Most galling to me:
Picoult's portrait of Jacob is successful - but is it really likely that a person with Asperger's could be articulate enough to narrate his own world? Or is Jacob just a way to move the story along? People with Asperger's aren't supposed to be able to empathize with others, but Jacob sometimes seems to understand how his mother or brother or other characters feel.
"Is it really likely that a person with Asperger's could be articulate enough to narrate his [or her] own world?"
Looking over at the massive amounts of autistic biographies I have in multiple locations around my apartment, and the many autistic-written blogs I write daily, the answer seems to be an unqualified yes. Nor are those of us who are labeled "Asperger's" or "high-functioning" the only autistic people capable of expressing ourselves "articulately" (whatever that means) in writing. Nor are autistic people inapable of "narrating" in our own heads, regardless of our writing or speaking abilities or any other arbitrary category used to divide us.
Ms. Ma says the book educated her about autism--but clearly this "education" was rather incomplete.
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11 comments:
Just a slight correction-- her name's Ma (which you got correct the first two times), not Na.
Thanks, codeman. I guess that's what comes out of having the n and m keys next to each other on the keyboard.
One point I would suggest emphasizing in any e-mails is that you can't really learn about autistic people by reading about a fictional autistic person who never existed. Also that you can't judge all autistic people by one autistic person.
One point I would suggest emphasizing in any e-mails is that you can't really learn about autistic people by reading about a fictional autistic person who never existed
I disagree. I think fictional books with autists can be educating if the person has done their research right.
A good example is the manga "With the Light" Keiko Tobe wrote very positive angled manga on autism and done her home work complete with essays in the back from real autistic people and parents of autistic children.
Fiction is useful depend now the person is portrayed.
Boy, I hope the next book she gets sent to review is Parallel Play. I'd pay good money to be there to witness that segfault. Seriously, though, she's a book critic, and she's never even heard of Look Me In The Eye? I thought that was a daggum bestseller and stuff. (Let alone, of course, the dozens of other autiebiographies out there.)
But yep, bored now with "professional writers" who know nothing about autism (which is fine, I didn't always know about it), but insist that they do (not fine).
This review was forwarded to the Philly GRASP group, and as I read it I was struck by the same thing.
Looking at the byline (or rather lack of) in the original article, it seems that Ms. Ma is not a regular writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer or Daily News, and this might have been a freelance column that the paper picked up. It doesn't even say she's a book critic. My guess is that she did some brief Googling on Aspergers and figured she had enough background knowledge to critique this book.
Philly.com is generally not regarded as a reputable journalistic source around here...we just read it because there's nothing else, sadly.
What I find more disturbing is that the website for the book's author includes so many links to DAN/Autism Speaks/AoA. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, those are the supposedly informative links about Aspergers.
aspieteach, thanks for bringing that to my attention. Urgh a thousand times.
And her message to readers has a bunch of crap about vaccines, including a citation of Wakefield's paper. Now that's just irresponsible in this day and age.
I really shudder to think what the book's attitude toward autism might be if the author so obviously buys into this mindset.
And her message to readers has a bunch of crap about vaccines, including a citation of Wakefield's paper. Now that's just irresponsible in this day and age.
AAAAGGGH NO. What can we do about this? *headdesk* Can we write to her through her publisher or something?
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