I’m sure there are mentally ill female characters in SFF, though offhand I’m struggling to think of any really obvious examples. Even in my own Hope and the Patient Man, Hope’s issues are framed as a magical curse, though it has definite psychological aspects to it.
Can anyone think of examples?
Originally shared by Cody Sisco
I appreciate this discussion of how female mentally ill characters are portrayed, and I understand and respect the writer’s decision to focus on female characters. But I don’t think mentally ill characters of any gender identity are often or well represented in fiction. What do you all think?
Progressive writers use them. Joanna Russ leaps to mind. Kathy Acker (if you want to count her as Spec Fic). I’m sure I can think of more. Didn’t LeGuin have at least one? Certainly Piercy.
PK Dick. All over the place. JG Ballard, Cordwainer Smith…
Progressive writers use them. Joanna Russ leaps to mind. Kathy Acker (if you want to count her as Spec Fic). I’m sure I can think of more. Didn’t LeGuin have at least one? Certainly Piercy.
PK Dick. All over the place. JG Ballard, Cordwainer Smith…
Harlan Ellison.
Harlan Ellison.
Morn Highland from Stephen Donaldson’s The Gap series.
Morn Highland from Stephen Donaldson’s The Gap series.
I have read Julian May, multiple times, though not for many years – yes, those are good examples. It’s even longer since I read Donaldson.
I think one of the characters in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary series is mentally ill (depression, mostly), but of course it’s hard to tell which characters in those books are actually female. And if addiction counts, then the cop in Max Gladstone’s first novel.
I have read Julian May, multiple times, though not for many years – yes, those are good examples. It’s even longer since I read Donaldson.
I think one of the characters in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary series is mentally ill (depression, mostly), but of course it’s hard to tell which characters in those books are actually female. And if addiction counts, then the cop in Max Gladstone’s first novel.
A Sickness in Time features two female protagonists with different forms of trauma, one PTSD and the other from domestic abuse
A Sickness in Time features two female protagonists with different forms of trauma, one PTSD and the other from domestic abuse