Ep17: 🌗♎️ {Fourth Wing & Iron Flame} - themes of Disability Justice and Indigenous Sovereignty - A friendly chat with Alexis and Kendra

(This episode contains spoilers for the first two books of The Empyrean Series- Fourth Wing and Iron Flame)

How can romantasy novels resource us to live a more liberated life?  How does “curing” a protagonist of their chronic pain support larger ableist narratives?  If you fall in love with a “book boyfriend” whose lands, language, and culture have been stolen from them- how can you show your devotion to them in real life and honor land back and indigenous sovereignty?  What would it take for us to stop policing groups we have been conditioned to hate/fear especially when the rules are unjust?  Do *all* romantasy fans play Dungeons and Dragons?

Kristyn with a Why sits down for a friendly chat with two friends she met on Reddit- Alexis (a writer/boardgamer) and Kendra (an aerialist/chiropractor and member of the Cree nation)- both of whom live with chronic illnesses.  Together they discuss how Violet’s journey resonated with them, what they would have liked to see more of, and they collectively imagine what liberation can look like in the soon to be released 3rd book of the series, Onyx Storm!

0- Episode Intro

5:30- Kristyn gives a reflective synopsis of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame

28:40-Introducing Alexis and Kendra

41:32- Critiques of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame

58:00- Moments in the book that resourced us

1:09:47- How Fourth Wing and Iron Flame help you FEEL liberation

1:15:30- What was lost? Connections with Indigenous themes

1:19:37- The value of not curing a chronically disabled protagonist

1:33:51- More connections and quotes of Indigenous themes

1:40:00-Hope for Onyx Storm

1:50:23- Outro

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Grateful for all the learning and inspiration alluded to in today’s episode:

10 Principles of Disability Justice by Sins Invalid

Sophie Strand’ssubstack: You can preorder “The Body is a Doorway” here

For more community and witnessing around chronic illness and disability, check out Carmen Spagnola’sNuminous Network

Roadmap to Liberation withRev. angel Kyodo williams

As always:----------------------------------

Thankful for the musical inspiration for the theme song:

Hadestown by Anais Mitchell, specifically“Our Lady of the Underground” andOrpheus’ Song

“Hedwig’s Theme” by John Williams

Shout out for the artistic assistance of:

Matt Schubbe (Logo)

Kevin Carlow (Music and sound editing)