“And Then, You Start Feeling Sharp”: The First Science Fiction Character Based on a Paralympic Athlete

This essay is focused on discourses surrounding disability within an Italian science fiction novel entitled BeBlade, a unique publishing initiative written by Pierdomenico Baccalario (2018). The co-protagonist, in fact, is based on a young, wheelchair-using fencer and Paralympic athlete named Bebe Vio. After in- troducing the novel with respect to the science fiction genre, I will briefly illustrate the plot, and review how our character of interest is depicted. This article will examine some possible stereotypical representations of disability, employing the works of several disability scholars who deal in SF, such as Michael Bérubé and Kathryn Allan, to assess the novel’s success as a work of disability literature and as a work of young adult science fiction. While stereotypical and problematic representations threaten to emerge through the figure of the “supercrip,” as well as through the broader connotations of gendered representation throughout the text, this analysis aims to make manifest BeBlade’s radical potentiality as a disability narrative, particularly for science fiction writers and consumers engaged with disabled identities. The book examines various forms of disability, some typical and some unique to the story in question, with respect to “curing narratives” and to the oftentimes problematic intersections of futurity and disability – as outlined, for example, by Alison Kafer.