#a wizard alone

[thistlewhistler]

Tom stretched and leaned back in his chair. "Could be. There are people in our world who've made a tremendous difference but who would have died in another time. In this time, people every day are making choices of who should live and die on the basis of criteria like whether you're going to be the 'right' sex, or whether your whole body is going to work perfectly. Who knows how we may damage ourselves if we insist too hard on what, this week, looks like perfection."

~Diane Duane, A Wizard Alone

First published 2002.

[untilbirdsflytothesun]

I finished A Wizard Alone!!!

[spectre-squared]

been reading A Wizard Alone and I finally figured out who I've been imagining as Kit's mom:

[first--lines]

In a living room of a suburban house on Long Island, a wizard sat with a TV remote control in his hand, and an annoyed expression on his face. “Come on,” he said to the remote. “Don’t give me grief.”

  —  A Wizard Alone (Diane Duane)

[fiction-quotes]

Nita nodded. “I never thought that goodness could be so tough,” she said. “So strong. But then again...I guess goodness isn't something I'd think about a whole lot, anyway. Nobody uses the word much unless it's in a commercial, and then they're just trying to convince you that something has a lot of milk in it.”

Carl nodded, looking wry. “Virtue,” he said. “The real thing. It's not some kind of cuddly teddy bear you can keep on the shelf until you need a hug. It's dangerous, which is why it makes people so nervous. Virtue has its own agenda, and believe me, it's not always yours. The word itself means strength, power. And when it gets loose, you'd better watch out.”

“Something bad might happen...”

“Impossible. But possibly something painful.”

  —  A Wizard Alone (Diane Duane)

[dduane]

I just read the synopsis of A Wizard Alone because I couldn't remember if I read it or not, and oh my God the cringe. Speaking is an autistic adult, that was not your best work. The autistic character "escapes his autism"? Yikes. Triple yikes. Quadruple yikes. Don't even get me started on him being an abdal. I'm not going to be reading that book, sorry.

First of all: my apologies for the way the original edition came out. And also: no one could blame you for wanting to avoid a book with such a description.

Meanwhile: I think it's possible that news of the book's rewrite may have missed you.

Two sources for info about this (and others are out there, if you feel inclined to seek them out):

https://www.ada-hoffmann.com/2018/05/24/vintage-autistic-book-party-episode-9-a-wizard-alone-new-millennium-edition/

https://disabilityinkidlit.com/2015/04/29/review-a-wizard-alone-by-diane-duane/

Thanks.

[lindensea]

"Nita gave her sister a very slight smile. 'Better it should kill me than Kit,' she said."

👀😭 I just have lots of thoughts about Nita and Kit and their Bond™️

[custori]

Finished A wizard alone today. I don’t think that it's a bad book, had some cool bits, but it left me feeling kinda iffy with how Darryls autism was handled, especially the ending. Though I heard that the book was rewritten or something? I wonder how the author handled it this time. Might try looking for the new version.