Fic’s hit another sticking point

[moon_custafer]

See, the toy problem of capturing the vampire-type dude has been resolved, and now we turn to the real problem of cleaning up. Which, as someone who nearly fell victim pointed out, means trying to do something for the so-far offstage character who had a breakdown after vampire-dude destroyed her boyfriend before the story began.

So here’s the sticking point: it’s 1950, and her family has put her in a private asylum in upstate New York. I’d say she’s in very real danger of being prescribed a lobotomy, and I don’t want that to happen.

Do I allude to the possibility, but specify that they’ve decided to try the recently-on-the-market Milltown tranquilizers instead, or is that a cop-out, and are my heroes going to have to rescue her before someone starts reaching for their ice pick? Because realistically, my heroes are two boys in their late teens or early twenties, who are not related in any way to the patient, and a couple of supernatural agents who are already bending their own bureaucracy’s rules to help out with this matter. No one at the hospital’s going to sign a release form on the say-so of any of these people.


In other news, I finally read John Bellairs’ The Face in the Frost, and am still trying to process the abrupt ending. I don’t dislike it, and I’m actually totally ok with a 20th-century magician who apparently is also a Jewish hardware-store owner somewhere in New England as deus ex machina, but I think I need to reread the last couple of chapters to work out exactly what happened.

Comments

[sovay]

Do I allude to the possibility, but specify that they’ve decided to try the recently-on-the-market Milltown tranquilizers instead, or is that a cop-out, and are my heroes going to have to rescue her before someone starts reaching for their ice pick?

No, it's not a cop-out. Just because the lobotomy is the expected worst-case scenario by the modern reader doesn't mean it has to happen. In 1950, if you want something scary, outmoded, but not fatal and not totally brain-destroying to happen to a woman who talks about vampires like they're real, she's just as likely to be prescribed insulin shock therapy.

[moon_custafer]

Ooh, good point.

Also I think my grandmother kept inadvertently giving herself that -- at any rate she was sensitive enough to her regular insulin doses (probably due to being five feet tall and maybe ninety pounds) that if she didn't time and measure her food intake exactly right, she'd have seizures.

ETA -- This means they are going to have to bust her out of there somehow, though.

[sovay]

Ooh, good point.

Thanks!

that if she didn't time and measure her food intake exactly right, she'd have seizures.

Ack. I hope she was all right in the long run.

ETA -- This means they are going to have to bust her out of there somehow, though.

Well, yes, but weren't they going to have to anyway?

[moon_custafer]

Well, she lived into her late seventies or early eighties, so I guess that qualifies as all right.

I’m not sure busting the character out is a realistic option; I’m starting to think the moral of this story is “fighting supernatural evil is easy, compared to stuff that requires you to persuade fellow humans of things.” Which is a good, if somewhat depressing moral. I think I’m going to retcon one of the boys into her cousin, so at least they’ve more of an “in” to be allowed to visit her at all; and then potentially they can report back to her parents and say either “the shock therapy seems to be making her worse,” or “she’s doing much better, maybe you should think about bringing her home.” Once they’ve had a chance to tell her “we know you’re not wrong about the vampire, and also we caught him, but you have to stop mentioning him to people,” naturally.

[sushidog]

Wasn't lobotomy used largely in the case of aggressive or antisocial behaviour, rather than just for delusions or hallucinations? In which case it wouldn't necessasrily be the recommended treatment unless she's fighty!

[moon_custafer]

Good point, though I believe the benchmark for “fighty” was and is set rather lower for women, PoC, etc. I think if I can write her as primarily depressed we can dodge it.