gimley reviewed Born on a blue day by Daniel Tammet
Review of 'Born on a blue day' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Autistics are often characterized as unempathic, but this is asking that they empathize with us when we equally fail to empathize with them. In this book, Daniel Tammet tries to bridge the gap by telling who he thinks WE are, who he thinks HE is. But he was taught to value who we are, to see himself as having deficits, and he accepts that verdict while simultaneously bragging about his "extraordinary mind." I was hoping that the chapter in which he meets "Rainman" would offer us a "marriage of true minds" connection, but alas, it does not.
In the end, I was left feeling that the autistic love of facts is a way of protecting the oversensitive, and that, as a result, I never got to know him in the way I would have liked. Maybe his boyfriend Neil must be the one to write such a book.
Autistics are often characterized as unempathic, but this is asking that they empathize with us when we equally fail to empathize with them. In this book, Daniel Tammet tries to bridge the gap by telling who he thinks WE are, who he thinks HE is. But he was taught to value who we are, to see himself as having deficits, and he accepts that verdict while simultaneously bragging about his "extraordinary mind." I was hoping that the chapter in which he meets "Rainman" would offer us a "marriage of true minds" connection, but alas, it does not.
In the end, I was left feeling that the autistic love of facts is a way of protecting the oversensitive, and that, as a result, I never got to know him in the way I would have liked. Maybe his boyfriend Neil must be the one to write such a book.
