I have decided to upload my 14th story (13 possibly being an unlucky number and my having slight triskaidekaphobia) on the fiction section of my stories web page. I wrote this story several years ago and was not sure I wanted to upload any more stories, as I don't think my stories get many readers.
Anyhow, the story is Dog Bites Man. It has nothing to do with autism, but I feel is a good read.
Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read it.
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3 comments:
Hey your story is good! I managed to read it on my iPhone in the sun, I suppose that tells something! It gives good images which is what I like most, of course I also like the strangeness of the twist, at that point, I was wondering where your were going with this all. And I like the student’s lab experience.
I have dissected many brains, mostly mice, I could not count. Everything time I opened the skull of an animal, I heard my mother saying, how could you possibly do this? But it still forged ahead, justifying my actions in the name of science and my training's needs. In the US, at the time, it was not very regulated; how many experiment one could do with animals, their justification and how to run them. In the UK, it’s a lot more regulated, partly because animal right activists have enforced much tighter laws and regulation procedures. It has become such a bureaucratic exercise.
Once, whilst I was living in the US, one of my friends asked me to come to watch a dissection; he was a writer and also molecular biologist. So we set off to do it, late at night. The lab was never empty and I have been there at any hour of the night or early morning. A lab makes constant roaming sounds (I don’t know if this is the right word). You don’t hear it much during the day, but as soon as the lights are down, and you are a lot more alone, facing your acts with more clarity, you become very aware if it, and it eats you up, but at the same time, it’s like a friend. Another strange thing, is that a dead animal has distinct smell. And what is even weirder and that the smell hangs onto you, even if you have used gloves and a lab coat, and wash and even shower, the smell stays right against your skin for a while. No one would notice but you. Maybe it’s the encounter of the death and our own smell.
My friend did not go with the dissection in the end. He had the lucidity to think, that as a writer, he could imagine it and write about it without seeing it. A few more years after this, I thought much of this had been a total none-sense all along.
This comment is slightly disassociated from your posts proper
Generation X'Y'Z autistics have more severe deficits due to dovetail with modern-modern environment? Human association is not necessarily an obligation in an age of indoor distractions and games. I'm guessing the elderly out there on the autistic spectrum likely had much more intense social demands as children.
Your blog is making me think. Pardon the mess.
Just a thought to share: I have a friend with Asperger who lives in Edinburgh who also very much like creative writing. He writes very well. He recently took part to a series of classes at University that provided mentoring assistances from professional writers. I cannot find any link on the Internet for this, but it did take place.
With autism/Asperger becoming more and more a pole of interest, it might be possible to set up similar groups, with an end goal of publishing a selection of best writing from AS/ASD people. That could help those who are isolated and in the “mist of things” to get a work finished, published and possibly recognised.
It must be relatively “easy” to set that up. All it takes is to use personal connection to reach a known writer who has an interest in autism and would like to experience and assist people in their creative writing. I know AS people might not have all the connections needed, but some have, or friends of AS people have. Once an idea is out, it often does not take too much to gel and lead to something.
In the UK, such project would almost certainly be eligible to funding or would attract interest of Universities (which are free here).
A similar project I recently came across with regard to visual art involved an artist, Janetka Platun. She spent several months of residency in 3 Glasgow autism school. The work of the children was published in a wonderful book, Spectrum. Very insightful and respectful of individualities. Clearly her presence within school and her approach to art brought much creativity potentials out in the children. The talents were often unknown to the art teachers who were constricted in very traditional (I’d say uncreative) forms of teaching.
Project was funded by the Scottish Art council:
http://www.project-ability.co.uk/
Jan Platun, the book’s Author said, “Spectrum is a record of my work within the Autism Units and explores the varied and complex ways in which the young people have approached and engaged in the process of making art. The publication shows what can happen when an artist works in a school and provides alternative ways of working; and aims to provide an insight into the creative needs of children with autism and asperger syndrome.”
http://www.sprudelkasten.com/ashoalofmackerel/new/artists/janetka-platun/book2/index.html
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