The Weekly Infodump, 2022/11/01
Welcome to The Weekly Infodump, which contains a short write-up of whatever is on my mind. You are allowed to share this newsletter with others and I hope you will.
(Observance) Today is Autistics Speaking Day! Started in 2010 by autistic self-advocates Corina Becker and Kat Bjornstad-Kelly, it serves as counterprogramming to Communication Shutdown, an allistic-led annual global fundraiser for (allistic-led) autism organizations. Here is a history of the day as well as reflections on how it came to be, as told by actual autistic people.
(Link) Halloween Shark: It eats the rich!
One day there will be a Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) tale type index for Toddler YouTube videos and it will be a fascinating cultural artifact:
370: Scary Flying Sharks
370A. Seeking vengeance for its untimely death [E230, Q211.6], a spectral shark flies all over town [B62, E520], entering buildings as it searches for lost children to bite [H1411.4].
Variants & Combinations: "Halloween Shark"; cf. 97 ("Shark family hunts for food")
Remarks: American, 21st century; in most versions ("Scary Flying Shark", "Scary Flying Shark Except Everyone is a Cookie"), listener receives the warning: "Careful! It will bite you in the dark!"
(Book) Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman: I discovered this book through lengthy excerpts in The Guardian which revealed, among other things, that the late, great British actor spent his final days watching Say Yes to the Dress and I was like, NOW THAT'S MY KIND OF PEOPLE. So I bought the e-book and how right I was!
Now, I never knew this person and still know very little about him outside of the book I just finished and the movies I've watched, offset with a bit of internet research. However, I definitely recognize this internal rhythm:
Struggling with insomnia while wracked with anxiety (sometimes about the insomnia). Seeking authentic human connection but also perhaps overwhelmed by it. Self-medicating with alcohol and/or shopping and/or junk food and/or bad television. Being perceived as difficult simply for asking questions and seeking clear direction. Wondering why people always assume you're aloof – or keep asking why you're angry when really, nope, that's just how your face looks. (Also, you're trying to concentrate on the task at hand, which requires focus and are we here to work or are we here to socialize?). Being aware of same, yet unable to change the situation. Long periods of holding in frustration, followed by sudden outbursts, followed by regret. Reliably catching a cold about a day after every stressful situation. Constantly wishing humans were better, or at least more honest with themselves and others. Valuing creativity and intellectual curiosity in an industry that manifestly doesn't.
It has given me a certain amount of sympathy for the neurodivergent men of my father's generation (or thereabouts) who had no framework to process their experiences, let alone healthy coping mechanisms to survive in a hostile NT world. The external trappings of success do not erase or even mitigate one's internal struggles.
(Current events) With just days left until the U.S. midterm elections, my inbox has been filling up with fundraising emails.
As a writer (and, in particular, as one whose day job requires proficiency in the sort of "crystal goblet" approach to communication that strives to "[convey] thought, ideas, images, from one mind to other minds," thereby creating the illusion of authorlessness), I have an abiding interest in the writing that somebody obviously does but nobody thinks about: for example, the Fearless Flyer or Netflix synopses. Whenever I see it, I quietly salute it – along with the underpaid, precariously employed humans who produce it.
This is the end of the WeirdWired Weekly Infodump. You can stop reading now.