David Wooddell
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
As you know, I'm a long-time fan of your books. I've often wondered why you created two of your major characters with physical disabilities? I'm referring to Dag in the Sharing Knife books, and Miles in the Vorkosigan series. The characters have made me think about the limits of human experience (as well as my own limits.) - David W. Wooddell
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can't actually answer that, as they both walked on stage as-is, and could never have been any other way.
So it was never a matter of "I am interested in writing about disabilities, therefore I will compose these characters to frame those issues," but rather, "Huh. That's one way to slow him down a bit. So what is he going to do now? Let's see what happens..."
The first reader to point out that I was writing about disabilities actually fastened on the quaddies, whom I did not think of as handicapped at all, but rather, hyper-adapted -- as long as they were in the right environment. We had some really interesting early exchanges on the subject.
Ta, L.
So it was never a matter of "I am interested in writing about disabilities, therefore I will compose these characters to frame those issues," but rather, "Huh. That's one way to slow him down a bit. So what is he going to do now? Let's see what happens..."
The first reader to point out that I was writing about disabilities actually fastened on the quaddies, whom I did not think of as handicapped at all, but rather, hyper-adapted -- as long as they were in the right environment. We had some really interesting early exchanges on the subject.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Alealea
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
So rereading Penric and the Fox, the first scene kinda of made me think about Memory and Miles ans Simon fishing scene... and it made me wonder about it. Fishing for these two set of characters seemed to be the perfect excuse to drink cold alcoholic beverage under the sun. I've never fished in my life so I have no clue, but I wondered where it comes from ? Personnal experience, inside joke, writer's licence?
David Abramowitz
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I just finished Penric and the Bandit, and loved Penric's role as a divine in Roz's journey. I also found it interesting that compared to early days Penric seems less sorrowful about the damage he has to do to others. One question I had was the reminder of the number of Orban sorcerers, incl. Alixtra Dubro and Ota. Is there a supervisor of sorcerors in Dogrita? How does Pen relate to him/her?
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