VCE English Text Response: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

Your (optional) podcast author email address (Bronwyn Kate Gannan) — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 00:49:00 -0700

BACKGROUND

Hello everybody, this is Bronwyn Kate. Occasionally I am invited to my former school to give talks and presentations. This is one of the consequences of being one of the top English students in 2001, the year I completed my VCE. Because I have an academic and personal interest in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, my friend and integration aide, Maureen Barravecchio, asked me if I would like to speak to the students about this book as one of the students has Asperger Syndrome and it has a special meaning for the other students because of this, as they have had many discussions with him over the past few years. This eventuated on the 21st of July 2005; I had only read the book 17 days before when I had written this presentation on the 18th July. Keep in mind this presentation is in response to specific questions that the students and their teacher (who taught me Literature when I was in Year 9 and 10 and again in Year 12) had asked me. It is thus created in a spirit of trust and respect. I am well aware that to get something, you have to give something. It may or may not help your text responses, but I hope you get some extra insight and understanding.

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TRANSCRIPT

I think Haddon wrote the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time because he was genuinely interested in the way Christopher might go about his everyday life. He seems like a writer that would push the boundaries, which is why he was attracted to adolescent fiction specifically. His intentions and hopes are that people would discuss the subject matter broadly and openly, and see into the mind of not only Christopher, but his family. I think he wanted it to be a work suitable for almost everybody - from reluctant readers to gifted students. I think people can learn something that fits and suits them - learn how to explore their world further and question assumptions they have had for a very long time. He wants to make people think, feel and act. As he was a special education teacher at one point in the past, I think he is critiquing the protective environment and cul-de-sac atmosphere of school and town. In other ways, it is very much a social realist novel, and works very much like a hero or journey narrative. I think he wants to empower people on the autistic spectrum, and also those around them who may have contact in any way.

I thought the book was very true. I was very engaged and critical outside and inside the book-world. The ideas are deep, the style is direct and honest, and the structure is sometimes choppy. It says that life is very important and everyone is valid, and nobody is dispensable, that there are aspects of the world that will always remain strange and different. It says a lot about the power of love and hope, and even people who are evil act in understandable ways. People are not simple, and they are trying their best most of the time. In some ways it didn't ring true that Christopher could be so self-centred, and that he could notice absolutely everything. Trust is absolutely everything in Christopher's world; and in our world.

Yes, essentially I can relate, though some things are alien and foreign to me. I can relate, for instance, to his observations, just the general way he expresses and communicates them. I can definitely relate to how Siobhan critiques his writing, and in general the way his family and close friends supporting him. I can relate to his passions and some of the things that make him happy, and have done so in the past. Also the things he gets angry and scared about, and some of the rituals he develops. I think I can relate also to the way he talks about his memory, and his love for patterns. I was glad he could say the things he did.

Both those authors had a great deal of editing. I think Christopher would be similar to Temple Grandin in the way he builds models in his head - his visual experiences. The writing style might be different, but many of the topics and themes he focuses on would be almost universal. Donna Williams covers the beauty and fear of the autistic world very well. Themes which resonate there are the conformity and the vividness of the sensory experiences. I think if you want to write a book, you really have to cover the sensory experiences as they are so hard to describe and talk about. Also the toughness of the working-middle-class environment. Everyone has their own style, and I don't wish to diminish that at all. The way Williams kept certain things 'precious' and 'special'. I have fairly clear views of what these authors were doing at fifteen and sixteen (Christopher's age). They were looking back, even though they experienced it and remembered it. Christopher is a creature of the current day (or the near current day), and he has a very strong sense of himself, even though he has self-doubts. I do think Haddon has been using 'autistic' writings in his research, and used his imagination to amplify that. Sometimes I find imagination very difficult, because my head is filled with things and associations, and sometimes I start with a prompt or an idea. Also there is a loose connection between things. I think there is a realness and an authenicity in Haddon's portrayal of Christopher's writing voice. It has a lot of authority, possibly because it's the only voice like it, and on the other hand, it plays on all these voices. Something a bit like music or maths - the harmony, the composition. I find Christopher similar to Donna Williams in the way he describes people who have a function/familiarity to him, and similar to Grandin in the way he uses supporting documentation (one example in Grandin is when she puts in her poem about the monks in the Dark Ages to show her difficulty in using rhythm especially in poetry, in her first book). I think Christopher, Williams and I all have something in common that we try to make our writing like conversation, at least in informal registers, and then we have this formal style. The consistency of the voice both within and across individual units.

I think things like reading and writing were easier for me than for most of my peers. I find difficult things like sport, and most forms of organised sequence and movement. I find difficult getting things out in a timely manner. I think I am a good listener most of the time. It really depends on the aspect of the thing. I find it difficult to finish things. I find it easy to be happy, and easy to show my thoughts and feelings. I have difficulty in finding safe people. I find it easy to answer questions, and to speak in public. I find it easier to tolerate different kinds of people. I am something of a perfectionist. I find shades of meaning easy but not always non-verbally. I really find it difficult to bounce back from criticism and rejection, particularly if it is of the subjective kind. I find it hard to judge people. I find it easy to be fair-minded and really get to know a person. I can really stick up for a person, and I know how to be an honest and fair friend - even if I hurt people. I find it difficult to see things which hurt. Things are easier for me now that I don't get embarrassed or disgusted too much. I find it easier to take praise and control myself. I think the wisest thing is really not to compare, but then you lose a vital tool of insight. I find some kinds of self-monitoring very easy and others very hard. I would like to think that I have the same amount of difficulty as other people, except maybe with emotions and talking about them. I do find it easy to keep a secret and to make a complaint.

I think it's very harmful that Christopher could call them behaviour problems. It's good that he's honest but there's always the suspicion that he was repeating it from someone who didn't always have his best interests at heart. He has only his nose in front of his face, so to speak. 'Hating France' for instance could be a difficult one in our climate. I tend to think something is a behaviour problem if it draws you further away fro those around you or your true self. And it's very important to draw close not further away. It's interesting that the people who know how to deal with him best (as a human being) know less about this. Mrs Alexander, for instance, and then contrast her with the policeman when he goes to Willesden Grove. The policeman at Swindon is all right, giving him a caution and not a police record. I think some of the people around him have a lot of problems in their own lives, in their own relationships and intimacies. Christopher tends to amplify them - but not to cause them or cure them. I also think there's a lot on both sides. Sometimes people really can't see what's going on in themsleves or the other person. Many of the things Christopher talks about are situational or have changed over time. I think it's all about adaptability to change. But behaviour is so much more about behaviour. It has to be in context. Christopher has problems in some areas; other people have problems. The goal posts are ever shifting.

I think he does know. Not in the sense of a formal diagnosis or anything, but he does know it inside him. And the people around him - Ed and Siobhan - do know. I think it does matter that he knows, so it makes dealing with himself and other people easier. I always did know who and what I was, and in a sense I felt burdened and liberated. I sense that people may feel burdened around me, but not because of me. I do feel mostly liberated - I have to allow myself to think and feel like myself, and know what is ordinary for me.

The things about neurotypicals Christopher finds frustrating, like faces moving and bodies moving. And also doing 'chat' and some types of humour, like the man who works with Ed. Those are fairly typical though you find a great deal of variation. And the lies - that resonates very much. Also the changes, especially before or after he goes and takes his Maths A-level. And the way they sometimes don't take animals seriously, especially those who aren't their own. The way they sometimes combine things that you think really shouldn't go together - like differnet kinds of food and drink. Intellectual passions and perceptions - or the lack of. How everyone seems to be the same and yet different. 'Conforming non-conformists'. The crowds and crowds of people, particularly on public transport. Different people have different issues with different things, and I hope for Christopher's sake it's only frustration, not resentment or jealousy or anything like that.

I think he will face things like having to control his frustration, and things like academic subjects and language. He will have to face fitting into somebody else's agenda and the balance between taking and giving in control. He might have to face his sexuality - will he have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or maybe no-one at all? He might have to learn about 'catching more flies with honey than with vinegar' and discussing more personal things than hitherto. And if he doesn't have a clear path or something goes wrong on that path. He'll have to have a realistic assessment of his capabilities and limitations. And meet very different people, and have different relationships with his family and neighbours. He'll have to learn how to negotiate, discuss and other things. He'll have to be very aware of himself and his environment all the time, and find ways to relax and wind down, and learn to manage stress. This is not always foolproof. I think he would be very happy if he fulfils his ambition, but he might have to be happy with getting by and settling for less, and living a long life. He will have to find a purpose in his life, both practical and emotional, and that will help him do the things he needs to do. He needs to try not to wallow in the past or let others exploit him, and be happy being himself but be aware that there is a vast vista for growth and change and development. He will have to learn to be far more patient with people who don't share his intellectual procolivities.

I think it's great, and certainly no more or less than the majority of special interests, which often make life worth living and are great to share the centring spirit. It's probably no different to people getting interested in CSI. Sherlock Holmes is pretty cool as he is a model of a detective. He obviously likes him for puzzles and mysteries, and finds resonance with personal characteristics, like the way he deduces them. Holmes is very logical about people and widely read and erudite. Christopher's desire to be a detective is really the impetus for the plot of the book, and it's a symbol for being more in control of his life, it's the way in which he learns more about the doubleness of people, and that things are rarely what they seem. Reading detective stories is obviously a form of relaxation and pleasure. But the further action and conflict has to come from Christopher dealing with Ed saying that he can't be a detective. He's got to do what he's got to do, and he doesn't even think about not writing the book, which shows his perseverance and courage... Just being Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy, he might feel powerless and impotent and isolated - if such occured to hm. It helps him become closer to his mother and Mr Shears. It reinforces his tendencies to logical examination - it keeps him sharp and it keeps him honest, in a way. And Hound of the Baskervilles in particular, might have inspired his love for dogs and his caring for Wellington and Sandy. It is certainly important for someone who has not read much literature before. It will be some great intertextual reading, whether for profit or pleasure.

As a matter of fact, I read the first story of the first Sherlock Holmes book, A Scandal in Bohemia:

"To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained teasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory."

That is an interesting speculation - about certain neurological conditions being a 'further evolution of human existence'. I must admit that it tickles me and fascinates me. It fits more into a Lamarckian/Aristotlean view of evolution, though. I have read Thorn Hartmann's speculations about ADHD, hunters and gatherers; and similar things about Nethandrals. However, I do feel personally disquieted about talking about evolution in that horizontal or vertical way. I think human diversity is very important, and that it continually challenges us. Creation is relatively static after a certain point. Humans are constantly evolving, but we are certainly not the only ones on this planet. And there are ideas like the Indigo Children. I try to take many of these ideas with a grain of salt. I have certainly encountered and benefited from a high standard of discourse, and freedom to act. Unfortunately evolution is more complex than a virus or a meme, and people tend to get jealous. Recipriocrity and altruism are very important, if only as ideas. It would be a very powerful idea for many people, great to make founding myths and change perceptions. We have to look at life as it is, but also have a vision of how it could be. By the way, I think the site (The Institute for the Study of the Neurotypical, and also Aspergia) is very funny. Black humour, in some ways. Let us please appreciate the diversity we already have got, it will take many billions of years. Quite a few have survived in the wild or in rugged conditions, like Victor of Averyon and our own Glen Rouget of Mansfield, and some more have been on Silicon Valley. Again, it's a very interesting and deep question which made my imagination go wild. There is at least one good science-fiction book by Elizabeth Moon called THE SPEED OF DARK. It is about Lou and his friends - a great group of autistic citizens from the future - but it is a bit of a dystopia in some ways.

LINK TO THE PODCAST

http://s48.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=300QHDDUEF4VJ2KYX61YQE07T0

Actually it is 15 megabytes. I hope your system or your school's system has enough room. Maybe you can store it on a Flash Jet or similar USB external drive. I recommend you get one of these for your VCE.

Hello everybody! This is the first podcast

Your (optional) podcast author email address (Bronwyn Kate Gannan) — Wed, 5 Apr 2006 23:47:00 -0700

If you're in Year 11 and 12 in Victoria, or studying under the Victorian system, this resource is all for you, all the time!

This was inspired by a student who wanted to know where HSC (New South Wales) podcasts were. There aren't any as far as I know so I decided to start one for VCE students.

Let me know what you want and why and we'll try to find a way to put it out there.

I'm assuming you want to hear your notes, resources and lectures?

Teachers, you are welcome to contribute to this podcast too.