument was clear that normal is a fake idea meant to disempower us under capitalism.

I also think it's unhelpful to class all illness as disability. And untrue to say that everyone becomes disabled. There's a lot more I could say here about the fatalism of it. The original 'sick woman theory' doesn't feel meaningful, coz they're bringing in every marginalisation as a manifestation of 'sick woman'. It feels collapsing and like a unnecessary new way to talk about what is essentially just marginalisation as a result of the (false) construction of the normal body.

Omg I have so much more to say. I have a page of irritated notes in my journal and have been complaining to my partner about it a lot. But here's some disorganised rambles for your morning!

I haven’t read it (and won’t bother, I have better things to spend my very limited spoons on). But I’m here for your critique!