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A review by casehouse
Raising Cubby: A Father and Son's Adventures with Asperger's, Trains, Tractors, and High Explosives by John Elder Robison
3.0
The majority of the book contains stories of the author and his family before his son's Asperger's diagnosis. It could definitely give some insight into what it's like to be a parent of a kid with undiagnosed Asperger's. The book did not delve too much into the author's experience of getting the diagnosis for his son. I found it fascinating to read how one person on the spectrum parents another person on the spectrum. My take on the book can not help but be influenced by my experiences with the Aspie(s) in my own life!
One aspect of Mr. Robison's writing that kept jumping out at me was his tendency to "de-humanize" the human. I don't mean this is a mean way - it's just that when he refers to people, his son in particular, he almost always uses non-human terms or metaphors. I particularly noticed this in the first half of the book. I started writing down the occurrences. Here are a few:
paws = hands
two wheel drive versus four wheel drive - child walking versus crawling
hatch = be born
full-grown = adult
activate walk mode = stand the kid up
reset him = calm kid down after tantrum
refuel = feed kid
"when he produces grandchildren"
kid ownership = parenting
nesting materials = baby supplies
regularly fed and watered = kid had regular meals
If I could ask Mr. Robison why he does this, I would! Was it a conscious choice, or is it just his natural tendency? Is is just a somewhat humorous way to talk about his kid? Does it have anything to do with Aspies finding people difficult to "read?" Perhaps it sprung from needing to simplify the whole thing down to animal terms? Just speculating here - that one aspect of the book gave me lots to think about!
One aspect of Mr. Robison's writing that kept jumping out at me was his tendency to "de-humanize" the human. I don't mean this is a mean way - it's just that when he refers to people, his son in particular, he almost always uses non-human terms or metaphors. I particularly noticed this in the first half of the book. I started writing down the occurrences. Here are a few:
paws = hands
two wheel drive versus four wheel drive - child walking versus crawling
hatch = be born
full-grown = adult
activate walk mode = stand the kid up
reset him = calm kid down after tantrum
refuel = feed kid
"when he produces grandchildren"
kid ownership = parenting
nesting materials = baby supplies
regularly fed and watered = kid had regular meals
If I could ask Mr. Robison why he does this, I would! Was it a conscious choice, or is it just his natural tendency? Is is just a somewhat humorous way to talk about his kid? Does it have anything to do with Aspies finding people difficult to "read?" Perhaps it sprung from needing to simplify the whole thing down to animal terms? Just speculating here - that one aspect of the book gave me lots to think about!