Novel Characters with Disabilities: Postsingular, by Rudy Rucker

I love reading novels, particularly fantasy and science fiction. Too often, a character with a disability is either a. tragic, b. inspirational, or c. the narrative is focused on the person's disability to the exclusion of any personality traits, hobbies, feelings, or interests. There are numerous exceptions to this, but they are still quite rare. The interesting, well-developed character who has a disability is practically on the endangered species list.

I recently read a book that made me want to shout its name from the rooftops! There are eight or so main characters, and one of them has autism. He was a fully realized character, he was a hero, and he was definitely autistic. The book is Postsingular, by Rudy Rucker (Tor Books, 2007). It can be found in any bookstore or downloaded for free from Rudy's website.

The novel starts out with Chu as a little boy. Chu has autism. He can only repeat words that he hears, but he cannot use them purposefully. He throws tantrums daily and he loves tv and videogames. The work of caring for him puts a strain on his parents' marriage. His father says to his mother, of Chu's future,

“Don’t give up,” said Ond, reaching out to smooth the furrow between Nektar’s eyebrows. “He might get better on his own. Vitamins, special education—and later I bet I can teach him to write code.”

“I’m going to pray,” said Nektar. “And not let him watch so much video.”

As Chu grows up in the book, he learns to express himself verbally, his intelligence shines through, and he makes some friends. All these details are very typical of kids with autism. When nanobots are destroying the earth, Chu's father asks him to memorize a very long string of code, a sort of computer virus, that can reverse the damage that's been done. Chu takes his task very seriously. He is able to save the world (I'm not giving away the ending--the world-saving takes place in the first few chapters!) thanks to his memory and persistence.

He laid his sheaf of papers down beside Chu, thirty pages covered with line after line of hexadecimal code blocks: 02A1B59F, 9812D007, 70FFDEF6, like that.

“Read the code,” he told Chu. “See if you can memorize it. These pages are yours now.”

“Code,” said Chu, his eyes fastening on the symbols...

Chu was oddly unconcerned with the apocalypse. He was busy, busy, busy studying Ond’s pages of code. He’d become obsessed with the challenge of learning every single block of symbols...

“02A1B59F, 9812D007, 70FFDEF6,” said Chu when Nektar went to tuck him in that night. He had Ond’s sheaf of pages with a flashlight under his blanket.

“Give me that,” said Nektar, trying to take the pages away from him.

“Daddy!” screamed Chu, a word he’d never used before. “Stop her! I’m not done!”

So Chu is a genius that saves the world. He's also just a teenager: awkward, struggling with his emotions, falling in love, occasionally being a jerk, sometimes brave, always protective of his friends and family. This scene shows a teenaged Chu, on a mission with his father and another character in a parallel universe:

“Thuy misses her boyfriend,” said Chu in a bratty tone.

“I’m worried about him, okay?” said Thuy...what if he was dead? What if that...was to be Thuy and Jayjay’s last time together? “I’m capable of worrying about other people, Chu. You could learn from me.”

“It’s not my fault I’m autistic,” said Chu, making his voice very small.

“Don’t pick on him,” said Ond. “It’s not easy being Chu.”

“Sorry,” said Thuy. “I’m all keyed up.”

This is why I enjoyed his character so much. Chu is just a regular kid, who is autistic. It's that simple. The only other books I am aware of with interesting autistic characters are "The Speed of Dark" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time."

As for the book overall, I LOVED it! I would highly recommend it to anyone. Rudy Rucker writes science fiction with really "out there" wild ideas. He will have your brain spinning by the end of chapter one. The ideas are complicated and yet very easy to read and understand. There is also nonstop action. Mr. Rucker has a great sense of humor and strong sense of empathy for all his characters. Start reading it right now! You will be hooked right away.

ETA: My post mentioned in Rudy's blog. And again in Rudy's blog.

Image: The book cover: it reads 'Rudy Rucker, Postsingular'. The cover is green and shows a purple cuttlefish (like an octopus) falling into a sort of mathematical black hole.

Getting back on the bike

At one point in my life, I was very athletic. At this moment in time, however, I am what Eric Cartman would call "Festively Plump." I decided I needed to do a good thing for myself and a good thing for an organization that I love to support as well. So I've signed up for the 14th Annual USARC Peak-to-Peak Pedal, a 335-mile bicycle ride from Big Bear to Mammoth in California.

I used to do road bike racing back in high school, and I do still have my old road bike and shoes, so that's one thing going for me. The idea of pulling on some spandex shorts and flailing away on the old bike is at once horrifying and very motivating. Horrifying because I am out of shape and...well...spandex! Motivating because I realized I wanted to sign up for this but I didn't know if I could do it. I decided since I was passionate about adaptive skiing, my enthusiasm could spill over into this ride. I started training last week. So far so good. My folks are mailing my old bike on Monday. My cyclist friend J has taken pity on me and agreed to take me on training rides.

My goal is to fundraise $1800 for USARC (The US Adaptive Recreation Center). USARC provides adaptive skiing, waterskiing, camping, and other outdoor sports for children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities. They are based in Big Bear, California. It's a wonderful program that changes lives. Their website states,

The USARC believes people are empowered when they undertake and succeed at challenging outdoor recreation. These experiences often result in increased self-confidence and greater success in academic, professional and personal life challenges.

In other words, opportunities to play in the outdoors, skiing and camping, are far more than just recreation. They represent a chance to build skills and self-esteem to help people achieve goals in every aspect of their lives.

Please visit my secure donation page-as a bonus you'll see a rather silly photo of me in ski helmet and goggles. Even if you can only donate a small amount, it still means a lot to the kids and adults who participate in USARC programs. Plus, all donations are tax deductible!

For those who live in or near Los Angeles County (or will be passing through any time this year), if you make a donation to USARC, I will bake you a delicious treat to say thanks! I am known far and wide for my baking prowess. If you donate to USARC:
$25, I will make you chocolate chip cookies, $50, I will make you cupcakes or scones (your choice of flavors), $100, I will make you a frosted double layer cake (your choice of flavors).

If you'd like to share this page with anyone who might be able to donate, click the little envelope icon at the bottom of the post or direct them to http://impossibleuniverse.blogspot.com/2008/05/getting-back-on-bike.html

Thanks for reading. If you want to know more about USARC or the Peak-to-Peak Pedal, please leave me a comment. If you have any training tips for this poor out-of-shape girl, those are also welcome!

Image: A little kid with a bowl haircut riding a red bicycle with training wheels. He is sticking out his tongue and he is wearing a red helmet. His bike has yellow wheels and a horn shaped like a duck.

Odds and Ends, NY Times Redeems Itself

I missed lots of interesting stories over the weekend because I was in Las Vegas. My good friend JB was playing in a baseball tournament so we went to cheer him on and be tourists as well. I had a great time and at the baseball game I met one of the stars from one of my favorite tv shows, Grey's Anatomy. She was hilarious and awesome and she was nice enough to let me take a photo with her. Most actors are much less attractive in-person than on-screen, but she was even more beautiful in person!

First off, the NY Times has fairly dazzled me with an article about a US soldier with a severe brain injury. Many more soldiers in this war are surviving serious injuries because of better helmet and armor technology. This means there are more vets with disabilities than ever. The soldier profiled was in a Hum-vee that drove over an anti-tank mine. The brain "rattling" he received caused severe disability. He has very little independent movement and he cannot speak. He has what I have sometimes heard called "locked-in syndrome," someone of typical intelligence who cannot speak and communicates only with great difficulty.

I would highly recommend you read this entire article. The article talks about the soldier Shurvon, his injury, his progress in rehab, how he fits into his family, how his mother acts as his caregiver, and his options for communicating. Shurvon communicates only using his eyes. The author of the pieces writes a lot about how expressive Shurvon is with his eyes.

The article is also pretty amazing because the author exposes his own prejudices towards people with severe disabilities, and in doing so makes the reader confront their own beliefs. To me, it is brave to come out and admit that your preconceived notions were wrong and that you have changed them. Well done, Daniel Bergner! This seems like the type of story that can change the way people see people with disabilities:

I thought that there seemed little reason that Shurvon couldn’t someday earn a master’s degree. But at other moments the reasons appeared too immense ever to be overcome; the notion of college, let alone graduate school, seemed merely a soothing fantasy. And sometimes impossible to overcome, too, was the idea that Shurvon’s life might not be worth living; that I, in his place, would rather stop breathing, cease thinking, that I would prefer to die.

Whenever this idea took hold, I recalled a medical ethicist at R.I.C. telling me about studies showing that doctors and nurses tend to rate the quality of life of severely impaired patients to be far lower than the patients do themselves. The ethicist had spoken, then, about the ways that a life acquires meaning.

Next up, this month's "Paddler" magazine has an article about a kayaker who is a paraplegic. A kayaker buddy sent it to me. I'll give you a quote from the story. His raft guide is telling him that he will be able to handle an inflatable kayak on the river, despite his poor balance:

“Trust me,” he winked.

I asked him if he’d ever taught a paraplegic to whitewater kayak and he said he’d never had the opportunity. This was all I needed to hear.

I didn’t demo an inflatable kayak to ensure that I, a paraplegic, could safely paddle. I just bought one.

Weighing in on the Oscar Pistorius Olympics debate is bioethicist Art Caplan, and Paralympian/marathoner (and fellow Stanford alum!) Cheri Blauwet. They have different backgrounds and they both make very interesting points that you won't have heard already in the news. Cheri writes,

I feel that we are being extremely short-sighted to simply say "well...he doesn't have anyone to compete against." With the right resources and investment into grassroots development, we could have hundreds of talented athletes ready by the Paralympics in London 2012.

Medical tech blog medGadget reports on a new device to help people with severe visual impairment see better. The "Sightmate" helps users use the vision that they do have. It also makes you look awesome like Geordi La Forge.

Image: Levar Burton, playing the Star Trek character Geordi La Forge. A youngish handsome black man in a black and yellow uniform shirt with narrow wrap-around futuristic glasses.

Awesome Accessibility at My Gym

I just joined a new gym, LA Fitness. Last night, I visited a new branch of it in a different part of town. I was very impressed with what they had done to make the place accessible to people with mobility impairments. To enter the gym, you have to go to the second floor of a shopping center. There is a really long and goofy-looking staircase to the entrance for this purpose. There is also an elevator in the front that goes straight to the front desk of the gym. Cool.

Once inside, weights are on the main floor, and cardio machines are upstairs. There is a staircase to the cardio machines, but no elevator. I wandered around up there, but all the bikes were occupied. I noticed downstairs, tucked into the hallway beside the squash courts, there were some cardio machines. There were two bikes, 3 stairclimbers, 4 treadmills, and 6 elliptical machines. I didn't know why they were there, but both bikes were free so I hopped on.

While I was working out, I glanced around and noticed the ramp connecting this area to the rest of the gym. Then I spotted that the treadmill next to me had the "blue guy in a wheelchair" sticker on it that said "This piece of equipment is reserved for people with disabilities" or something similar. I was quite impressed. A lot of places wouldn't consider creating disabled access to treadmills and bikes. But there are lots of people who might use a wheelchair AND want to use the cardio machines. Well thought out and well executed. Yay for you, LA Fitness.

As far as complete physical accessibility, I couldn't say for sure. The gym and the locker room are VERY spacious, and there are low lockers. I am not knowledgeable about wheelchair-accessible weight machines so I couldn't tell you.

In other news, I think this is hilarious.

Image: Line drawing of a person in a wheelchair triumphantly raising a carrot and a head of lettuce over their head. A dog sits next to him and the caption reads "Another satisfied customer."

"When can I get my cybernetic transformation underway?"

A biology researcher at the sci-fi blog io9 tells us all about cutting edge and future technology that will help people with disabilities. It's a nice overview with lots of good links. Check it out!
I was feeling left out of the cyborg revolution until I remembered that I became a cyborg child at the tender age of 3. My cyborg parts, although tiny, greatly reduced the frequency of chronic ear infections, ensuring that I could hear my teachers most of the time while I was in school, thus making me a more successful student! Alas, my artificial parts fell out sometime later, leaving scars on my tympanic membranes (eardrums!). As technology becomes more advanced and people live longer, more and more of us will be joining the mighty cybernetic army. What cyborg parts do you have?

Image: Luke Skywalker's artificial hand, with its access hatch open.