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A Neuro-atypical Life with High Functioning Autism
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Asperger’s Doorknob is a companion site to Blenderkitty.com, and is home to An Aversion to Ladders, a memoir/novel about my late-diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome. My paintings, works on paper, and comics can still be seen at Blender Kitty. Genesis
and Intention of This Project:
The
plot: Michael is a hyper-logical man who understands himself in debilitating detail, yet he can only relate to the world outside his door through social logic gleaned from old movies, especially science fiction and screwball romantic comedies. He comes to believe an angel has invaded his house, and lacking corporeal form this entity assumes the guise of his memories: both real remembrances and those transposed from movies. Michael's housebound existence is a metaphor for his undiagnosed autism, and, like Jacob, he must wrestle his fiery angel to secure a blessing from a curse. In the end the angel cannot free him from his house, so leaves him with a window and a starry view.
This film from Chapter Five illustrates my Asperger's trait of finding patterns and pictures in strange places. "A potpie was placed in the microwave, and the six minutes of cooking time were used to doctor a piece of duct tape masking a hole in his shoe. Some years the indigent man made as little as seven thousand dollars, but he had become wily over the years in hiding his destitution. In this instance, he was employing Chaplinesque ingenuity in painting a piece of taped-over cardboard to match the tread on his sole. He could perhaps work more and afford better footwear, and even better groceries, but preferred working as little as possible and at jobs that required no intelligence and few interactions with others. He needed to constantly remind himself he suffered because he was an artist, not because he was a masochist." –from Chapter One Why
I am publishing my book on a website:
An Aversion to Ladders took four intensive years to write, with tens of thousands of edits that would have been inconceivable without the aid of a computer. Animations, original art, and popup images will be found among these pages, although such devices are employed sparingly and serve to set the mood rather than to illustrate action. Subsequent Flash films preload with each chapter, so if you have a landline, and jump ahead, please allow a minute or two for the next film to load.
Plug-in for Flash Player (if needed). (This book is not recommended for readers under the age of eighteen.)
Table of Contents: PART I: Spyglass Darkly House Prologue: (A Sleep) 1 (A Forgetting) 1 (A Coming from Afar) 1 Chapter One (Heaven and Hell): 1, 2 Chapter Two (The Labyrinth): 1, 2, 3 Chapter Three (Stonesthrow): 1, 2 Chapter Four (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Part 1): 1, 2 Chapter Five (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Part 2): 1, 2 Chapter Six (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Part 3): 1, 2, 3 Chapter Seven (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Part 4): 1, 2 PART II: The Idée Fixe Chapter Eight (Chaos): 1, 2 Chapter Nine (The Dancing Star, Part 1): 1, 2, 3 Chapter Ten (The Dancing Star, Part 2): 1, 2 Chapter Eleven (A Visitation): 1, 2 Chapter Twelve (The Persistence of Memory): 1, 2 Chapter Thirteen (The Ghost in the Machine, Part 1): 1, 2 Chapter Fourteen (The Ghost in the Machine, Part 2): 1, 2, 3 PART III: The Blind Man Chapter Fifteen (The Blind Man, Part 1): 1, 2 Chapter Sixteen (The Blind Man, Part 2): 1, 2 Chapter Seventeen (Invasion of the Body Snatcher) 1, 2, 3, 4 Chapter Eighteen (In-Betweenness) 1, 2 Chapter Nineteen (The Unsayable, Part 1) 1, 2, 3 Chapter Twenty (The Unsayable, Part 2) 1, 2 PART IV: The Doppelgänger Chapter Twenty-one (The Haunted Ruin) 1, 2 Chapter Twenty-two (The Doppelgänger) 1, 2 Chapter Twenty-three (The Bug Collector) 1, 2, 3, 4 Chapter Twenty-four (The Child, Part 1) 1, 2 Chapter Twenty-five (The Child, Part 2) 1, 2, 3 PART V: Intangible Gift Chapter Twenty-six (Infinity) 1, 2 Chapter Twenty-seven (The Sublime) 1, 2, 3 Chapter Twenty-eight (The Black Box) 1 Chapter Twenty-nine (The Object Lesson) 1, 2, 3 Chapter Thirty (The Unknowable Thing-in-Itself) 1, 2 Chapter Thirty-one (The Day of Eternal Noon) 1, 2 Epilogue: (Mirrors and Windows) 1 (The Balance of Memory) 1
Calendar: · Start date for manuscript: late October 2003 · Unofficial finish date for manuscript and art: late December 2007 · Official finish date: mid-January 2008 · Reformat (2/18/08) · Edit of Note: I have embellished the scene in Chapter Three where Michael leaves a note for his sister telling her he is moving away. This note, unread, is later retrieved in a rewritten section of the second Epilogue. There is also a motif added in the same Chapter Three scene about the family house being for sale, and a motif about a boarder moving in is added to Chapter Five. The house sale is resolved in Chapter Thirty-one, although the boarder remains an open question in the second Epilogue. These elements are supplied to not only reinforce the ambiguity of the ending but also to underscore Michael’s unshakable connection to the house. (6/01/08) See Companion Notes Update (6/03/08) The Modules : This link takes you to a portal page where companion notes, the DSM-IV Criteria for Asperger's Syndrome, and present and future projects arising from my book can be found. About
images used on this site: Intended
readers:
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Book Copyright© 2007 Michael Teague. All rights reserved. Site Copyright© 2008 Michael Teague. All rights reserved. |
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