“We don't have to talk. We can just share energy to be social.”
- Ellen, regular attendee at AACT, "a group run for and by adults with autism", described in this journal article:
Nancy Bagatell (2010) From Cure to Community: Transforming Notions of Autism. Ethos. March 2010. Volume 38, Issue 1. p. 33-55.
Article first published online: 11 MAR 2010
DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1352.2009.01080.x
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/etho.2010.38.issue-1/issuetoc
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1352.2009.01080.x/full
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2 comments:
I still remember the lightbulb that clicked on for me after years of impatience with the pointless inanity of small talk, when I read someone who described small talk as being all about an exchange of energy rather than of information.
So was that too much literalism from me that I spent so many years wondering at all that pointless inanity, or a staggering lack of reflection and self-awareness -- and arguably too much lazy, obstinate, unimaginative literalism -- on the part of non-autistics, in that they behave for all appearances as if small talk really is about the exchange of meaningless information?
Who is it here, exactly, who's being encumbered or held back by their communicative style?
I suspect that small talk might be performance more than communication.
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