New York Times Modern Love: If Your Son Finds Your Article Unreadable, It's Got Nothing To Do With Autism
Claire Scovell LaZebnik gives us this week's Modern Love piece: a tale of being a worrying mother of a child with autism, and all of the emotions that come with it.
(what, you expected more?)
(okay, I'll give you more. But really, that's the only interesting aspect of the piece. The rest of it is Readers' Digest material.)
Claire's son - to be referred to hereafter as "He-boy", since Claire never names him - has had a somewhat successful therapy program to help him cope with autism, and therefore is quite functional (as those in the psychiatry field would say). But his autism is not completely "healed" - it's still there, and the symptoms are still highly problematic.
But in what sense? He-boy is in excellent physical health, carries on with most normal functions of a teenage boy, and seems to be far ahead of many of his autistic peers. Claire, though, has other things she's concerned with. Like girls. Relationships. Porn.
To this I say: so fucking what?
The problem we have here is not with the topic, but in how it's conveyed. This article is basically a teaser for her book, and I'm sure both book and article were sculpted in a way such that they appeal to a mass audience. As such, Claire speaks of the challenges of autism in the context of the difficulties of navigating typical teenage social structures and life issues. Sure, that's appealing to a mass audience; every teenage boy goes through shit trying to make it from 6th grade to high school graduation, and most caring mothers worry about these things. I suppose everyone can relate to that. But in presenting her concerns, Claire takes all the edge - and air - out of the story. Where Malcolm Gladwell can write about something as mundane as a paper clip factory and make it seem completely fascinating, Claire writes here about a serious and thoroughly misunderstood psychological condition and makes it seem dull.
She's worried if her son can love and be loved. Claire, we all worry about that for ourselves already.
On a serious note, best wishes to He-boy and his family in dealing with his condition.
(what, you expected more?)
(okay, I'll give you more. But really, that's the only interesting aspect of the piece. The rest of it is Readers' Digest material.)
Claire's son - to be referred to hereafter as "He-boy", since Claire never names him - has had a somewhat successful therapy program to help him cope with autism, and therefore is quite functional (as those in the psychiatry field would say). But his autism is not completely "healed" - it's still there, and the symptoms are still highly problematic.
But in what sense? He-boy is in excellent physical health, carries on with most normal functions of a teenage boy, and seems to be far ahead of many of his autistic peers. Claire, though, has other things she's concerned with. Like girls. Relationships. Porn.
To this I say: so fucking what?
The problem we have here is not with the topic, but in how it's conveyed. This article is basically a teaser for her book, and I'm sure both book and article were sculpted in a way such that they appeal to a mass audience. As such, Claire speaks of the challenges of autism in the context of the difficulties of navigating typical teenage social structures and life issues. Sure, that's appealing to a mass audience; every teenage boy goes through shit trying to make it from 6th grade to high school graduation, and most caring mothers worry about these things. I suppose everyone can relate to that. But in presenting her concerns, Claire takes all the edge - and air - out of the story. Where Malcolm Gladwell can write about something as mundane as a paper clip factory and make it seem completely fascinating, Claire writes here about a serious and thoroughly misunderstood psychological condition and makes it seem dull.
She's worried if her son can love and be loved. Claire, we all worry about that for ourselves already.
On a serious note, best wishes to He-boy and his family in dealing with his condition.
posted by Brian Van at
12:51 PM
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