April Wobken<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ENGL 384<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foss<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4\/26\/2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Network\nof Thought of Dax and Baggs<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Selene\ndePackh\u2019s Troubleshooting<\/em>\narticulately brings the message of the Autistic interpretation that Amanda Baggs\nconveys in her piece, Up in the Clouds\nand down in the Valley<\/em>. Baggs describes the typical Autistic interpretation\nas the absence of something important; the absence of speech, of language, of\nthought, of movement, of comprehension, of feeling, and of perception. \u00a0Though there is an absence to most\nperspectives, Baggs insists that there is more to it than simply an absence,\nrather a different angle. Troubleshooting<\/em>\u2019s\nDax represents Baggs\u2019s Autistic perspective in the following scenes: Dax\u2019s\nperception of language into patterns, Dax\u2019s struggle with heavily structured\ntasks, and when describing other\u2019s perception of her due to her Autism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Baggs describes her process of\nunderstanding her surroundings as starting with sensory impressions repeated\nlong enough for her to become deeply familiar with them. Once the familiarity is\nestablished, the concept forms into patterns that evolve into a more complex network\nof patterns. This method applies to her understanding of sensory impressions\nand language. She reflects about first having to match words to their responses\nbefore she was able to understand the meaning of the words and why (Baggs).\nThis understanding of a pattern is the dominate way she and Dax both describe understanding\nlanguage. When first interacting with Chill,\nDax describes the process of unpacking his words, \u201cHe\u2019d been talking for a few\nbefore the first information made it to the appropriate parts of my brain\u2026His\nsounds and expressions were coming into focus. He\u2019d begun rephrasing what he\u2019d\nprobably already said\u2026I was starting to get him synchronized\u201d (dePachkh 3-5). Dax\ndoes not fully understand the words Chill speaks until she becomes familiar\nwith the pattern. Even though language is universal,\nspeech has a pattern and people must adapt and get used to each individual\u2019s style,\npeople all do this without thinking most of the time. Unless someone may have\nan accent or different dialect, the adjustment period might be a bit more difficult.\nThe Autistic cognitive process affects her socializing, taking her at a fundamental\nlevel with each interaction, having to pay close attention to words without\neven understanding their meaning and ciphering through the absence of information.\nDax describes herself as having to do this\nadjustment for each new interaction until she adjusts, she will often miss many\nimportant details of a conversation. The process is very exhausting for\nher and forces her to be very alert when trying to communicate effectively with\nothers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Baggs\u2019s describes the autistic experience of\nbeing in the valley and in order to understand other people she must climb\nmountains and reach the sky, this process does not guarantee her a similar\nexperience to those in the sky once she gets there. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to climb\nthat mountain all of the time though, so they are more rarely my experiences\nthan those of others. Still, so many people from the mountain describe the\nvalley only by what is not there, and that is not anywhere near a thorough\nenough description\u201d (Baggs). This different experience is shown by how the\ncontrast of Petra\u2019s experience of Dax compares to Dax\u2019s own experience of\nherself. When she first confronts Dax about\nhaving Autism she comes from an angle of doubt, saying that she does not see\nDax as disabled and that Dax\u2019s tattoo is fake. There is a stereotype that\nautism looks a certain way and like most unaware people, Petra seems to think\nthat Dax is not \u201cautistic enough\u201d (dePackh 78-79). When Petra spends more time\nwith Dax she realizes how much help Dax needs to function on the level that society\nrequires of her and helps Dax complete her To-Do List. Once Petra leaves Dax struggles\nwith her task management and is only able to catch up on her list when \u201cThe\nMistake\u201d moves in and manages it for her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Autistic people are diminished into fragments\nof people merely due to their different cognitive ability that has no effect on\ntheir sexuality or possession of a soul, yet these two factors seem to include\nin the \u201cpackage\u201d of having autism to outsiders. Baggs describes that some of\nher deepest and most profound experiences from her different cognitive\nperception are simplified into an insulting and demeaning explanation of simply\nlacking language, thought, and a soul. This is reflected when Dax\u2019s mother receives\nthe diagnosis that her daughter is Autistic and starts treating her differently.\nAutism is misinterpreted into sociopathy by her mother, which is parallel to Baggs\u2019s\ndescription of the stigma that Autistics lack a soul. Dax also reflects that people\nwith autism are not seen as being able to have sexual desire, yet she proves that\nbias wrong throughout the book with explicit details of her sexual interactions\nand desires with\/for Chill, Petra, and Angela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many characters approach Dax as if something is absent\nand she is not adequate as she is. Even though many people autistic or not,\nhave short-comings or flaws it seems as if hers are more apparent due to the\nfact of her Autism. Dax does not seem bothered by her condition; she seems to\nfunction contentedly in her own skin\/mind unless someone else gives her reason\nto feel difficulty due to discrimination. Dax does not despair about having Autism\nand it is like Amanda Bagg\u2019s said, \u201cFocusing on absence is the easiest way to\ndescribe the presence of something much more important to me than what is\nabsent. Many autistic people have even applied these words to themselves. Some\nof us do this knowing full well that there is so much more that we cannot say\u201d\n(Baggs). Dax seems to understand her surroundings as well as other people. The\nMistake\u201d is an able-bodied man and yet he seems to be the most challenged of\nall the characters: between his violence, anger, mixed signals\/feelings towards\nDax, and abusive behavior towards himself and Dax he seems to be the most\nimpaired character. These narratives prove that absence can be anywhere, not\njust in an official \u201cdiagnosis\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n A person that is different cognitively is not\nseen as a human being. Hence, justifying the cruel and unusual treatment at\nThunderbird Academy towards their patients and the general treatment of Autistic\nin modern day culture. They believe that once they have bee \u201ctreated\u201d then they\nwill deserve to be treated and acknowledged like everyone else until then they\nare not a complete human. Autistics are not offered self-agency due to the belief\nthat Autism is worse than diseases such as measles or other preventable vaccinatable\ndiseases. Yet Baggs and Dax show the readers that Autistics have the ability to\nfeel deeply, desire, think deeply and express themselves through their stories.\n Baggs, Amanda. \u201cUp in the Clouds and Down in the Valley: My\nRichness and Yours.\u201d\u00a0Disability Studies Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 30, no. 1,\n2009, doi:10.18061\/dsq.v30i1.1052. April Wobken ENGL 384 Foss 4\/26\/2019 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Network of Thought of Dax and Baggs Selene dePackh\u2019s Troubleshooting articulately brings the message of the Autistic interpretation that Amanda Baggs conveys in her piece, Up in the Clouds and down in the Valley. Baggs describes the typical Autistic interpretation as the absence of something important; the … Continue reading “The Network of Thought of Dax and Baggs”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-oT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1544,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543\/revisions\/1544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nWorks Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nDePackh, Selene.\u00a0Troubleshooting\u00a0<\/em>. Reclamation Press, 2018.
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\nI pledge; I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor\nreceived unauthorized help on this work. \u2013 April Wobken<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"