Glance, have you ever read autistic writing? Some were on the bestseller lists for quite some time in Germany. For the English readers, I'll just translate the titles - only the last 2 were originally English
Axel Brauns: Buntschatten und Fledermäuse (Colour-shadows and bats) => 20something yrs IMO
Birger Sellin: Ich will kein Inmich mehr sein (I don't want to be an In-Myself anymore) => 20 yrs old at that time
Katja Rohde: Ich, Igelkind (I, hedgehog-child) => 25 yrs old
Dietmar Zöller: Ich gebe nicht auf (I won't give up) => 2nd book. First one: "Wenn ich mit euch reden könnte" (If I could talk to you), I think, he started at 14-16 yrs, not sure
Temple Grandin: Ich bin die Anthropologin auf dem Mars (Emergence, labeled autistic) - USA? The German title referred to the fact that Oliver Sacks had mentioned her story until she wrote it herself
Temple Grandin: thinking in pictures
Donna Williams: ich könnte verschwinden, wenn du mich berührst (Nobody, nowhere) - and her 2nd title, Somebody, somewhere - Australia. I have no clue at what age she started, as the first book describes childhood and high school. She's over 70 yrs now
Why I list them? These books have one thing in common: they lead into very strange worlds - structure, grammar, formalism would have destroyed these strange worlds we can never really visit ourselves, without guidance by these authors. Publishers/editors did a tremendously good job in treating these worlds carefully and with respect; leaving word creations as they were, taking their own grammar rules as an axiom, allowing these autists to play with words and determine new definitions. Some parts were unwieldy - difficult to access. But bestseller lists (meaning it sold!) proved, publishers/editors were on the right track and had found gems: Brauns, Sellin and Zöller were German BS titles - Grandin and Williams were BS on an international level. I hope Brauns will be translated one day.
Grandin's 2nd book: I took this review part from amazon.com. Name is rcrinternet:
This book was recommended to me because I cannot think in pictures; my mind works with ideas and words. Temple Grandin has written a book about a way of thinking that is so alien to me she might as well be from a different planet. Absolutely amazing. I did not know that the world could be seen from this perspective
Just an example - I'm trying to display how creative writing and not naming formalism as the God of Language and Literature can be seen.
Kiya
Glance, read the German reviews in amazon.de, please - these reviews might explain better what I mean.
