MISS DERMARK'S LITERARY RAMBLES: being an aspie

Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta being an aspie. Mostrar todas las entradas

lunes, 5 de mayo de 2014

CAETEXTIA: ASPERGER REDEFINED

A special interesting article about Asperger's... no... caetextia?
Recommended for all Aspergers who have trouble controlling their passions:
http://www.caetextia.com/pages/introduction.html

jueves, 14 de noviembre de 2013

Heard at the club-house in La Coma, one afternoon not long ago:

Irishman (To Sten Dermark): So, your daughter here speaks English...
Sandra Dermark (to Irishman, confidently): Fluent.
Irishman (stunned): You know the word "fluent"... Pretty high level you've got!

(This conversation happened in real life!)

THE ADVANTAGE OF A MAGICAL GIFT

In popular folktales, magical items galore crop up: subjugating potions, cloaks of invisibilty, magic wands, hens and geese that lay eggs of gold... The list is endless!

In the Edwardian era, U.S. comedian/poet Guy Whetmore Carryl wrote parodies in verse of both renowned and obscure fairy tales. My favourite part, in particular, is this little excerpt:

Every tongue he could readily speak:

French, German, Italian, Greek,

Norwegian, Bulgarian,

Turkish, Bavarian,

Japanese, Hindustanee,

Russian and Mexican!

He was a lexicon,

Such as you seldom will see.

His knowledge linguistic gave Ollendorff fits,

And brought a hot flush to the face of Berlitz!

Yes, "Berlitz" as in the famous phrasebook series!

And yes, the gift of languages exists in real life, and it has brought me out of many a predicament...

DRESS TO EXPRESS

For some unexplainable reason, the characters that I tend to identify with and admire on screen are nearly always supporting characters.
Some because of their erudition. Others because of their extraversion. And others because they are extravert and dress in bright colours/revolutionarly unusual patterns (and are certainly cultured).
The Stylist in Disney's Bolt, for instance. She has got but a few words and a few seconds of screentime, but her youth, extraversion, and attire (being nothing more than a caricature of a stereotypical film stylist) have given her a niche in my heart:

This is partially due to the human conflict between desire and duty, between honne and tatemae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honne_and_tatemae). Social standards don't allow young women to skip, jump, and overreact like children... Luckily, neither the Stylist, Luna Lovegood, Ty Lee or Pinkie Pie are limited by such constraints (and neither Lady Valdis)!

miércoles, 13 de noviembre de 2013

MORE ON CHAMSOUS-SABAH

More about our favourite cutesy li'l girl queen, next to Christina. And this time, in French!

Même soif de s’instruire chez la princesse Chamsous Sabah, considérée comme « l’avenir du pays » par son goût du savoir (« Tout l’intéresse, dit le sage Yadoa, elle est aussi intelligente que jolie, élevée avec les meilleurs précepteurs des quatre coins du monde et parle plusieurs langues »). Mais les livres ne suffisent pas : le soir, la princesse se déguise pour sortir incognito et découvrir le monde « en vrai ». On peut voir dans son personnage courageux et intrépide une sorte de Kirikou au féminin. Elle est toujours vaillante, et son optimisme est de taille à tout surmonter (« Tous les hommes de ma famille ont été empoisonnés ou tués au combat, soit avec des ennemis soit entre eux. C’est triste. Oui mais il ne faut pas l’être, on n’en finirait pas. C’est à notre tour de vivre et d’être utiles. »)
À plusieurs reprises, la superstition est fermement dénoncée. Quand Azur demande à la princesse si la couleur de ses yeux ne la dérange pas, elle parle d’« enfantillages ».

10. LA PRINCESSE CHAMSOUS-SABAH (5’38)
Le palais. dans la magnifique géométrie du sobre palais de la princesse : patio, enfilades, dédales et bassins [scène du labyrinthe d’eau écourtée, voir page 13]. jusqu’à une salle immense, meublée d’énormes instruments scientifiques.
La princesse. Annoncée solennellement, la princesse fait son entrée : surprise, c’est une enfant de six ans, vive et intelligente, qui tout au long de l’entrevue prend un malin plaisir à faire enrager le Grand Chambellan qui la surveille.
La princesse fait ensuite les honneurs du lieu, qui n’est autre que l’observatoire du sage Yadoa et dont la coupole s’ouvre sur le ciel. Enfin, malgré les remontrances du Chambellan, elle chuchote...
La petite pauvresse. Déguisée en pauvresse, la petite princesse rejoint en sautant d’une fenêtre du palais. Avec lui comme guide, elle est toute à sa joie de découvrir les rues, un chat noir, un arbre vrai, des lucioles… Du faîte d’un arbre, escaladé avec le chat, elle contemple sa ville et en énumère pour son compagnon quartiers et monuments.
Azur et Chamsous-Sabah, repérés et poursuivis par la bande, se réfugient chez Jenane, atterrée de cette intrusion princière. Elle renvoie sans ambages chez elle la petite princesse, pourtant prête à continuer son palais buissonnier. Pendant qu’Asmar raccompagne l’enfant au palais, Azur fabrique avec un coussin un leurre en forme de princesse pour tromper les agresseurs.
la princesse pendant son cours de danse : ayant entendu la cause des deux frères, elle suggère à la fée de les épouser tous deux. Mais ce n’est pas la solution, et Chamsous-Sabah offre d’appeler Yadoa. Une fois arrivé, le savant déclare son impuissance à se prononcer.
Les couples se forment : la petite princesse et le vieux sage,

Les bassins jouent le même rôle, ils accentuent cette symétrie (avec un effet de miroir dans le palais de la princesse Chamsous Sabah). …
--Extraits :
48’40 : le palais de la princesse Chamsous Sabah

La princesse est très jeune, tous les hommes de sa famille sont morts

empoisonnés ou tués au combat.

Annoncée solennellement, la princesse fait son entrée : surprise, c’est une enfant de six ans, vive et intelligente. Une enfant intense et sensée, pleine de fraîcheur et
de drôlerie.

La princesse Chamsous Sabagh : elle est presque encore une enfant, elle incarne le progrès et témoigne de l'âge d'or de la civilisation musulmane.

une jeune princesse érudite.

La sagesse sara présente par la grâce d'un autre sage : la petite princesse, fillette d’une extrême jeunesse qui possède la sagesse d'un cerveau intact en harmonie avec celle de l'expérience des années.

La petite princesse Chansous-Sabah symbolise la soif de connaissance et l’ouverture d’esprit qui conduisent à la tolérance. Elle est élevée par des précepteurs venus des quatre coins du monde. Son observatoire témoigne de l’intérêt de son peuple pour la science : les labyrinthes, les horloges, les automates, et surtout les instruments et la coupole amovible qui permettent d’étudier les astres pour déterminer la direction de la Mecque pour prier.

Malgré son jeune âge, elle veut découvrir la richesse du monde et confronter la théorie à l’expérience d’où sa fugue d’une nuit pour voir de ses propres yeux.

Elle ne prône pas une connaissance livresque détachée de l’humain mais au contraire alliée à l’intelligence du cœur. Grâce à sa vivacité intellectuelle, elle porte un regard neuf sur les choses et sur le monde.

domingo, 10 de noviembre de 2013

MEET LARISA

Ladies and gents, may I introduce...

Larisa Korolev!!

Her life philosophy can be summed up in three words: “Life is now!” Larisa is doing whatever she wants to do, without thinking too much about the consequences of her actions. As a passionate pyromaniac, she’s always keen on setting things on fire, abandoned huts just as well as the hearts of more or less innocent boys. Larisa is a young femme fatale; a prime example of the chaotic neutral alignment of various role-playing game systems.

Larisa’s father Ivan works as an artist and mostly paints abstract and/or apocalyptic paintings to earn a living. Although Larisa has inherited his love for the arts, they don’t get along that well since she prefers landscape art to Pollock’s “masterpieces”. Her mother Yelena is still alive, and they are happily married.
Larisa is diabetic (she takes insulin shots) and suffers from allergies, aside from those personality issues of hers...
Hope you get used to her, for she stars in one of my favourite fusion fics: the epic "The Apple, the Pear, and the Plum", that I have written myself drawing from lost husband tales. In this fic, Larissa is the false/rival bride: a troubled royal who does not reflect on he consequences of her selfish attachment, but later on regrets and is pardoned...

lunes, 4 de noviembre de 2013

PASSIONS EXPLAINED

I recently read a fairytale by yet another obscure Victorian writer, about a princess whose parents had given her no tutors or education to control her and make her completely subservient.
Then, one of her suitors dethroned her father and liege (had him locked away, after the coup, in a lunatic asylum) to subsequently summon the intelligentsia of the land to court, to instruct her:

History acted its deeds before her on their lips. Strange nations lived and spoke

 to her; and as she spoke to them she learned their language.

My interest in the past is far newer than my philological vein.

I was once told that learning about the past would help

me comprehend the present and even the future, as demonstrated in the many

 historical allusions scattered throughout this very blog.

As a child, I was interested in languages being a third-culture child from a multicultural background. I was told stories and sung to in English, in Swedish, Spanish, Catalan, even in German and French. The prospect of strange nations and fantasy worlds was tempting for a hinterland outsider like me... but the first thought I had was of changing this world (present-day Earth) for better, stopping all crimes, wars, and religious conflicts. I was also curious about learning where words come from, why there are cognates and false friends across languages (that discipline is called onomasiology)... With the pass of years, those wishes gave way to sheer passion: philology for the sake of philology. So it is to the present day and the come-of-age university student.
And yes, royal children, like cadets and wannabe diplomats, had to be multilingual in the olden days.
Still into our days, that is a skill that shapes history, raising bridges across nations/cultures and revealing hidden secrets. I think of Luther, having learned Latin and Greek at Erfurt, being able to understand the original Bible and kickstart the Protestant Reformation... and of the diplomats behind Westphalia and many other relevant peace treaties.
Needless to say that Gustavus Adolphus and his daughter Christina were both multilingual, and so were Charles V, Luther, and many others.

jueves, 31 de octubre de 2013

ALSO SPRACH FRÄULEIN DERMARK

A recent bible for creating fictional characters happened to fall recently into my hands.
I identify myself mostly with this character type/archetype:
The FREE SPIRIT: eternal optimist, she dances to unheard tunes. Playful and fun-loving, she travels through life with a hop, skip and a jump, always stopping to smell the flowers and admire the pretty colors. She acts on a whim and follows her heart, not her head.
Motivated by following her heart.
Virtues:
-sincere
-upbeat
-imaginative
Flaws:
-impulsive
-meddling
-undisciplined

4. Free Spirit—motivated by following her heart
· Virtues
· sincere
· upbeat
· imaginative
· Flaws
o impulsive
o meddling
o undisciplined - See more at: http://amberargyle.blogspot.com.es/2008/10/8-master-archetypes.html#sthash.yUr5l5P0.dpuf

Katinka and many other of my female OC:s (in fact, most of them! Think Réna/Ilona, Hedwig, Ulrika) are Free Spirits as well, while the lead male roster in my works tends to consist of dark and conflicted Romantic heroes (Gustavus, Katinka's POW beau turned spouse, for instance).
A more complete personality typology listed me as a Mercurial. Think of a person with mercury poisoning (AKA Mad Hatter Syndrome): http://www.ptypes.com/mercurial.html

viernes, 8 de marzo de 2013

SUN OF THE MORNING

Thus translates the name of Chamsous-Sabah, an Eastern girl-queen featured in the Michel Ocelot film Azur and Asmar. She has the run of her redoubtable palace, is taught by "the best preceptors in all corners of the world", and, unlike the common people, is not afraid of Frenchman Azur's blue eyes, can speak to him in his mother tongue, and thinks black cats don't bring bad luck.

Able to speak several languages, she constantly thirsts for knowledge, and challenges tradition and prejudice. She has led a sheltered and solitary life with books and foreign adults for friends: all of her male relatives have either been poisoned by ambitious courtiers or slain on the battlefield. But, in spite of her age and gender, she is certain to outwit those who threaten her life.
Yet being the ruler of a vast empire does not mean she behaves like a little adult: she likes skipping and running as much as any ordinary little girl.
Chamsous-Sabah is courageous and optimistic. In her own words: "All the men in my family have either been poisoned or killed in battle, either against enemies or against each other. It's sad, but existence has got to come to an end. Now it's our turn to live and be useful!"
Based largely upon Queen Christina (transpose her from her medieval Eastern country to seventeenth-century Sweden and bleach her!: both are hyperactive and curious little girl-queens), she reminds me of myself and is thus one of my favourite fictional characters: when I got to know her, the traits that she shares with both Christina and me were revealed to be the same!
(I read some critics' remarks that Chamsous-Sabah, being an extraverted gifted and curious child, represents the future. Another critic, however, treats her as a symbol of "thirst for knowledge and curiosity for the diversity of the world." A third critic sees her as a personification of progress, an idea related to the future).
In spite of being merely a supporting character, she filled my eyes with tears: she reminded me of what I am and of those wonderful words I was once told: "If all people were like you, there would be no more wars!"
A rare combination of youth and erudition, that also echoes Shakespeare's lawyer lass Portia: so young a body, so old a mind, both in the same individual!
Thus, with a character I got to identify with, ends my cycle of posts on prodigies, aspies and ivory tower dwellers through the ages.

LIEUTENANT PUSS IN BOOTS

In the previous post, I mentioned Napoleon Bonaparte as a prodigy and prospective aspie.

During his teens, the young Corsican lieutenant obsessed himself with pharaohs, firearms, and The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He could rather be found in the public library than in the tavern, all alone and reading a book than drinking brandy and playing cards in the company of his fellow officers.
The teenage Napoleon was a reserved and aloof young officer, lacking social skills, but eager to know more.
He would have been considered the regimental "nerd" nowadays.

Portrait of a young student lieutenant.

And here he is in full uniform, rapier sheathed, wig beneath his tricorn!

His fragile and effeminate appearance also contributed to Lieutenant Bonaparte's reputation as an aloof loner, frequently compared to a then-popular fairy tale character: he earned the sobriquet of Le Lieutenant Chat-Botté (pronounced "le lyöt-NAA SHA bot-TEE"): "Lieutenant Puss In Boots".
In love, he was obviously a shrinking violet. And his first love, Caroline-Louise de Colombier, who bestowed upon him the nickname of "Puss in Boots", was equally shy.

Prussian novelist Luise Mühlbach wrote, in the nineteenth century, a biography of Josephine that included also the life of her consort. When this story takes place, Napoleon is sixteen, stationed in Valence, and already considered one of the local outsiders:

Lieutenant Bonaparte memorial in downtown Valence.

"A life of labor and study, of hopes and dreams, now began for the young lieutenant. He gave himself up entirely to his military service, and pursued earnest, scientific studies in regard to it. Mathematics, the science of war, geometry, and finally politics, were the objects of his zeal; but alongside of these he read and studied earnestly the works of Voltaire, Corneille, Racine, Montaigne, the Abbe Raynal, and, above all, the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose passionate and enthusiastic disciple Napoleon Bonaparte was at that time.

Amid so many grave occupations of the mind it would seem that the heart with all its claims had to remain in the background. The smiling boy Cupid, with his gracious raillery and his smarting griefs, seemed to make no impression on that pale, grave, and taciturn artillery lieutenant, and not to dare shoot an arrow toward that bosom which had mailed itself in an impenetrable cuirass of misanthropy, stoicism, and learning.

But yet between the links of this coat-of-mail an arrow must have glided, for the young lieutenant suddenly became conscious that there in his bosom a heart did beat, and that it was going in the midst of his studies to interrupt his dreams of misanthropy. Yes. it had come to this, that he abandoned his study to pay his court to a young lady, that at her side he lost his gravity of mien, his gloomy taciturnity, and became joyous, talkative, and merry, as beseemed a young man of his age.

The young lady who exercised so powerful an influence upon the young Bonaparte was the daughter of the commanding officer at Valence, M. de Colombier. He loved her, but his lips were yet too timid to confess it, and of what need were words to these young people to understand one another and to know what the one felt for the other?

In the morning they took long walks through the beautiful park; they spoke one to another of their childhood, of their brothers and sisters...
The sweet idyl of his first love had, however, come to a sudden and unexpected end. The young Second-Lieutenant Bonaparte was ordered to Lyons with his regiment, and the first innocent romance of his heart was ended.

But he never forgot the young maid, whom he then had so tenderly loved, and in the later days of his grandeur he remembered her, and when he learned that she had lost her husband, a M. de Bracieux, and lived in very depressing circumstances, he appointed her maid of honor to his sister Elise, and secured her a very handsome competency."

This is the first post of the series about prodigies and early misconceptions about savants and aspies that I have now started. As an aspie, I feel both alarmed and surprised by all prejudices, both for and against my kin, that have historically existed.

LIFE IS A SHORT TRIP

This post continues with my discussion on prodigies, aspies and savants.
Until the mid-twentieth century, they were thought to have a much shorter lifespan than normal people, because their minds developed more quickly.
Renaissance and Baroque poets hated prodigies, comparing them to brittle and early-blooming cherry blossoms.
Maybe Queen Christina of Sweden and the young Napoleon suffered from an unstable state of health, but the "early-blooming" prejudice could be debunked from their cases, since both lived about five or six decades: the average life span of a person in those days.
On the other hand, a person combining the beauty and health of youth with a sharp mind and vast knowledge was and is an ideal often attained by role models: this combination was exalted in important people, whether Catholic saints, Protestant faith heroes (such as both Gustavus Adolphus and his daughter Christina), or secular revolutionary leaders (Napoleon Bonaparte).
To quote Kortekaas, this occurrence is "a much-loved commonplace, both in religious and secular literature". Ernst Robert Curtius christened this occurrence puer/puella senex ("elderly boy/girl"). In the olden days, aristocratic and royal children were dressed as adults and given a thorough education, and thus, the commonplace has also been described visually.

CERIMON'S PUPIL

In stories of the Apollonius Cycle, there is a student of medicine who lives in a solitary house in the seashore of the region of Ionia with his classmates and their professor Cerimon, a worthy physician.
Despite being a supporting character, our young student is rather well-portrayed. The Latin original calls him "aspectu adolescens, sed, quantum ingenio, senex." An English translation conveys the meaning of this little portrait word for word: "a young man, but possessing the wisdom of old age." Another version goes: "a young man in appearance, but an old man in wisdom."

According to Kortekaas, this commonplace started in higher literature.

There are two German versions. Both describe the student as "vor allen seinem Schülern in der Arznei erfahren": "more experienced (at least, theoretically) in the healing art than all of his classmates". These versions are also the first to christen the character: the Viennese version calls him Machaon, while he is known as Pandecta in Leipzig.

In the 14th-century Heinrich of Neustadt version, he is called Philemon ("Filomein"), and described as:

"Kam der junge Filomein;

Dan an der Kunst was er alt:

Er hett synne manig valt.

Er was des Meisters Jünger ee."

In modern German: "Der junge Filomein,

der an der Kunst alt war,

und dessen Sinne viel Wert hatte".

Young Filomein,

who was old in the (healing) art

and whose mind was worth a lot".

Filomi der kunst reich

Zu manigem synne richtet er sich.

In modern German: "Filomein der kunstreiche

zu vielem Sinne richtet er sich":

"Filomein the skilful one

resorts to his great mind".

A much earlier German translation, written by Richard Peters in 1904 Leipzig, describes this character as: "ein Schüler, dem Aussehen nach ein Jüngling, aber was den Verstand anging, ein Greis.": "a pupil, with the appearance of a youth, but, when it came to wit, an elder".

The Leipzig version was arguably the one to reach Sweden in chapbook form, as the young man is named Pandecta in the Swedish-language tale compiled by Bäckström. However, he is described in Bellman's language as "en klok man, som i sin konst vida övergick sin mästare": "a clever man, who far surpassed his teacher in their (the healing) art" (Note the word "klok": "clever", i.e. learned, cognate of German "klug". It is used of the wealthy princess and her fiancé in Andersen's "Snow Queen" to describe their cultural level!).

In a German summary, he is only "ein Schüler des Arztes": No mention of him being learned.

On the other hand, the pupil is christened Machaon in the Elizabethan Anglophone novel The Pattern of Painful Adventures, by Laurence Twine, and he is referred to as "of yeres but yong, but antient in wit and experience". Or, in present-day English, "of years but young but ancient in wit and experience".

While searching the Web for Christ myth theory, I found another translation of Apollonius legend, in which the student, "the young man" I have compared with Nietzsche, Leibniz, Napoleon, Queen Christina, and me... was referred to as: "of youthful appeareance, but mature judgment".

In the Gesta Romanorum:
[···] a pupil of the physician, a young man, but possessing the wisdom of old age [···]
What's more, Cerimon approves of him (called merely "the youth" and "the young man") like this:
"I approve your skill", returned he, "I magnify your art, and wonder at your prudence.
Mark the results of learning, and be not ungrateful to science. Receive now thy reward [···]"
A footnote calls him: [···] this same wise youth [···]

In Gower's Confession, he is merely a "disciple", and his knowledge is sadly given to Cerimon himself (perchance Gower thought of a wise old man rather than a child/young prodigy as possessor of such knowledge).

The anonymous Spanish-language version, written in quatrains, uses different constructions to describe our prodigy: he is introduced to us as "un discípulo sabio y bien letrado": "a wise and well-educated student". Then he is called "el buen discípulo de gran entendimiento": "the good student, possessing great knowledge". A final remark on his mind: "El escolar fue bueno, un maestro valía": "The student was good (i.e. skilful), he was worth a master". The Spanish version retains the namelessness of the original's discipulus, not giving him any Christian name.

In the nineteenth century, Anglophone critic Smyth calls him Cerimon's "precociously smart pupil".

In William Shakespeare's seventeenth-century stage version Pericles, our supporting character is simply the First Gentleman.

A recent essay (published last year!) explains that "prodigious wisdom in ancient literature is often described by means of the puer-senex character".

This is the first post of the series about prodigies and early misconceptions about savants and aspies that I have now started. As an aspie, I feel both alarmed and surprised by all prejudices, both for and against my kin, that have historically existed.