<
https://theconversation.com/hannah-gadsby-navigates-the-mirror-maze-of-trauma-as-an-autistic-gender-queer-comedian-176010>
"
Review: Ten Steps to Nanette – Hannah Gadsby (Allen & Unwin)
There is a moment in Hannah Gadsby’s Ten Steps To Nanette that spoke so
eloquently about an experience I have never quite been able to articulate that
I had to put the book down and go make a cup of tea. Recalling her upbraiding
by an art teacher following her submission of a fact-filled essay, Gadsby
writes:
I felt ashamed that I hadn’t understood what had been expected of me, and
even more ashamed by the fact that art on its own apparently didn’t make me
‘feel’ anything. I understood that art made other people feel things, and I
thought that if I could understand what it was that made the feeling happen
then I would be able to have the feelings too.
Like Gadsby, it was not until my adulthood diagnosis of autism that I had the
gift of self-knowledge that comes with understanding the way your brain works.
Reading Gadsby’s reflection on that essay, I wanted to read it myself: it
seemed such a clear example of something autistic author Steacy Easton has
described in an essay for Kadar Koli as the way “exchanging facts, exchanging
the taxonomic list, becomes an act of solidarity and intimacy” for autistic
people.
In writing Ten Steps to Nanette, and offering her obsessions such as art
history (which she studied at university, and has presented gallery tours,
stand-up and TV shows about), narrative structure and the creative process,
Gadsby has shared her taxonomic list."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
