Tools to help you think: Intersections between disability studies and the writings of Samuel R. Delany

Abstract

Disability as a form of human difference is a theme woven throughout the genre of science fiction (SF). Characters who have disabilities, or who encounter disability communities, often cast much-needed light on the social and cultural forces at work in creating disability oppression and liberation (Verlager). Samuel R. Delany ranks among the foremost practitioners and critics of socially conscious SF, and his writing refutes the stereotypical view that SF is inferior in aesthetic and social value to “realistic” fiction. He characterizes SF in terms of its unique ability to create “unreal worlds, [in which] chords are sounded in total sympathy with the real” (“About 5,750 Words” 29). According to Delany, quality SF writing entails a “significant distortion of the present that sets up a rich and complex dialogue with the reader’s here and now” (“Dichtung und Science Fiction” 176).