Amateur anthropologist?
Last month, I got an e-mail out of the blue from a man who said he was a radio reporter for NPR, and wanted to interview me. It took me a while to figure out whether the whole thing was legitimate; but eventually I satisfied myself that it was. Last week, two people from NPR flew here to stay for two days. They are working on a series about what it means to be human; and had read my blog and thought I had a unique perspective on the subject.
I had to say yes, of course. It's not every day you get the chance to represent autistic people as, well... people. Rather than, say, walking tragedies. If this works out, I suppose I shall have a few minutes on the radio.
The interesting thing about the whole subject is that they said I had been doing a lot of sociology and anthropology, on my own, to understand people. Well, I have been; that's one of the strategies I use to try to communicate with the human race in general. (Psychology, too; but they weren't focusing on that so much.) I just didn't realize that my viewpoints were remarkable to anybody who wasn't autistic. I don't suppose I'm unusual, as far as autistic people go, in my approach: Study things theoretically; try to see the patterns; try to figure out why people do things. The point isn't to imitate the typical people around me; it's simply to communicate. If I can get information from my brain to theirs, then that's all I need. The better we communicate, the more our diverse viewpoints and skills are going to work together in a larger society.
Being interviewed is utterly exhausting. Basically, you have to socialize for hours at a time--and you have to answer questions that make you think very, very hard. After a while, I stopped even trying to fake eye contact, and at times closed my eyes altogether, so as to think better. However, there is apparently one advantage to being autistic, or at least as far as my particular autism style goes; I speak in a very precise manner, and this is well-suited for recording because I am easy to understand. (When I can't get words, I just tend to go entirely silent. It's either full sentences or nothing at all!)
A friend of mine who works in the pharm/tox department here at the university, and has been an unofficial mentor to me since last summer, really helped me with this. She let us use her office; and she stayed with me until I felt comfortable (this situation, naturally, was completely new to me and sent me into the usual panic that new situations tend to do). The second day, she took the lot of us out for sushi, which was wonderful because I have never had sushi before and I am quite a sense freak when it comes to food. (Eating the same thing every day? Yes, I do that, but it's an executive function thing, not a sensory thing.) I especially liked the papery texture of the nori which was wrapped around a lot of the things I tried. It's basically dried seaweed; so it tastes a bit like fish and a bit like ocean; and it has a very interesting feel in your mouth. I didn't catch half the conversation in the restaurant, but that was okay. And my friend helped me order. (I am not very good with that either, especially when I have no idea what half the menu even is!). I think I am getting closer to learning how to use a restaurant properly. (I can already do fast-food restaurants and a little at the college cafeteria.)
So, I got to talk about how I saw the rest of the human race. When it comes to the gap between autistic people and neurotypicals, it's not particularly much that we are fundamentally different; it's more like we've got different ways of doing the same things--different ways of connecting with each other; different ways of loving each other; different ways of communicating; even (possibly especially) different ways of dealing with the information coming at us from the world around us. Even communication gaps exist between neurotypicals. They're sometimes blocked by their social rules from communicating what they really mean; we're often blocked because we're either not good at language or not good at the subtext.
I found it a bit amusing that they asked so much about romance. I'm asexual/aromantic, so that was a bit like asking a man about the nature of femalehood, or a child about the nature of adulthood. But maybe the outside perspective will be useful. Who knows?
Air date? Summer-ish. Still nothing firm. And, of course, the thing has to actually work out. They said that I provided useful material, so there's a good chance it will be aired.
I had to say yes, of course. It's not every day you get the chance to represent autistic people as, well... people. Rather than, say, walking tragedies. If this works out, I suppose I shall have a few minutes on the radio.
The interesting thing about the whole subject is that they said I had been doing a lot of sociology and anthropology, on my own, to understand people. Well, I have been; that's one of the strategies I use to try to communicate with the human race in general. (Psychology, too; but they weren't focusing on that so much.) I just didn't realize that my viewpoints were remarkable to anybody who wasn't autistic. I don't suppose I'm unusual, as far as autistic people go, in my approach: Study things theoretically; try to see the patterns; try to figure out why people do things. The point isn't to imitate the typical people around me; it's simply to communicate. If I can get information from my brain to theirs, then that's all I need. The better we communicate, the more our diverse viewpoints and skills are going to work together in a larger society.
Being interviewed is utterly exhausting. Basically, you have to socialize for hours at a time--and you have to answer questions that make you think very, very hard. After a while, I stopped even trying to fake eye contact, and at times closed my eyes altogether, so as to think better. However, there is apparently one advantage to being autistic, or at least as far as my particular autism style goes; I speak in a very precise manner, and this is well-suited for recording because I am easy to understand. (When I can't get words, I just tend to go entirely silent. It's either full sentences or nothing at all!)
A friend of mine who works in the pharm/tox department here at the university, and has been an unofficial mentor to me since last summer, really helped me with this. She let us use her office; and she stayed with me until I felt comfortable (this situation, naturally, was completely new to me and sent me into the usual panic that new situations tend to do). The second day, she took the lot of us out for sushi, which was wonderful because I have never had sushi before and I am quite a sense freak when it comes to food. (Eating the same thing every day? Yes, I do that, but it's an executive function thing, not a sensory thing.) I especially liked the papery texture of the nori which was wrapped around a lot of the things I tried. It's basically dried seaweed; so it tastes a bit like fish and a bit like ocean; and it has a very interesting feel in your mouth. I didn't catch half the conversation in the restaurant, but that was okay. And my friend helped me order. (I am not very good with that either, especially when I have no idea what half the menu even is!). I think I am getting closer to learning how to use a restaurant properly. (I can already do fast-food restaurants and a little at the college cafeteria.)
So, I got to talk about how I saw the rest of the human race. When it comes to the gap between autistic people and neurotypicals, it's not particularly much that we are fundamentally different; it's more like we've got different ways of doing the same things--different ways of connecting with each other; different ways of loving each other; different ways of communicating; even (possibly especially) different ways of dealing with the information coming at us from the world around us. Even communication gaps exist between neurotypicals. They're sometimes blocked by their social rules from communicating what they really mean; we're often blocked because we're either not good at language or not good at the subtext.
I found it a bit amusing that they asked so much about romance. I'm asexual/aromantic, so that was a bit like asking a man about the nature of femalehood, or a child about the nature of adulthood. But maybe the outside perspective will be useful. Who knows?
Air date? Summer-ish. Still nothing firm. And, of course, the thing has to actually work out. They said that I provided useful material, so there's a good chance it will be aired.