How Can I Talk if My Lips Don't Move?: Inside My Autistic Mind, by Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
Many of the books written by people on the autism spectrum come from a specific category of autism, which is the same one I'm from: the so called "high functioning" or in my preference, "better blended," section of the spectrum. The people who, while definitely different than others, can still speak, write, and get along in this world without requiring intensive supports and services. That isn't to say my life is easy, because it is not, thank you. But I don't, as a rule, require a notepad and paper to communicate with other people, and or need watching to make sure I don't wander away, or constantly need a "translator" or helper to facilitate my existence in the world.
The vast majority of the people on the spectrum that do need those things... don't write books. This person, obviously, does. So right off, there's a good reason to read this book. This author has experiences as an autistic person that I don't, and they're very important to understanding all aspects of the autism spectrum.
That said, this book is very different than my usual fare in other ways besides this. Mr. Mukhopadhyay has the soul of a poet, and he writes in poetry and finely worked prose. I'm afraid that poetry and I never really saw eye to eye, and so much of his genius is lost on me. But I do recognize it for what it is, and I highly recommend anyone with an appreciation for poetry read this book.
But enough digressions. On to the actual content of the book! This is a collection of stories about the author's life and growing up, written in first person. It's particularly interesting reading because, in addition to what I've named above, Mr. Mukhopadhyay is from India, and spent part of his life there and another part in the United States. There are, as such, small glimpses into what life is like in India, which I found fascinating.
Each of these stories can be anywhere from a single page to a dozen pages long, and is sometimes interspersed with poems or poetry bits. I'm afraid the stories aren't perfectly chronologically ordered, which I found confusing, but the author does make efforts to inform the reader what age he was at the time. So it's not like the stories skip from being 3 to being 12, and then go back to being 6. It's more like a clump of stories falls in the 4-7 age range, and may skip around in that age range a bit.
I've stressed that Mr. Mukhopadhyay and I have had very different lives. This is true, but I did still have moments of recognition and familiarity with some things he talks about. Like me, he has trouble with faces and person recognition. I was also surprised (and pleased) to recognize that, if I'm reading it correctly, he also built himself a mental framework by which to understand the world. I talk about turning my brain into a prediction engine, so I can understand and work with people and the world in general. This author did the same, but his process was much, much more effortful. Where I was able to quickly generalize what a book or a door looks like, and thereafter ignore that information until it was relevant, it seems the author had to take a lot of time to reach that point. He talks about learning each doorway and the contents of a room, having to take minutes on each object in order to familiarize himself with it.
As he aged, he had to do this less and less, it seems. Which holds true for me as well, in patterns of people and life situations. I've been to enough stores, for instance, to know the basics of how one shops, and that I can usually ask for help from someone who works there and not seem out of place. That holds true for cafes, for clothes stores, for electronics stores, and book stores. As such, I usually don't become anxious much while I'm shopping, because people usually hold to the same behavior patterns. (The Apple Store is an exception, which is one of the reasons I don't go there much. I always feel like I'm being watched there.)
Many of the books written by people on the autism spectrum come from a specific category of autism, which is the same one I'm from: the so called "high functioning" or in my preference, "better blended," section of the spectrum. The people who, while definitely different than others, can still speak, write, and get along in this world without requiring intensive supports and services. That isn't to say my life is easy, because it is not, thank you. But I don't, as a rule, require a notepad and paper to communicate with other people, and or need watching to make sure I don't wander away, or constantly need a "translator" or helper to facilitate my existence in the world.
The vast majority of the people on the spectrum that do need those things... don't write books. This person, obviously, does. So right off, there's a good reason to read this book. This author has experiences as an autistic person that I don't, and they're very important to understanding all aspects of the autism spectrum.
That said, this book is very different than my usual fare in other ways besides this. Mr. Mukhopadhyay has the soul of a poet, and he writes in poetry and finely worked prose. I'm afraid that poetry and I never really saw eye to eye, and so much of his genius is lost on me. But I do recognize it for what it is, and I highly recommend anyone with an appreciation for poetry read this book.
But enough digressions. On to the actual content of the book! This is a collection of stories about the author's life and growing up, written in first person. It's particularly interesting reading because, in addition to what I've named above, Mr. Mukhopadhyay is from India, and spent part of his life there and another part in the United States. There are, as such, small glimpses into what life is like in India, which I found fascinating.
Each of these stories can be anywhere from a single page to a dozen pages long, and is sometimes interspersed with poems or poetry bits. I'm afraid the stories aren't perfectly chronologically ordered, which I found confusing, but the author does make efforts to inform the reader what age he was at the time. So it's not like the stories skip from being 3 to being 12, and then go back to being 6. It's more like a clump of stories falls in the 4-7 age range, and may skip around in that age range a bit.
I've stressed that Mr. Mukhopadhyay and I have had very different lives. This is true, but I did still have moments of recognition and familiarity with some things he talks about. Like me, he has trouble with faces and person recognition. I was also surprised (and pleased) to recognize that, if I'm reading it correctly, he also built himself a mental framework by which to understand the world. I talk about turning my brain into a prediction engine, so I can understand and work with people and the world in general. This author did the same, but his process was much, much more effortful. Where I was able to quickly generalize what a book or a door looks like, and thereafter ignore that information until it was relevant, it seems the author had to take a lot of time to reach that point. He talks about learning each doorway and the contents of a room, having to take minutes on each object in order to familiarize himself with it.
As he aged, he had to do this less and less, it seems. Which holds true for me as well, in patterns of people and life situations. I've been to enough stores, for instance, to know the basics of how one shops, and that I can usually ask for help from someone who works there and not seem out of place. That holds true for cafes, for clothes stores, for electronics stores, and book stores. As such, I usually don't become anxious much while I'm shopping, because people usually hold to the same behavior patterns. (The Apple Store is an exception, which is one of the reasons I don't go there much. I always feel like I'm being watched there.)
Read This Book If
You're anyone. Seriously. At just over 200 pages (but large text), you may want to take this book in segments, but its poetry and value should not be missed. As an autistic person affected very heavily by the diagnosis, Mr. Mukhopadhyay has a very unique and highly valuable viewpoint to share. His soul is an artist's, and anyone wanting to understand the facets of autism should consider this mandatory reading.
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