Aspies For Freedom

Writer Spends Six Years Building Bridge of Music, Magic and Junk to Connect With Autistic Son

A 9-year-old boy with autism who plays guitar 'like a ring in a bell' transforms the lives of a junkyard pirate, a Jewish reggae singer, and a modern day witch in Eddie and Me on the Scrap Heap, a new novel by Marc Littman.  But the back-story behind the novel
is equally compelling.
"I wrote the book because I was beginning to think my own autistic son was a dud and I needed to burrow into William's world and discover the truth," said Littman.  "Six years and 63,000 words later, I finally realized my son and others with special needs shouldn't be defined by their disabilities.
They often have remarkable personalities and talents to compensate."
"William inspired the book.  I incorporated his passion for Chuck Berry's
rock and roll and love of all things whimsical, added reggae, magic, and set much of the novel in a junkyard, a metaphor for the lead character Eddie's life.  He fears he will end up on the scrap heap of life because he doesn't function like others."
"Everyone tries to fix Eddie because they think he's broken, but he ends
up fixing them.  In the process he accepts himself and by the time I wrote the epilogue, I had accepted my own son.  He had fixed me."
Though Littman is an award-winning writer, former agents and publishers
shied away because they said not enough readers could relate to autism.  Yet, there are 1.5 million Americans with some sort of autism and it's spreading fast.
Determined to prove skeptics wrong, Littman self-published Eddie and Me on the Scrap Heap, available through Amazon.com.  He's donating half his
royalties to autism organizations.
"Writing the novel made me more knowledgeable about autism," said Littman.
"I researched reggae and how to speak Jamaican.  Likewise, I studied magic and spent a lot of time in junkyards.  But the biggest reward was learning to appreciate my son. He's not a dud; he's not a genius.  He's just a great kid, and I'm proud of him."

From prnewswire.com

:shock:

Oh god, not that autism cliche! I'll tell you what, if some kindly person tried to build a "bridge" to "connect" with me I'd go looking for some dynamite.

It's that other well-worn autism cliche; the NT parent making a brave and kind effort to "enter the world" of their autistic child. Such humanity! Where's the puking emoticon?

Spreading fast is a bizarre way of putting it, isnt it.
Maybe because they call it an epidemic they like to use plague-like references.

Here you go... I think that story can use more than one!

:sick:    :sick:    :sick:

If you see the autistic as a relationship

What does that mean?

So that's digging, at what sees people separated, from the NT end.
What digging can be done at the non-NT end.

What does that mean?

The term autistic does not bear ready comparison to woman, black or Catholic.
That former term only came into common parlance with Kanner and Asperger.
Even if we stretch for the immediate antecedents of this pair, we are not going back much more than a century or two.
The term is also specifically a term of medical analysis, certainly if we attach it to Kanner and Asperger.
It is also a term which has always been, and continues to be contraversial: there is not, and has never been unanimity about what it does, could or should mean.

With some of your statements you are contradicting your own comments about being offended by what someone said about dyslexia.
That person is not here to critique your saying why you are offended.

With your above quote -
It doesn't matter that kanner created it, its still the name that autistics are using, we are a minority group and should have minority rights.
Our name is not a verb or adjective in common usage, when you use it as such you distort and add a new meaning. You have made many posts in a row, a very uncommon thing, you may try to use 'verbal tactics' to evade simple questions and comments, but as I am autistic I simply see what is there. And it's something that I find offensive.
I cannot write an essay on why I feel like that, and quite frankly, I shouldn't have to.
It would not be fair to expect me to write huge posts on autistic history to satisfy you, an NT, who id offending an autistic on an autism site.

I can tell you in plain speaking, if an autistic offends someone on an NT site they get very little chance to discuss it, as its often a swift ban.


And on dyslexia, I have been to an autism conference, and dyslexia was never mentioned, it is not on the autism spectrum. You may feel it is, someone once posted that left handed people should be on the autism spectrum and in a minority group because they are different, but it doesnt mean its a fact.

Biddy Roy:

The term autistic, or the term woman or the term black are all terms for a specific minority group - somebody somewhere invented them all. How recently the term was invented does not matter.

To be blunt, most of your posts make 0 sense due to your use of language. At the very least try to make your posts clearer.

Dyslexia is a common comorbid with autism. But we have to be careful on stating opinion as fact (which biddyroy specifically did) as it is not classed as being on the autism spectrum. A hypothesis would be something else.
We lose all credibility if we present certain views to the world and claim that various conditions are autism.

Woman and black can designate a minority group.
That usage does not exhaust their meaning.
Woman or black could be a majority in some instances: as in, black people are in the majority in South Africa. Women are in fact generally not a minority, but a numerically equal grouping with men.

Minority is not a numerical value when we are talking about minority rights. it doesnt matter if the group are numerically a majority.
You seem to deliberately dodge the true meaning of the comments again.

The term autistic is different.
Sexual gender and racial type involve very different matters than does the autistic.
Whether or not the autistic involves a minority, is not a central matter in the autistic: or, if it is taken to be central, that is a matter of opinion; legitimate though that opinion might be.

Autistics are a minorty group, if you are disagreeing with that, then it does make me wonder if you have any interest in AFF at all, or just desire to post here for another reason. You above comment is distorting language to gibberish, and you also use the phrase 'the autistic' despite the fact that you have been informed numerous times that it is being found offensive.
If you do not care that it is offensive and continue to use it regardless, that's when we use a forum term called 'troll'. If you do not stop using offensive terms moderator action will be taken, the same as it would for anyone else.

I accept that you are saying that you cannot find meaning in some of what I post: but that is not the same as there being zero meaning; that would require that no-one did or could find any such meaning.

Another dodge tactic, another element of what we call a 'troll'. You have been told many times that your posts are seeming to be convoluted, as you do not always type the same way, and in fact have said that at times you have caused confusion to explore 'the confusion that your autistic students might feel'.

Just to help me, if there is something you do not understand in this post, could you tell me in detail exactly what you do not understand.

As with someone using textspeak, or speaking a foreign language, its not reasonable to expect other users to have to keep asking for translations.
Though you are polite, I have to say you are showing 'sheer bloody mindedness' in your attitude!

Most of these points have been addressed by Amy so i'll comment on your last point:
aerterg oihrfre gehneryh  ertvroifiwoif
You obviously aren't going to understand the above nonsense, if I asked you to tell me in detail what you don't understand that would be unreasonable.

So what does "aerterg oihrfre gehneryh ertvroifiwoif" mean in english?

It was on this thread - http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...71&start=0

Troll

He reminds of those Philiosopher guys on the flying island in Gulliver's Travels (I can't remember the name of them). You know the one's that talk like there geniuses but at the core there really buffoons.

I concur.