You are never to speak to that woman again. What a stupid thing to think.
Morit never truly understood and accepted Keiya for who she was
46 Matching Annotations
- Sep 2025
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strangehorizons.com strangehorizons.com
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I dumped my girlfriend, she was fucking eugenics on the side. And then you'd get sympathy. The crowd would go, Aww, Keiya, I'm so sorry. Your girlfriend is a sack of trash. And she'd go, Hey! I work with trash for a living. That's an insult to my chosen discipline.
I get the vibe that the author has inserted elements of her personal life into this story and put her own emotions into it
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But Morit isn't gonna change. That's the sad part. They're afraid of you but you have no power; they see you big and looming like a monster and they take your keyboard, last kernel of defense you've got left.
When people don't think you are capable of standing up for yourself, they knock you down as much as they can
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If society treats us as people, then we will be people. Kindergarten justice but it's hard for Importants to grasp.
Connects to the neurodiversity paradigm
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Because, see, herein lies the rub. When they think you're useless, they want you dead. But when they start to consider you useful:
Power dynamics, Keiya has more power than others with disabilities within her society have been a leader
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She hits herself in the head, hard with her knuckles, until her forehead has these indentations and bruises. That happens a lot. She goes to get the docbot to clean her up.
could be her stimming
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affirmative action for Persons With Disabilities.
Very reminiscent in our world today with affirmative action policies held in institutions like colleges and workplaces, have been dismantled though due to the Supreme Court's overturning
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Nash is written down in the medical papers as Keiya's Special Interest.
Many of those who are neurodivergent often have special interests, or hyperfixations, that give them comfort
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She laughs in her room, crazy-maniacal laugh she's seen doctors be afraid of, alone at her desk with her feet swinging. Keiya is only 1.5 meters tall.
People do not want to interact with Keiya because her differences make them fear her.
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So, in theory yes. But really, no.
This story is in third person omniscient, as we are able to know Keiya's thoughts
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It's not her fault, of course
Says it's not her fault while also shaming her and making her feel inferior
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www.jstor.org www.jstor.org
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I was convinced that somehow if I turned, I would see myselfstanding there, gray and old, growing small in the distance, vanishing.418This content downloaded from 38.111.224.51 on Thu, 25 Sep 2025 01:02:46 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
seeing Lynn as her possible future
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trusts me the way any blind person would
Forcing the message that disabled people have to live their lives a certain way through limits
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k with us,
Beatrice is trying to tell Alan that he needs control and help and cannot live his life alone
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Shit!"
Alan sees what the future could be for him and Lynn, realizes that it's all a trap
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are very rare commodities, you and I. Whenyou finish school you'll have a very well paid job waiting for yo
More power dynamics, portraying women with DGD as superior and better
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or no reason I could explain,I looked at Beatric
Lynn is afraid of Naomi as she is an example of what she could become in the future
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hings those places took good care of were the maggots, the cockroaches, and t
Similar to the asylums that disabled people were put in years ago
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s hardly a bad characteristic, is it?
Sounds like people in our society when they refer to disabilities as "special needs" in an attempt to sound nice, they instead sound ableist and offensive,
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Yes
She was dead
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s and much more. Our people work instead of tearingat themselves or staring into space. One of them invented the p.v. locks that protectthis place. Though I almost wish he hadn't. It's gotten us more government attentio
DGDs seen as "gifted" and "special," similar to how individuals on the autism spectrum tend to be better than average academically despite the condition often being seen negatively
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cally, they had even owned part of thelate, unlamented Hedeon Laboratories.
Those that created the disease are now working to cure it and keep it from worsening, shows how those in power have total control
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let them thrive in th
Could symbolize how DGDs try to live their lives normally by working and going to college despite constantly living on edge behind the scenes knowing they could drift at any moment.
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ould be likekilling part of yourself-even though it wasn't a part you intended to use. Killi
There is such a stigma against DGDs having children that the narrator and others never even consider it a possibility
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eword meant a kind of guardian angel or personal god. He sa
Because of the bond the narrator builds with Alan, they are kind of like eachothers guardians as the disease progresses and changes within each of them
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e was a special-education major whohoped the handicapped would accept her more readily than the able-bodied,
This part, which mentions how DGDs are at the bottom of the power pyramind with those who are handicapped and non handicapped, makes me think of Nick Walkers piece on neurodiversity, specifically when he talks about neurominorities. DGDs are the neurominorities in this world amid other neurodivergent individuals.
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n't eat in public anymore, didn'tlike the way people stared at my biscuits-cleverly dubbed "dog biscuits" in everyschool I'd ever attended. Y
Narrator can't exist without her condition constantly being brought up. Connects to the Spoon Theory, as she must always think about having DGD and adjust her routine for it (ex. wearing an emblem, eating biscuits)
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I can't say why I went to college-except that I had been going to school all my lifeand I didn't know what else to do. I didn't go with any particular hope. Hell, I
The narrator limits herself and her abilities due to her disability; views life as something that could end or be destroyed within an instant.
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Duryea-Code Disease Foundation has spent millionstelling the world that people like my father don't exist
Shows that there are power dynamics within those who have the disease, more severe cases, such as the narrators father, get discarded from activism.
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le normally injure only themselves when theirtime comes-unless someone is stupid enough to try to handle them without th
Doesn't state exactly what the disease is, but describes it enough for the reader to gage what it is: a condition where you try to mutilate and kill yourself
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enough to say that when they brought me home, Icut my wrists.
Brings you right into the harsh reality of the disease
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thelondonmagazine.org thelondonmagazine.org
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‘Never thought anything like this could happen in your lifetime, did you, bub? Well, it’s a strange life, we all know that. Go on now. Keep it up.’
Robert coaches the husband, takes control
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The truth is, cathedrals don’t mean anything special to me. Nothing. Cathedrals. They’re something to look at on late-night TV. That’s all they are.’
In the end, Robert shows him that there is something special in Cathedrals, which leads him to the mindset that everything, no matter how dull it may seem, has something special to offer.
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Sometimes the cathedrals have devils and such carved into the front. Sometimes lords and ladies. Don’t ask me why this is,
The cathedrals have all kinds of figures and people, ties into message of inclusion
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But say my life depended on it. Say my life being threatened by an insane guy who said I had to do it or else.
The husband believes that if he shows Robert the cathedral he'll be a martyr, pities him
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The men who began their life’s work on them, they never lived to see the completion of their work. In that wise, bub, they’re no different from the rest of us, right?’
Relates to the message of the story, that those who are disabled are just as human as those who are nondisabled
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‘Bub
Robert calls the husband "bub" like he is a mentor to the husband, takes power in the conversation
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‘I do now, my dear. There’s a first time for everything. But I don’t feel anything yet.’
Robert is almost like a fatherly figure in the wife's life, she takes care of him like he's her elderly father.
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But I heard nothing of the sort. More talk of Robert
The husband is ashamed that he feels jealous of Robert because he doesn't view him as capable.
Starts to refer to him as Robert in this point because he takes up more of a presence in the husbands life
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We didn’t talk. We ate. We scarfed. We grazed that table. We were into serious eating.
Emphasizes eating in this section as it avoids from conversation the husband isn't eager to have with Robert, gives him a break from socialization
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But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything.
The husband finally looks outside of his own narrow view of the world and begins to view the world in an open perspective.
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All this without his having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like.
Sees disabled individuals as helpless and incapable of living a "normal" life, relies on his implicit bias and harmful stereotypes in shaping the world around him.
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‘Was his wife a negro?’ I asked.
The husband's language in here reflects the racist language commonly used in the 80's when this piece was written.
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I heard my own name in the mouth of this stranger, this blind man I didn’t even know! And then this: ‘From all you’ve said about him, I can only conclude – ’ But we were interrupted, a knock at the door, something, and we didn’t ever get back to the tape. Maybe it was just as well. I’d heard all I wanted to.
Is not open to other experiences, has a narrow view of the world
Shows hostility by repeatedly calling the blind man "blind man" and "stranger" rather than his actual name.
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How do I know these things?
The fact that the husband asks this question shows that he believes others would be skeptical of his wife's friendship with the blind man.
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He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me
You can really see the husband's bias in this line. He views himself as above this blind man since he is nondisabled.
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