Being in a Constant Conversation with Every Aspect of my Environment

April 14, 2022 9:38 PM

In My Language "The first part is in my "native language," and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, intelligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not."

Please be mindful that people who communicate like this and with this understanding of the world are in the (virtual) room with you.

posted by Bottlecap (10 comments total)

Thank you for sharing this video. I would never have come across it on my own and it has given me a lot to think about. I also found the comments on the video very interesting.
posted by rpfields at 10:18 PM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

This short film is a powerful statement that shone light on some of my own misconceptions while enthralling me with recognition and affinity. Thanks for posting.

I find it very interesting by the way that failure to learn your language is seen as a deficit but the failure to learn my language is seen as so natural that people like me are officially described as mysterious and puzzling rather than anyone admitting that it is themselves who are confused
posted by Thella at 10:27 PM on April 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

The first part was mesmerizing, calming, and strangely beautiful, like what nature/relaxation videos all try for but seldom achieve.
posted by jamjam at 11:12 PM on April 14, 2022

Very previously, including input from the video’s author (who is no longer with us, sadly).
posted by progosk at 11:57 PM on April 14, 2022 [5 favorites]

I'm autistic and I find this video and some of the glowing response to it from allistic people frustrating. I would especially love to hear what autistic mefites think about it.

An allistic friend who found it beautiful showed it to me in 2010 when there was far less discussion and public self-representation of autistic adults (and when I knew there was something atypical about me but before I'd come to a good understanding of my own neurodivergence), and it confused me. When I ran across additional information/speculation about the creator's complex background and how ze had some other stuff going on, that felt kind of validating.

I'd also like to say that I wish there were more attention paid to the distinction between "non-speaking" and "non-verbal." People don't always use those two differently, but there are non-speaking autistic people who are [in the sense of "using words"] plenty verbal, in languages that allistic people speak--they just write/type rather than talk out loud.
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:35 AM on April 15, 2022 [12 favorites]

I'd like to offer Hari Srinivasan as an example of a verbal but non-speaking autistic person. Here is his blog.
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:40 AM on April 15, 2022

This is great. Thanks!
posted by eotvos at 4:07 AM on April 15, 2022

I wonder how much my interaction with the world would look like this, if it hadn't been shamed out of me in my early childhood.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:26 AM on April 15, 2022

I didn't really understand this at first, & then I looked at the previous threads & remembered I didn't get it then either, but I read through the previouslies (including most importantly the late author's own thoughts in the previous threads) & sat with it for a bit and it made me think about it in new ways that I did understand. As always the more I learn about autism the more I understand the thoughts & behaviors of people who aren't autistic so in some way this highly personal video also helped me see the world in a helpful way & to me that's art. Thanks for posting.
posted by bleep at 8:31 AM on April 15, 2022 [2 favorites]

Thank you for posting this. I see it's from 2007, and Youtube seems to recommend a near infinite amount of 'similar' content that has been made since, with higher production values. However, this was the right video for me. It resonated with me, so that (as a non-Autistic person), I actually felt like I 'got it'-- at least for moments here and there, at least a bit. I try to intellectualize everything-- it's part of a defense mechanism that two decades of therapists have easily identified, yet have never succeeded in breaking through-- but this video combined the visceral and the intellectual in a manner that just worked. It was a wonderful use of 9 minutes of my life. So, thanks OP!
posted by andrewgr at 11:54 AM on April 15, 2022 [1 favorite]