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Alienation, Ambivalence, and Adaptation

anneliese's picture
Submitted by anneliese on Sat, 06/12/2010 - 9:06am

(work in progress) 

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On her website (which is a treasure chest I urge you to explore), Donna defines the term "Nobody Nowhere" as follows:

"A 'Nobody Nowhere' was a term for a person who nobody really knew, who lived inside of themselves, not really letting the world connect with them, living 'at a distance', detatched from the body, the mind, the presence they had in the external world, what I called 'THE world'. A Nobody Nowhere was someone who balanced that prison-sanctuary of one's own world, walking that fine line between the solace of being unknown, invisible, self contained and still so full of passion that you almost want to break through and scream and wave and dance and cry in all your idiosyncracy (and hopefully not get locked up for doing so)..." 

 

 

(While this page is part of an ongoing book club discussion, visitors are warmly invited to share their experiences and join the conversation.) 

 

 

Comments

Garden Guy's picture

Inquiry Continues

Submitted by Garden Guy (guest) on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 3:43pm.

Inquiry is based on not knowing anything in particular, but faced with an opportunity for discovery through immediate observations, and without being inhibited in any way by another individual.

Paul Grobstein's picture

More about being on the spectrum, and about hiuman culture?

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Mon, 06/14/2010 - 5:00pm.

What most struck me was that it wasn't in fact "the external world" that Donna Wiliams was disturbed by, detached from but rather a particular subset of that world, in particular the interpersonal external world.  And that she was detached from it not only because she found it confusing but also because she experienced it as obtrusive, threatening to her own sense of her own space and ultimately her own existence.  Its like, as Anneliese suggested, someone who is transplanted into a human culture involving different language/customs but, if I'm understanding it right, with diminished ability to learn either.  Its worth thinking more about where the sense of obtrusive comes from, perhaps a presumption of reciprocity build into most human brains but which Donna Williams lacked?  She (like others on the spectrum) was willing to offer people things and to take things from people.  What she had troubled with was figuring out what they wanted, and with their failure to appreciate what she wanted? 

anneliese's picture

(inter)personal boundaries

Submitted by anneliese on Sat, 07/10/2010 - 10:58am.

 ...and, I would add to the mix, something to do with maintaining her sense of self, a basic integrity that the obtrusions seemed to threaten.

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