tempora mutantur

I realize now that it was a book about me dealing with depression before I even knew it. Looking back at how blatant the projecting was, it’s obvious now. It wasn’t then.

In the story, the middle-generation people are lost. They’re apathetic. They’re just a placeholder. The only job they have is to keep the ship running, have kids, and die. As the middle generation of people began becoming adults, suicide rates were skyrocketing. Crime and drug rates were jumping. This generation was completely apathetic because they felt that they had no use.

In the story, a small group of people in the middle-generation create the Weather Project. They turn the ship into a terrarium. They make magnificent gardens and take the DNA of animals they took with them and recreate them and they make this cold, metal spaceship that they have to live their entire lives on into a home. They take what little they have and they break it and rearrange it into something beautiful. They take this radical idea and turn the ship into a wonderful jungle of trees and birds and sunshine.

And I realize now how much it reflects my state of mind as I transitioned from a child into an adult while dealing with depression. You always hear “it gets better” and “when you’re older things will be easier” and I was so sick of waiting for it to get better. I was in the middle-generation stage. And I was sick of it. I was so sick of waiting.

When I was in highschool I didn’t know how to end the story. I didn’t know how to have a happy ending. I didn’t have the life experience then to finish the story in a meaningful way. I didn’t know how to make it better for these middle-generation characters.

But now that I’m older, I’m learning. That if you sit and wait for things to get better, it never will. You have to take your life and break it apart and rearrange it into something beautiful. You have to make the cold metal ship into the garden that you deserve. You have to make your own meaning. You have to plant your own garden.

The Creature imitating expressions and movements

Not something. Someone. You made someone.

“We [people with disabilities] are the last thing on the HR discrimination list. Companies always list things like, ‘we eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion, nationality, identity… oh, and disability.’ It’s just tacked on at the end. The others are mostly about being nice, respectful, and treating people equally. Not discriminating against people with disabilities is more complicated. You need to change your environment, code, the way you design things. You actually need to make changes, and most companies do not want to do that.”

Viktor has a rare and severe case of femoral anteversion in his right leg.

What exactly is femoral anteversion? It is a condition in which the femur rotates, causing the knees and feet to face inward rather than forward. This can impact one or both legs. This condition usually resolves on its own, but more severe cases require medical intervention such as leg braces, therapy, and surgery in more extreme instances—however, this condition is treatable.

This condition impacts children, typically the result of trauma, fetal development, or genetics. Viktor was likely born with this, which would propose that he’s either genetically predisposed to it or the result of a tough pregnancy.

This small scene is an excellent example. It’s only several seconds long, but here we can see that his leg is rotated inward, and he corrects it to face forward—which pains him as he visibly winces—all while Jayce speaks.

It’s noticeable when he’s a kid. You can see how his leg twists and faces inward and how his foot catches on the heel of his other foot, which causes him to trip. In episode 8, while he runs on the dock, he almost trips from this issue again before catching himself and sprinting. Viktor also has an in-toe gait; his step curves as he walks, while his other leg does not.

His leg brace, which we see in Act 2, serves one primary purpose: to force the leg to rotate and face the proper direction. However, at this stage, his condition has been left untreated for so long that it is progressing and showing a drastic impact on his entire body that the leg brace will not fix. It also makes mobility even more challenging for him, with difficulty bending and extending his leg.

This condition can throw the entire body out of whack if left untreated. It can cause pelvic issues, osteoarthritis, spinal decompensation, labral and chondral damage, hamstring-originated tendinopathy, and even weakening of the abdominal muscles, as well as a wide range of spinal problems. The feet, hips, and back are significant body parts that work together; if one is bad, the rest will suffer.

Viktor would require a femoral derotation osteotomy; however, given the severity of his condition and how other parts of his body are now significantly impacted--such as his pelvis and spine, we now have more complications on our hands and that's not even touching on his unnamed lung disease.