Heroines Wear Glasses

Justin Oldham, creator of A.C.: After Collapse, has always been a fan of unique heroes and heroines.  "One of my favorite writers is John Christopher, author of The Tripods book series--and--The Death of Grass.  While first encountering 'The White Mountains' (published 1968), I was struck by the fact that Jean-Paul (a.k.a. Beanpole) wore glasses.  Despite his limitation, he perseveres through 3 books.  That literary factoid stayed lodged in my brain through most of my childhood, in to later adult life where I put it to good use."

Justin remembered, "I lost an eye to glaucoma when I was a teenager.  I went back to reading about Beanpole and his glasses while I recovered from that process.  Throughout grade school, many of the fictional characters I wrote about for classroom assignments were visually impaired.  Some of my teachers were skeptical; could a kid who couldn't see really do those things?  Really?  I thought so.  Anyone who has read about the life of Helen Keller knows that it really is possible to exceed your limitations.  As hard as it is for parents with visually impaired children, its even harder to be the man or woman who grows up to live with partial eyesight.  You're not quite sighted and not quite blind, you don't easily fit in as one or the other."

"As interesting as the whole post-apocalyptic thing is, I have often wondered how anyone survives the event.  Suppose you're like me and you don't see very well?  What are you going to do about it?  Some of us are not the dashing movie-star type with lots of muscles; we have got to work with what we have--or don't have, as the case may be.  Ask anyone who doesn't see very well--and--if they are honest, they'll tell you some amount of patience is needed to understand the world around them.  Disabilities of any kind make you think about the world around you, in a different way.  Learn it and how that unique insight works, you won't be disappointed."