Neurodivergent Communities in THE FALLEN
Everything Is True
Ada Hoffmann's author newsletter
Much of the action in THE FALLEN centers around a group of characters - Yasira, Tiv, and seven others - who share certain things in common. They're all (except Tiv) former students of Evianna Talirr's, who have been touched in some way by Outside. They're all former prisoners of Akavi. They're all some form of neurodivergent and/or mentally ill, either because of Outside and trauma or in pre-existing ways. (Tiv is less so, but even Tiv, to some extent, has trauma.) They're also running a planetary resistance movement! And what I've heard from disabled readers who liked THE FALLEN- is that they really like how this group of people is portrayed, as a mutually supportive neurodivergent community.
Neurodivergent people often band together in real life, of course (minus the planetary resistance). We're more likely to feel close and supportive with people similar to us than we are with neurotypicals. It doesn't always work out, but when neurodivergent communities work well and last for a significant time, I've found they have particular traits which the Seven, in THE FALLEN, also have.
Shared Struggle and Support
The Seven all face different challenges. Some of them have relatively little difficulty with the tasks of daily life; some of them have difficulty even getting out of bed. They're able to empathize with each other because they've all been through something similar. They all have some sense of what the struggle is like.
Some people who have less difficulty, particularly Tiv, are chosen by the group to take a leadership role. But it isn't a group with a sharp divide between Sad People Who Need Care and Healthy People Who Will Take Care Of Them. Instead, all of them need care from each other - even Tiv, who breaks down after a violent incident on the planet's surface and receives support from the others.
Some of the people who give the most care are also among the most impaired. Splió spi Munu, for instance, has debilitating depression that affects how much work he can do for the group. But he frequently counsels Tiv and spends a lot of time caring for his non-speaking partner Daeis. Care is a big part of what Splió has to give, even when he's too depressed to do much else, so he gives it.
Shared Goals
The Seven are working together on something very important - they want to keep the people of the Chaos Zone alive! Their goal is not just to “be a community,” but to pursue their resistance and protect the people they feel responsible for. They have regular, somewhat formal meetings to keep track of their progress towards this goal, as well as what stands in their way, and what might need to change.
In real life, a group might have a more modest goal. They might be activists for disability justice; they might be a support group, in the sense that their goal is to work on their mental health together. It also might be something light and mundane, like a shared hobby. But in my experience, all successful neurodivergent communities have some goal in mind. "You have this disability, Joe has the same disability, you and Joe should be friends" has never worked for me. There needs to be a shared purpose beyond this. There needs to be something the group is doing.
Structure and Flexibility
The Seven are careful about how they divide up work, and they make realistic adjustments for people's needs. Some of the Seven's work involves the resistance movement directly - gathering supplies, for instance, and distributing them to the people who need them most. Other tasks are the mundane work of living in a household.
There's no complaining about people "pulling their weight." When someone isn't able to do as much work as others, either temporarily or on an ongoing basis, the other team members adjust accordingly without blame. At the same time, everyone is sincerely trying to contribute, and there are schedules and structures that help them to do so. Maybe this is a "me" thing - my neurotype is very much about structure - but I find that when people are completely loosey-goosey, and say "Oh, you're disabled, so just do whatever whenever you have the energy for it I guess," that doesn't work very well. It becomes hard for the disabled person to know what's expected of them, and hard for the people around them to know what they can expect. With the Seven, each person agrees to what they feel capable of contributing that day and the schedule is organized based on that agreement. It helps that one member of the team, called Grid, is very good at that kind of organizing!
Where the group does go somewhat wrong is specifically when they fall down at this task. Yasira, at the beginning of the book, is extremely ill and more or less bedridden. As a result, the group stops telling her about crucial parts of their work - reasoning that it would be “too much” and would make her mental illness worse. When Yasira finds out about this, she rightly feels betrayed, and the group has to very quickly adjust.
Tolerance For Conflict
The Seven have reasons to disagree with each other, often in highly emotional situations. Even at the beginning of the book, they are divided in their opinions over whether their resistance movement should provide weapons to mortals, or whether they should only facilitate peaceful resistance. However, despite all of their disagreements they are able to remember their common goals. People aren't shouted down or kicked out for disagreeing, even bitterly - but they do have to adhere to the group’s consensus about what they can and can’t do right now.
Part of this is because the Seven really are working for a common purpose. Another part is because of the structures they have in place. Tiv, in her leadership role, hears out disagreements but also is able to stop or refocus the debate when necessary. If things get too acrimonious, or start going in circles or onto tangents, Tiv is able to set things back in order - and the rest of the Seven trust her enough to listen to her. Meanwhile Tiv is very aware of the power this gives her and the ways it could be abused, and is constantly trying to be as circumspect as possible.
What other traits have you found are important in order for neurodivergent communities to thrive?