In speculative fiction, bodies are often understood and utilized as sites of the spectacular. This is particularly pertinent in representations of disability in speculative narratives. Speculative fiction “is in a position to literalize the idea of disability and the disabled body, as an avenue of meaning” (Parisien 131). This can be both beneficial and harmful for disabled communities. When disability is used as a metaphor rather than an embodied identity, this is often referred to as “narrative prosthesis." This is harmful to disabled people because such representations inform how we think about disabled people in the now. When we think of disability only as representative of something else, we forget that disability is a real and embodied identity for many people. Yet, scholars such as Sami Schalk point out that metaphorical representations of disability can be beneficial to disabled folks as well:
It is imperative from an intersectional perspective to read for the possible metaphorical, allegorical, or otherwise abstract ways in which the fictional representation of disability alludes to race, gender, class, and sexuality as well. At the same time, to read the representation of disability as primarily a metaphor for race, gender, class, or sexuality would be to ignore (dis)ability’s role in the historical realities of these mutually constitutive social systems and to erase the presence and importance of disabled people within other marginalized groups. (Schalk, Bodyminds Reimagined 40)
The texts that I have included in this section all utilize speculative elements in order to explore the intersections of the fantastic, the disabled body, and other marginalized identities. “Real Women Have Bodies” by Carmen Maria Machado challenges our notions of disability, gender, and what constitutes the body itself. The Fever King by Victoria Lee explores magic as both the cause of disability and the site of extraordinary ability. Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve makes the fantastic a site of disability, and explores how the loss of magic in a magical world can be disabling. Schrieve’s text also has some great parallels between the (literal) decaying body and gender dysphoria. Lastly, Kai Cheng Thom’s story, “What You Sow,” examines the magic of trans bodies and the ways that such magic can be and often is capitalized.
Each of these narratives employs a blended approach to disability and metaphor. They explore the tensions between magic, gender, queerness, and disability through speculation. They examine and explore both the lived experience of queer disabled communities and the metaphorical possibilities for representing and understanding disability through embodied magic.