Curse Involving Limb and Organ Regrowth - Associations with Hindu Gods?
@reine-des-pres asked:
Hi there! My character was cursed to constantly grow new organs, bones and muscles, and one of her main goal is finding a way to stop it. She’s half-Indian, Bengali to be exact, and very close to her culture. I’m worried that readers will associate her curse with hindu gods because of the multiple limbs factor.
It’s absolutely not my intention. Neither her father nor her are hindu, and she gets her “growths” surgically taken out before they can develop into fully formed limbs. While she does have special abilities, the curse has nothing to do with it and she mostly sees it as a dangerous medical condition. Are there still things I should be mindful about? Or would it be better to change her ethnicity entirely? Thank you for your time.
A Note on Religious Iconography
Limb generation and multiple arms/ heads are not exclusively a Hindu or Indian trope. Many religions practiced throughout Asia use this feature in their iconography. I think the basic idea is “More hands/ heads = More able to help/ More able to observe”. One variation of a myth about Brahma has him growing an extra head to better view the beauty of his wife from any angle (If memory serves, she didn’t appreciate this and hid herself). Another key thing to remember is that regeneration in myths is not equated to growing a limb for a specific purpose (Ex. The bodhisattva Avalokitesvara growing 1000 arms in Buddhist myths to more easily reach sufferers).
You don’t specify religion for your character here, which would make a big difference. Even a non-religious Indian person is likely to be culturally whatever religion their family is from. You will have readers who will make the kind of associations with Hinduism you are worried about, but that’s on their bias, not yours. Your responsibility is to your world-building, plot and characters so the story can stand on its own. To that end, you’ll need to make sure that you aren’t taking lazy shortcuts with respect to stereotyping and shoddy research. If the prospect of an angry horde of indignant readers scares you, I recommend finding a qualified S. Asian sensitivity reader to help you navigate which faction in S. Asia your story is most likely to piss off.
Medical Logistics?
Now, about her condition: The logistics are not quite clear to me. Is she constantly growing excess organs and limbs? Regrowing damaged ones? At what speed? At what speed do the new growths have to be removed? From what I’ve confirmed with people I know in medicine, I imagine she would be just constantly recovering from various surgeries, and that sounds very miserable.
Perils of Anguish-based Narratives
Forget offensive by Hindu/ Indian standards. I’m just personally bored with stories where the brown person suffers unless you can make it feel less…icky.
I admit, I’m not enthused by this question because it brings up all sorts of parallels to stories of parasitic twins who are put on display/ worshipped in rural India. The girl referenced by Jaya below had to go into hiding to stay safe from a traveling circus that wanted to put her on display. Having a parasitic twin is very hard on a person’s body. The parasitic limbs and organs consume nutrients the main body needs, so perhaps you’d better research the pathology and consider just how hard you’d like to make your protagonist’s life.
- Marika.
Reminders on S. Asian Incidents Involving Parasitic Twins
I’m going to refer you to my answer about if a character who gives herself four extra limbs should be Indian/ Hindu or not. There are a lot of cultural implications and there have been with four-limbed girls.
My recommendation is no because an Indian person with extra limbs may be worshiped or exploited within a Hindu context. That’s what happened to a real girl named Lakshmi Tatma, who had a parasitic twin.
- Jaya
(I thought the comment function would appear on my blog, but I guess not? I haven’t been on Tumblr in months, sorry about that!)
First, thank you for the thorough answer! To clarify, her arc isn’t centered around her curse, it’s just an aspect of her. She’s the protagonist’s 24 year old half-sister, a powerful magic user and a central character to the plot. I didn’t want to bog the ask in detail, as the curse is the only detail I was worried about 😅
About the medical aspect. My father has been chronically ill since I was very young, and I used to believe he had been “cursed by a witch” when I was small since I didn’t understand what was happening or why. So the symptoms this character has and the way her family treats her mirrors the way my family was growing up, though with a fantasy twist. As in, it’s accepted that she has good and bad days, and her condition is just a normal part of the family life.
The only time this character is in severe pain is when she doesn’t take care of herself and her condition properly. Otherwise, about every month or so, she just needs to take pain medication and visit a friend specializing in healing magic who removes the excess organs/bones before they grow big enough to cause problems. If she’s careful, it’s mostly just an annoyance to her.
Hopefully this helps to provide some context. But regardless, thank you for the advice, I’ll change her background to avoid bad implications. Would a Sri Lankan and Buddhist family background still be too close for comfort? As in, is the association still going to be uncomfortable no matter what if she is of South Asian descent?
First, OP, I empathize. My dad developed non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when I was five and too willfully oblivious to understand what was going on at home. It sucks when you get old enough to understand. Sympathies for your dad as well. Second, why not give the sister leukemia instead of a curse, and have her in remission while the family is potentially facing medical debt? It’s more acceptable because we Indians get cancer too and would avoid any issues with the growing arms implications that we have discussed.
If going this route, however, assuming there are magical treatments equivalent to chemotherapy and surgery, make sure there is no magical cure for cancer. No one likes a cure narrative unless it’s on Fullmetal Alchemist levels with story quality and a price to pay. I can tell that your dad having cancer has weighed on your life and impacted it.
- Jaya
This is clearly a personal issue, but to echo Jaya, I don’t think this curse is an effective chronic illness/ cancer metaphor. I don’t think changing the character’s religion, nationality or ethnicity will improve this curse in the South Asian context. What specifically bothers me is that your portrayal of the sister seems to unrealistically minimize her pain and her family’s awareness of her pain in ways that don’t resonate on a cultural level, particularly with what I know of living with cancer, and my own experiences with chronic pain. My aunt has blood cancer, and while we became acclimated to her condition, we were always aware of what she is going through. You have to understand that in developing countries, health is a major source of concern and tension. Because of the strong stigma against cancer in South Asia, we actively chose to not sensationalize her condition, but even nonverbal support and awareness can effectively highlight the reality of life for a patient with chronic illness.
Your description of your experience with your father conveys heroic efforts to preserve a sense of normalcy. However, I think you must take care to draw the distinction between normalization of pain versus trivializing pain. A person’s suffering can be an unobtrusive fact of life but still have great significance. I bring this up because non-verbal support, active family involvement and compassionate awareness are important behaviors in many Asian cultures, including those in South Asia. If I had a sibling with a painful, chronic illness/ curse, it would be expected that I would accompany them to their treatments unless they specifically objected. You say that your character manages her condition well. However, in a collectivist culture, a person who is ill is very likely to overextend, which is precisely why their family would be on high alert to help them manage their condition. Life would eventually settle into a new normal, but the illness would still play a significant role in the family’s day-to-day life.
- Marika.