Man, I am awful
May. 7th, 2011 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terajkHave I told you how horrible I am to imaginary people? Let me tell you how horrible I am to imaginary people.
A while ago, I read this book about schizophrenia. On the one hand, it introduced me to a lot of cool activists and others with that label/diagnosis. On the other, I had to put up wit the book’s author, who positioned people with schizophrenia as totally helpless/unable to speak for themselves without his awesome assistance (all while, you know, quoting from people with schizophrenia who were speaking for themselves). He would say how terrible stigma was, and then say things like: “The medical system is more thought-disordered than the people it’s trying to help.” Repeatedly.
This book is 700 pages long.
Did I say to myself, “Gee, this book is terrible. I should take it back to the library”? No. What I said was, “Gee, this book is terrible. Hey, Azula! Come see how terrible this book is! Snark at this jerk so I can tolerate his awful book!” Then I read her 600+ pages of it, including the part about meds, which I totally could’ve skipped over and in which everything got worse. (People with schizophrenia aren’t violent unless it benefits my argument they don’t take meds, which obviously work wonders for everyone. And by the way, the people who don’t take their meds make the rest of you look bad--I swear to Bob I am not making this up, including the last bit. Had he said: “No one needs meds, ever!” it would’ve also been bad).
Now, I admit--because I’m horrible to imaginary people--that the whole thing opened up avenues of discussion that weren’t open before. Azula has an easier time verbalizing to me when she doesn’t like something than when she does. If an imaginary person has trouble telling me things in words, they can use a bell and a flashlight: as in, “Hey, do you like this?” Ding-ding-ding! (Azula uses them a lot.) The fiasco has led to: “All these fools notice is [hallucinations/delusions/etc.], whereas I’m more annoyed by/would like help with [various cognitive/attention-rationing stuff, which Tera may be understanding incorrectly], which they think is laziness because they are stupid.” Which has become an important plot (ha! plot!) point in my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
queer_fest fic.
So, because I am panicked over myqueer_fest fic and determined to write it, I got more potentially-faily books at the library. There was even another book by That Awful Dude which I almost got, but then Azula told me I’d used up my free pass and she would do something horrible to me if I made her read anything by that fool ever again.
But I totally almost checked it out. Totally.
A while ago, I read this book about schizophrenia. On the one hand, it introduced me to a lot of cool activists and others with that label/diagnosis. On the other, I had to put up wit the book’s author, who positioned people with schizophrenia as totally helpless/unable to speak for themselves without his awesome assistance (all while, you know, quoting from people with schizophrenia who were speaking for themselves). He would say how terrible stigma was, and then say things like: “The medical system is more thought-disordered than the people it’s trying to help.” Repeatedly.
This book is 700 pages long.
Did I say to myself, “Gee, this book is terrible. I should take it back to the library”? No. What I said was, “Gee, this book is terrible. Hey, Azula! Come see how terrible this book is! Snark at this jerk so I can tolerate his awful book!” Then I read her 600+ pages of it, including the part about meds, which I totally could’ve skipped over and in which everything got worse. (People with schizophrenia aren’t violent unless
Now, I admit--because I’m horrible to imaginary people--that the whole thing opened up avenues of discussion that weren’t open before. Azula has an easier time verbalizing to me when she doesn’t like something than when she does. If an imaginary person has trouble telling me things in words, they can use a bell and a flashlight: as in, “Hey, do you like this?” Ding-ding-ding! (Azula uses them a lot.) The fiasco has led to: “All these fools notice is [hallucinations/delusions/etc.], whereas I’m more annoyed by/would like help with [various cognitive/attention-rationing stuff, which Tera may be understanding incorrectly], which they think is laziness because they are stupid.” Which has become an important plot (ha! plot!) point in my
queer_fest fic.So, because I am panicked over my
queer_fest fic and determined to write it, I got more potentially-faily books at the library. There was even another book by That Awful Dude which I almost got, but then Azula told me I’d used up my free pass and she would do something horrible to me if I made her read anything by that fool ever again. But I totally almost checked it out. Totally.
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Date: 2011-05-08 08:29 am (UTC)PS: Who is Azula & have we been introduced?
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Date: 2011-05-08 12:18 pm (UTC)Azula is from the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I have totally just spoiled for you--eep! (That's her in my icon, and in the OP's icon, too). She is the #2 villain, and AWESOME. She is so awesome that I think she is scarier than the #1 villain. She is a princess and commands armies and has many cunning plans, and scares EVERYONE and can throw fire and lightning (I got off real easy with a warning), and once did A Thing most #1 villains don't even do and she's only 14 years old. She was like this (skip) before developing the mental illness.
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Date: 2011-05-09 02:11 am (UTC)And she's only FOURTEEN? Lord help us all when the hormones kick in. *readies fireproof foxhole*
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Date: 2011-05-09 02:23 am (UTC)I was washing dishes during her first official appearance, and she was so scary I had to stop washing dishes and watch, because I was like: "What? Did that just happen? Man, if cartoons were like this when I was a kid, I wouldn't have tried to sneak Friday the 13th so many times."
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Date: 2011-05-10 08:56 am (UTC)Especially Azula.
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Date: 2011-05-10 01:59 pm (UTC)