Who picks the apple? The hero or... something else? Announcing this blog's monstrous turn

Who picks the apple from the tree at the world's end? Is it the hero, or... something else?

For around half the time this blog has been around, it has had a particular focus. This has been around Hercules, a figure who, I have been setting out, can resonate with what it is like to be autistic.

I’m not going to be leaving Hercules behind. The blog will continue to look for this hero as he wanders along his roads. It will look for him too as he pauses at the crossroads, caught between the enticements of pleasure and the demands – themselves potentially pleasurable – of hard work.

 

But I am also going to be moving towards a focus on a different figure, one as different - perhaps - as it possible to get from a hero, and yet who can resonate with an aspect of what it is to be a hero. For I shall be turning towards a monster.

Tree with Apples by Salvör Gissurardóttir sourced from Wikimedia Commons here

It might be the case that some people reading this blog will be able to guess who this figure is in light of a few talks I’ve given to date, over the past year or so. But I’ll hold off sharing who the figure is for now. Instead, for the rest of this current post, I’ll start with a problem that I began considering in my work on Hercules, namely that it can be difficult for neurotypical and neurodivergent people to ‘get’ one another.

 

This is a huge problem, one that runs to the heart of culture and human society. It is a problem with implications for the study of the human past and present. How the problem is addressed has implications for human futures too. 

It is a problem that grows out of two distinct ways of (human) being – each distinctive, each different and each radically hard to understand by the other. For the problem concerns a split in what it is to be human due to two distinct ways of being: 

 

• One is a neurodivergent way of experiencing the world, that is: of having a mind that functions differently from the dominant norms. 
• The other is a neurotypical way of being, that is: of conforming to dominant neurocognitive functions. 

The problem generated by these ways of being involves the barriers that are set up, where each differs so radically from the other that mutual understanding can be difficult. 

 

• On the one hand, as expressed in the Double Empathy Theory proposed by the autistic academic Dr Damian Milton of the Tizard Centre at the University of Kent, the sensory experiences, knowledge and modes of communication of autistic people can be hard to grasp by anyone neurotypical. 
• On the other hand, as also expressed by this Theory, how neurotypical people feel, communicate, and how their minds work can bewilder autistic people.

This blog will be sharing my investigations into what happens with these two ways of being connect in the imaginative space of classical mythology.

 

It will explore the problem though the figure of whose identity I shall disclose in the next post. More soon...

Snakes, rivers, launching the book and conferencing in Herculean spaces - some notes on my time in Warsaw in May 2024

When I last posted to this blog, I was looking forward to a key milestone: the launch of my book in the cafe Life is Cool in Warsaw where, on two previous occasions, formative things had happened. The book is now launched! 

The Thames beneath the clouds looking metallic and serpentine as my return flight was descending towards Heathrow. Snakes and other aspects of nature feature in other photos and reflections...

When my outgoing flight broke through the clouds and there was Poland - including the Vistula

I have been back for a couple of weeks and miss Warsaw ...because of the intensity and collegiality of my time there immersed in classical myth and youth culture, because of how simply lovely the city is, and because I made so many autism-linked connections. 

One thing that made May in Warsaw lovely - the Linden trees

The mythology of Warsaw is siren- and mermaid-rich, as the presentations from the High School students I mention below brought out. But there is also this duck, whose golden story would make for an activity linked with autism and myth further down the road...

 In my room in Hotel Gromada about to head out on my first evening in Warsaw

These connections included with the staff member at the cafe who kindly received a copy of my book on behalf of Life is Cool and with the translator for the launch whose insights into myth, symbolism, connecting across divides and, indeed, snakes, was inspirational. Then there was the 'rite of passage' of being interviewed by Lisa Maurice about the book and what led to it, and the activity I set for those present - which they engaged with in ways that took me aback. This I shall report on once the I have properly been through the artworks they produced.

There were other moments too, including meeting neurodivergent and other students from a High School in Warsaw both in their actual classroom and at the conference.

One of the statues of the imposing venue of the second day of the conference at the University of Warsaw with Hercules leaning on his club on the wall behind. I began the day overwhelmed by the room and ended up happy there after I sketched one of the statues and found myself listening in a different kind of way to the presentations

With Hercules just after I was unexpectedly filmed talking my book and my lesson for the Modern Argonauts project on the first morning of the conference

The launch was recorded. I'll share the link here when it is ready. I'll also share photographs that were taken during the launch and the conference that followed. As a taster, here are a few that I have access to on my phone.

Also - if you click the QR code on the poster for the launch in my previous posting, you get taken to the publisher's site of for the book, which includes the link to the Open Access pdf version...

Announcing the launch of my 'Herculean' book for autistic children in Warsaw on Tuesday 21 May!

Come early spring of 2020, I was all set to head for a week or so to Warsaw. The flight was booked. I knew where I'd be staying. I was excited about a visit to Arcadia, a myth-rich 18th century landscape garden. I think I even had my meals all chosen. Then the world changed.

But... in a few days' time I'm finally returning - for a week of workshops and meetings and a conference where, among colleagues I have now been collaborating with for several years, I shall be discussing classics and youth culture, and where I shall be heading to Life is Cool, a cafe staffed by autistic people, for the launch of my book of lessons for autistic children based on Hercules's choice. 

There will informal formalities and there will activities. I'll keep these a surprise for now, but let me say that the session will involve exploring Hercules between the competing demands of 'hard work' and 'pleasure' via a mechanical device for children on a classical theme that I bought at an exhibition in London last week.

Here is the flyer!

In the labyrinth with Cora Beth Fraser and other attendees at a University College Dublin classical seminar during Autism Month 2024

I ended my previous posting promising further information about what I've been up to during Autism Month 2024 - including concerning a talk I attended by Cora Beth Fraser on autism, classics and labyrinths. Here is this promised information about the talk: as written in my notebook on 24th April and now typed up several days later, while we're still just about in Autism Month, i.e. April.

Labyrinth with Minotaur at the centre on a gem from the Medici Collection in the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. In keeping with the classical tradition, the Minotaur is part-human and part bull and yet, inverting this tradition, it is the top half that is human and the bottom half bull. What this means I am still trying to process. Sourced from Wikimedia Commons here.

Earlier this week [my 24th April self wrote], I zoomed into an online session at University College Dublin by Cora Beth Fraser on autism, classics and labyrinths. Cora stressed the timeliness of her talk as one taking place during Autism Month. She discussed what it means for the Month to have moved from an 'Awareness' to an 'Acceptance' One when creating awareness is still worth doing, not least in academia.

For in academia, Cora Beth suggested, there might be particular numbers of autistic people. And more specifically, she mooted, numbers of neurodivergent people who are also classicists might be especially high.

Why might this be the case?! 

As Cora Beth shared, it's here that the labyrinth image comes in. It comes in for a range of reasons, including the mythological significance of Asterion, the Minotaur, and the relevance of the labyrinth as an image of autism. For as some (neurodivergent?) people might see it, the labyrinth evokes somewhere an autistic person is shut away - for their own protection and/or the protection of others. But then there is the image of the labyrinth as evoking autistic ways of being and of negotiating the world. Looked at in this way, the labyrinth is not so much a prison as somewhere reassuring - somewhere that is, for example, full of corners to shelter behind.

Cora Beth brought in the relevance of this way of seeing the labyrinth and its original inhabitant, the Minotaur, to the 'autistic headcanon'. This is a game where neurodivergent people share how they see themselves in particular characters from myth, fantasy or literature more broadly. Cora Beth proposed the Minotaur as one such character. The fit with what I have been trying to do with Hercules, and what I plan to try with Medusa, is exciting, and Cora Beth said nice things about the part of my book where I propose this.

How Cora Beth conducted the talk - in dialogue with attendees via the zoom chat - was amazing. I have said before that one thing that I welcomed during Lockdown was the opportunity zoom chat provided to keep me feeling connected. It also let me deal with the anxiety of being in a talk yet remote from it. Plus it allowed for sharing ideas. 

It still does... 

This time, the sense of communality that was created led me to ask - playfully, but with seriousness behind it - whether we could all meet every week to talk labyrinths etc.

More soon on the talk (I've only scratched at the surface of what Cora Beth said) and related things...

Athena, being autistic and Dance Movement Therapy - and how these connected in Athens on International Autism Awareness Day 2024

Over the past few years, I have put out postings on - and for - international autism day/week/month: sometimes whole series of postings. Here is a sample one. I have done this while seeking to convey that autism - a way of being - is not just about a specific period of time. It's always. But I have also noted that this time in March-April allows an opportunity to reflect and share. 

On this year's Autism Day, I was in Athens. I should perhaps write a posting on this visit as it had a deep impact on me, including as I sat - for probably two hours - in my special place on the slopes of Mount Lykavittos as the light went down over the city.

On Mount Lykavittos - the rock in Athens dropped by Athena as the ancient local myth went

I was in Athens to give a paper at the Swedish Institute at Athens' ancient religion seminar on Athena as a dancer. This paper was extending research I've done over some years - well decades - into Athena by looking at dance and other types movement connected with this deity. 

Title slide of my presentation at the Swedish Institute - when I write up the paper, the content of the images should become apparent

What I had found as I was preparing the paper - as I had when I gave an earlier version at a conference in Coimbra last year - was just how far my research has been informed by what I have been doing on autism and classical myth. 

On the one hand, this is because everything I do is shaped by a neurodivergent way of looking at ancient evidence, as I have been increasingly realising over the years. 

It is also because of the paper's specific content. For what I proposed was an approach to ancient dance that is informed by Dance Movement Theory. 

This is a theory - and practice - that can be used by, and with, anyone whether neurodivergent or neurtypical. However, as with Dramatherapy (which I've written about previously on this blog, beginning here) there is particular potential for connecting with autism: for example, as a means for autistic people to explore autistic minds and bodies, and to open up new ways to envisage the body in space and how movement and cognition correlate. 

Slide from my presentation in Athens on Dance Movement Therapy as defined by the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy UK

As I was giving the paper, I stressed that I was very much just getting going with my research. I wondered, too, whether, as someone who is very much not qualified in Dance Movement Therapy, I should be doing anything more than expressing my curiosity about what it entails. 

Then something happened in the question time straight after the paper that made me think again.

I often find transitioning from a paper I've delivered to the discussion hard - I have given my all. I am exhausted. Answering specific questions can be a challenge. But one of the questions this time - from someone present online (this was a hybrid session) - turned out to be from someone whose connections with the topic floored me: in a good way.

For one thing, she explained that she studied at Roehampton, the university where I am now an emeritus professor and whose artefacts have been key to my autism work culminating to date here. More than this, she shared that she is a Dance Movement Therapist. There is more still: she explained that is a member of a Non Profit Organisation called the Athena Foundation.

So there was me arguing for Athena to be explored in relation to Dance Movement Therapy when Dance Movement Therapists already see the potential of Athena to encapsulate the therapy.

I am hoping that we will be able to connect! Watch this space: hopefully...

Soon I'll share other experiences during Autism Month, including a SUPERB paper I zoomed into by Cora Beth Fraser on autism, classics and labyrinths last week...

What I'm doing blogging-wise as a fellow at Durham sharing my Adventures in the Palace Green concerning classics in 19th-century young people's culture

I realise that I've been quiet on this blog for a month or so. Posts will come - especially now that my book is out, and the accompanying materials are soon to go live. And, in the meantime, let me stress that it's not that I haven't been busy blogging-wise. I've actually been more busy blogging than in quite a while - since the last time I posted each day for Autism Week a few years back. 

This is because I've started a new blog to share findings of a project that began earlier this month.

The blog is called Adventures in the Palace Green - and in this blog, I do what's 'said on the tin' - I share what I have been finding out in my time in the Special Collections reading room - the Barker Room - at Palace Green Library of the University of Durham where I'm currently a Barker Fellow.

Screenshot - in Flipcard mode - of my Adventures... blog to date

As a Barker Fellow, I'm doing something that might look different from my work on autism and classical myth. What I'm doing does however build from that work - and may very well shape further things that I go do on autism, young people and mythology. For the project concerns how young people - mostly young men - of the Long 19th Century experienced Classics. Thus it is a project that, like the autism and myth one, concerns where young people's culture connects with Classics.

It is my pleasure to share the blog with you. If you take a look, I'd love to hear what you think.

The blog can be found here. 

Announcement: What would Hercules do IS OUT!

One thing I love about blogging is the opportunity it gives to disseminate research while it is in progress. And for years now I have been sharing my progress with a series of lessons for autistic young people based on the mythological experiences of Hercules. 

More recently, I have been sharing that this process has gradually been leading towards a moment, a thing, A BOOK... 

The book is now out. 

I write with the hardcopy version beside me. 

My book against my computer screen while I write this blog post

It exists - and it's been beautifully produced by the publisher at Warsaw. As well as being available via the publisher the pdf of the book is available online. Here is the link.

The resources linked with the book will be going live soon, once a few final tweaks have been made. We'll get them out as soon as possible - not least as teachers have been in touch already asking about them!

I'm so excited to be at this stage. It's an endpoint, but also a new beginning, where, for example, I'll be delivering and adapting the lessons myself and creating new ones. But for now, I'll pause and shares screenshots of information about the book and the endorsements that appear there and on the back cover of the book.

I'd love to hear thoughts about the book either via a comment to this blog or via email at susan.deacy@bristol.ac.uk

My book on the publisher's website

Reviews of the book on the publisher's website