S C I E N C E F I C T I O N
A central character with albinism appears in one of the earliest science fiction books ever published, H. G. Wells's The Invisible Man, written at the tail end of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, this character sets quite a negative precedent a self-centered and irritable man to begin with, he is thrust into single-minded obsession, extreme paranoia, and contempt for all life but his own as the story unfolds. This sordid tale follows the descent into madness of Griffin, an experimental investigator with hair and a beard of "white not grey with age, but white with the whiteness of albinism, and his eyes were like garnets." A scientist deep in study and desperate for recognition in his field, Griffin discovers a formula for invisibility that works successfully on unpigmented tissue. Being albino gives him a natural advantage in putting it to use, which he eagerly exploits. However, he soon discovers that invisibility isn't all it's cracked up to be, and is frought with fear and loathing as its adverse effects become increasingly apparent. His warped view of what is necessary for self-preservation leads him to resort to ferocious tactics, and his growing insanity makes him a local terror. The plot climaxes with him being hunted down and, ultimately, slain. Given that a character with albinism serves as a metaphor for evil in a pioneering work of science fiction, one can imagine how this would influence later authors. Sadly, there have been few admirable characters with albinism in the genre to counterbalance this trend.
Like many other fictional characters with albinism, Olivia is given at least one very serious handicap along with supernatural ability. Her circumstances make for an interesting story, but propagate the myth that people with albinism are psychologically maladjusted and that they suffer from severe physical limitations of one sort or another. While it is true that most people with albinism have poorer vision than average, total blindness is extremely rare. |
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