Ever Dundas talks about how sci-fi can help explore marginalisation, disability and agency

This book is rooted in your anger at the structural hostility towards disabled people. Can you tell us how an advanced-tech society lent itself to exploring that anger?

Sci-fi is perfect for exploring marginalisation, inequality and our relationship with tech. I wanted to highlight how access to tech impacts disabled people, how our lives can be improved by this access. But tech and digital poverty mean we don’t have equal access, despite likely benefitting from it most. Tech also isn’t neutral; it’s made by humans and our prejudices become part of our creations. Algorithms can perpetuate racism, and in HellSans some cyborg personal assistants don’t consider the HellSans Allergic [those made sick by a ubiquitous typeface enforced by the government] to be human.

Body horror and bodily agency are vividly expressed throughout HellSans; can you tell us what inspired you to explore body horror in this book?

My experience of ME and fibromyalgia fed into HellSans, but my eczema and food allergies also heavily informed the novel. One of the reactions the HellSans Allergic (HSA) have to the typeface is to vomit; I spent my childhood vomiting because I was allergic to numerous foods. That has a profound impact, especially when something supposedly nourishing is poisonous to you.

Your skin is the boundary between you and the world, it should offer some protection; like the HSAs with their peeling skin and open sores, eczema compromises that boundary and protection. Body horror is a very useful way of exploring these kinds of embodiment anxieties.

Bodily agency is something I’m keenly aware of as a disabled person, because control over our bodies is often impinged upon. I personally approach this from an intersectional animal rights perspective (touched on in the novel), as our society is built on the violation of the bodily autonomy of non-human animals.

The Seraphs’ [the HSA’s governing body] rejection of a cure interested me. Does society, and fiction, focus too much on “cures” over societal empowerment?

Society has an obsession with cure narratives. It’s very binary: disabled people are cured or they die. There’s no in-between, no living a (happy) life disabled or chronically ill. Via the different perspectives in HellSans, I wanted to show some complexity around this.

A facet of the novel that struck me was the conflict within the HSA community over who they embraced. Was it important to you to draw attention to the need for intersectionality within disabled communities?

Ableism can exist within disabled communities, and I didn’t want to sanitise this. Intersectionality is also important; some people experience ableism differently if they’re also facing, for example, homophobia and/or racism. 

Jane, one of your protagonists, remains a morally grey character throughout, despite her experiences. How did you approach the issue of giving a bigoted character a redemption arc?

I didn’t want a redemption arc for Jane. I think it would be too easy to take someone like Jane, bring her low and have her see the error of her ways. Humans are a lot more complicated than that. So despite the tone of triumphalism in Jane’s narration, her choices remain morally suspect.

Do you feel your work with Julie Farrell on the Inklusion Guide is being greeted by the industry with a willingness to change? And does your experience of accessibility with the launch of HellSans differ from that of your first book, Goblin?

Yes and no. We have had great responses from many organisations who are enthusiastic about improving access. Conversely, many disabled authors and audience members have seen organisations ignore access as they return to in-person events. We are hoping the Inklusion Guide will encourage these organisations to provide better access, alongside the brilliant #KeepFestivalsHybrid campaign by Penny Batchelor.

I am more confident advocating for myself, and there is more support now, with various groups springing up. These fantastic Bookseller Disability Issues make a difference, too.

Finally, if you were an HSA, would you join the Seraphs?

The Seraphs are the governing body of the HSAs, who run the HSA ghetto and have a military faction. They are, depending on your point of view, freedom fighters or terrorists—or maybe both. After much hand-wringing over the moral issues, I’ll say no, mainly because I’m not a joiner and I don’t have much respect for “authority”.