Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

So I want to write down my impressions while they're still there.

Started out navigating a city with a companion or companions (my mother? peers from my online life? That's foggy, but I remember the vague sense of being in conversation) in my motorized wheelchair -- not the one I currently have, but a mashup of previous chairs, and mostly like the chair I had in college and grad school.

Crossed the street and found the curb cuts okay (probably inspired by the opening to this video on YouTube, which I watched a bit before bed, last night)

We came to our destination, which was an historical building / museum of a former mansion/castle (there was some connection to Pre-Revolution French nobility... I think), where we were about to join a group tour.

And at first, I was really excited at the sight of a ramp right at the front, instead of around back, in an alleyway. But as I got there, it turned out that what I thought were ramps turned out to only be structural supports for the foundation, and the only real way to the opening exhibit was up a flight of stairs.

We complained to the woman leading the tour about how that wasn't fair, and she hand-waved away our complaints saying they'll just get people to carry me inside (a recurring feature of my almost-nightmares is how my subconscious just borrows whole cloth from my waking world experience)

The next scene I remember is everyone, including me, seated inside, at a banquet table, being served a multi-course dinner, and having conversations on various topics.

The conversation turned to disability representation in popular media (particularly TV and movies) and how some supposedly "positive" representation is actually detrimental, because it erases the actual discrimination that disabled people face, and makes systematic ableism seem like no big deal. And the example we used in conversation was the TV Cop procedural Ironside, with wheelchair-using IRL Raymond Burr as the title character.

And this is the point where the dream went semi-lucid, and I remember saying to myself: "Ooh! That's a great! I'm going to have to use that!"

And the reason it's detrimental was because although Ironside was a capable character who continued to be treated with respect and still able to do his job, even after becoming paralyzed and using a wheelchair, was that every set for every scene in the show was purposely built around his chair -- even one scene I watched where he was on an airplane, and able to wheel his regular manual wheelchair down the plane's central aisle. Every doorway, every hallway -- even in apartment buildings where suspects lived on the poor side of town -- was wide enough for him to get around independently. (I should probably make a dedicated post all out the special kind of copraganda in Ironside, someday -- thanks for reminding me, subconscious!)

And at this point in the dream conversation, I cited my mother (or maybe my mother was there and added this bit herself), as giving this kind of representation the name "Castle Representation" (probably because the setting for this dream was in a castle-turned-tourist-attraction that was nowhere near as accessible as it promised to be at first.

(And the lucid part of my mind said: "ooh! it has a name, now! That's Clever! Remember that!)*

And then the dream turned fragmentary, as people started to get up from the table, and going into other rooms, and coming back with dessert, or not, and the scenes jumped around to different POVs in seemingly random ways that can't be narrated coherently. So I'll stop here. At least I got down the bit I told myself to remember.

*Though, in the waking world, I think maybe "Set Dressing Representation" would be more fitting? What do you think?

Edited to add: Although, after going away, and having a second cup of coffee, I think I’ll keep calling “Castle Representation.” Honor the Dream! Also: A) it’s one word --simple. and B) a “Castle” is a thing that is built specifically for the monarch -- it’s a closed off space that’s a world apart from where the rest of the society lives -- just like how the fictional world for a disabled protagonist is purposely built for that character and that story, and is completely cut off from how real disabled people live in the real world.

So okay. Yes. “Castle Representation” it is, then.

I noticed that one of the employees at his news station (in the background, non-speaking part, but clearly there being busy doing her job) uses a motorized wheelchair.

...It's almost as if, now that he identifies as a PWD, the star at the center of the show wants to make the point that disabled people really are just part of the same world as everyone else..

The show was pleasant to watch -- one pre-review of it that I heard on the radio, earlier this week, was that it "Wasn't as funny as it should be, considering..." but that it would likely grow into itself. I can kind of see where the reviewer was coming from, but on the other hand, two thoughts:

I don't really know if there should be a "should be" -- what was he expecting? The same sort of sitcom humor that was written into Spin City, thirteen years ago (I had to look up its original run on Wikipedia, I was sure it was more like 20 years ago)? Different character, different situation, different sort of humor...

And I'm pretty sure that the humor at the TABs' expense(s), where people gush about how "inspirational" and "brave" he is, went right over his able-bodied privileged head...

In other news (less well advertised, I only found out about it when I went onto NBC's website to double-check the info on the MJF show): NBC is also rebooting their old Ironside series, with Blair Underwood (able-bodied actor) in the titular role (so they can show him being a "normal" cop in flashbacks). The official premier is October 3, but they're previewing the entire first episode online. It follows your typical "Vigilante Cop" trope, but the self-pity is kept to a minimum, no whining for a cure, and no push handles on his chair. And in one scene, he's the first person to spot a key piece of evidence, because he's got a different line of sight than the other detectives, and I thought that was a nice touch. So I'll probably reward NBC with my eyeballs for a few more episodes, yet...

So-- as I said, recently, YouTube has been recommending (after about a year's break) videos related to Chuck... Well, it turns out that the lead actor in the show (Zac Levi) has been, for the last three years, holding charity fundraising events at Comic-Con for Operation Smile called "Conversations for a Cause." He hosts/organizes panels in intimate spaces (rather than massive halls that hold 5,000+ people); entrance to these venues is $20, and the entire panel time is Q & A with the guests.

Here's one of the panels that streamed live, yesterday: Conversations for a Cause -- Doctor Who (Matt Smith, Jenna Louise Coleman, and Steven Moffat) -- Hosted by Nathan Fillion

~45 minutes

There was the original "Inspector Morse" series, from Colin Dexter's novels. Then, there came the "Inspector Lewis" spin-off. And, now, there's the prequel entitled "Endeavor" -- set in the 1960's about how the young Endeavor Morse grew into the white-haired Morse.

Anyway, I saw the first episode of "Endeavor," yesterday... And, while I enjoyed it quite a lot, I was reminded of an observation my mother made about the original series (which was family viewing): ( Cut for whopping, if generalized, spoilers ). It's a trend that seems to be continuing. :-/

And then I saw that Colin Dexter is contributing to the new series. So I wonder if that's a personal fiction kink of his...

Is this a special subset of the "manpain" trope?

So -- the big television news for the coming season, here in the States, is that Michael J. Fox is coming back to television in a sitcom which is also writing for (I think), as a fictionalized account of his life since leaving television due to having Parkinson's.

On the one hand: yay! Disability as portrayed by someone who lives it, rather than fantasizes about it. On the other hand, I've been apprehensive, because the network it's airing on (NBC) has done some terrible shows, like The Apprentice and Biggest Loser.

But I saw the official trailer for the show last night, and I'm now more hopeful. For one thing, it looks like at least some of the jokes will be about "TABs say the darnedest things, don't they?" It also looks like it's both set, and filmed in NYC (Hollywood versions of New York are faker than Dick van Dyke's cockney accent).

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

So – last night, I watched a repeat of the episode "the Final Frontier," and it was a great, fun episode, all about geek pride. The thing is, that the murder victim was shot (with a laser gun that was very much hand-waved), and "hidden" on a mockup of a television set spaceship and left overnight. … And no one noticed until a couple of fans decided to snoop around and take a closer look. Apparently in the "Castle" universe, human corpses have no smell.

I really do enjoy the series, until I think about it too hard; it's really just a fantasy for writers – all about how were really the smartest people in the room, which would be obvious, if only people would listen to us. Because after all, it's our job to think about everything .

And, I think I figured something out: The supposed "Special trait" that separates Modern Homo Sapiens from all other species of human, and non-human animals?

It's an obsessive psychological need to be separate from all other species of humans, and non-human animals. ...In other words, it's our bigotry. :-/

On the other hand, the conclusion voiced at the end of the episode (from one of the scientists interviewed) is that Neanderthals "disappeared" because they interbred with the Homo Sapiens who migrated into Europe, and got genetically absorbed (and the Neanderthal genes we [Europeans] inherited are the ones that control our immune systems). So that offers some hope that we really can "Make Love, Not War."

Peace forever, Baby!

Tonight, on the PBS program This Old House, the team of home renovators congratulated themselves on dismantling the ugly and cumbersome wheelchair ramp which the current owners of the house in question didn't need, and replaced it with a much more beautiful and welcoming brand new set of stairs.

The documentary that aired in the very next hour focused on the work and life of African American painters, and the struggles they've personally had to wage against racism in the professional Art World. The injustice of Segregation and Jim Crow laws, which codified in writing where individual people were allowed or forbidden to enter was mentioned more than once.

. . . . . . . . .

I trust you, Gentle Reader, can see where all the irony quotes should go without me actually typing them. Do I trust rightly?