COMPASSION(7)          Miscellaneous Information Manual          COMPASSION(7)

NAME
     Compassion – better world fiction

DESCRIPTION
     Recently I watched the film Margarita With a Straw.  I'm not sure how to
     feel about some aspects of it, but it tries to do a lot, and I was still
     thinking about it a couple days later.

     What really sticks out about it, to me, is that it is better world
     fiction, for lack of a better term.  It's a film about two characters
     with disabilities, but it doesn't play into tropes.  There's no big
     dramatic scene where a character gets treated unfairly.  It doesn't
     really happen.  In the world of the movie, most people are accepting,
     patient and compassionate.  That's not to say there is no conflict.  The
     film is just telling a different story.

     The story takes place in a better world.  Or maybe it takes place in a
     world that exists within our own, hidden between the worse parts.  It's
     wonderfully subversive.  Because I went into the film expecting at least
     one deeply upsetting scene of discrimination.  What else would you expect
     of a story like this one, right?  But instead of being upset, I was
     warmed.  It was so nice to see the characters work through their own
     problems surrounded by simple kindness.  And when it was over, I was left
     wanting to move our world closer to that one.

     That's what I love about this kind of fiction.  It's why I love the books
     of Becky Chambers so much.  They give me hope, and guidance.  I count the
     Murderbot Diaries series in this as well, which shows a sort of bad
     world, and an alternative.  I think it's so important to see the good
     that exists and the good that could exist.  Rather than something to
     fight against, these stories show something to fight for.  A more
     compassionate world.

     I know, one person can't change the world.  But they can change their own
     world, and the worlds of those around them.  And slowly, good things can
     spread.  I'll strive to be more patient, more understanding, more
     compassionate, and I hope you will too.

AUTHORS
     june <june@causal.agency>

     I can't help but worry, when I write something like this, that someone I
     know will read it and think that I'm lying because I've hurt them.  If
     that's the case, I am sorry, and I promise I am trying to do better.

Causal Agency                   March 31, 2022                   Causal Agency