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Dec. 18th, 2006 10:51 amSweete, a Temple Grandin documentary. All that stuff I was going to do today can just sit there while I watch it.
Something Wonnnderful
Mar. 5th, 2006 02:09 pmYesterday Travis & Kelli were over for a little while, and at one point we hit a Barnes & Noble. There, I came upon a really great thing: a book about autistic famous people, intended for autistic kids.
Me: Ha ha, look! It's a simplified Temple Grandin! Standing next to Isaac Newton and letting herself be hugged by some kid! It's hilarious because autism usually entails oversensitivity to touch!
(Here I imagine briefly an alternate cover version with each figure standing carefully apart from one another, possibly fiddling with some small objects.)
Sadly, I think the book ended up being mostly about just non-socially-normal people (actually someone mentions on the amazon page for it that most of the subjects had Asperger's. I'm willing to accept the spectrum viewpoint and not worry about it too much, but it IS a bit misleading); they had Dian Fossey (can't really find anything linking her to autism or anything like it) and Alan Turing (okay, he probably was on the autism spectrum, but there wasn't a SINGLE MENTION of his being gay or anything, whether because that wasn't the kind of Different Like Me the author was shooting for or because he kind of committed suicide because of how harried/forced to undergo hormonal treatments he was, is unknown) and Einstein (also okay) and Andy Warhol (sure, maybe, but posthumous diagnosis is a little dicey) and Kandinsky (who they were saying was a synaesthete. Mighty autistic there, captain) and I don't remember who-all else. Regardless, as some reviewer complains, Temple Grandin is the only currently living role model. Pret-ty lame, Milhouse.
It didn't exactly end up being very compelling. Possibly the best part is the weird off-balance cover, and/or the dead empty eyes of all the expression-free people. It's Flat Affect Theatre! It's okay, autistic kids don't have eye direction detection anyway; just make all the eyes blank and no one will even care! Also, man, this cow. Not working.
I wish it had talked down to the reader a little less. It also seemed not altogether autism-oriented. I remember in the social relationships book Grandin did with that other guy, she was constantly mentioning how important it was to be exposed to new things and to try things that seemed frightening. How much more useful is this than a vague 'work hard in school!' and how much more applicable is it than 'Temple Grandin lucked out and is incredibly good at discerning things neurologically normal people can't! Maybe you're not entirely useless, but honestly we don't know!'
Oh, we do have fun, don't we.
Me: Ha ha, look! It's a simplified Temple Grandin! Standing next to Isaac Newton and letting herself be hugged by some kid! It's hilarious because autism usually entails oversensitivity to touch!
(Here I imagine briefly an alternate cover version with each figure standing carefully apart from one another, possibly fiddling with some small objects.)
Sadly, I think the book ended up being mostly about just non-socially-normal people (actually someone mentions on the amazon page for it that most of the subjects had Asperger's. I'm willing to accept the spectrum viewpoint and not worry about it too much, but it IS a bit misleading); they had Dian Fossey (can't really find anything linking her to autism or anything like it) and Alan Turing (okay, he probably was on the autism spectrum, but there wasn't a SINGLE MENTION of his being gay or anything, whether because that wasn't the kind of Different Like Me the author was shooting for or because he kind of committed suicide because of how harried/forced to undergo hormonal treatments he was, is unknown) and Einstein (also okay) and Andy Warhol (sure, maybe, but posthumous diagnosis is a little dicey) and Kandinsky (who they were saying was a synaesthete. Mighty autistic there, captain) and I don't remember who-all else. Regardless, as some reviewer complains, Temple Grandin is the only currently living role model. Pret-ty lame, Milhouse.
It didn't exactly end up being very compelling. Possibly the best part is the weird off-balance cover, and/or the dead empty eyes of all the expression-free people. It's Flat Affect Theatre! It's okay, autistic kids don't have eye direction detection anyway; just make all the eyes blank and no one will even care! Also, man, this cow. Not working.
I wish it had talked down to the reader a little less. It also seemed not altogether autism-oriented. I remember in the social relationships book Grandin did with that other guy, she was constantly mentioning how important it was to be exposed to new things and to try things that seemed frightening. How much more useful is this than a vague 'work hard in school!' and how much more applicable is it than 'Temple Grandin lucked out and is incredibly good at discerning things neurologically normal people can't! Maybe you're not entirely useless, but honestly we don't know!'
Oh, we do have fun, don't we.
