Fotografía de autor
6 Obras 89 Miembros 3 Reseñas 1 Preferidas

Obras de Birger Sellin

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Fecha de nacimiento
1973
Género
male
Lugar de nacimiento
Germany
Lugares de residencia
Berlin, Germany

Miembros

Reseñas

This diary of Birger Sellin, an autistic boy who has been mute since the age of two, is fascinating. After he has not said a word for most of his childhood, he starts typing on a typewriter -- it's the late 1980s in Berlin, West-Germany.

On the first day's entry, he starts with spelling out the alphabet. Maybe to prove that he can do it? Then he spells out his name and the names of his brother and parents. In consequent diary entries, he mostly writes gibberish: seemingly random letters with the occasional legible word mixed in. And then, one day, there suddenly is coherence: whole words and sentences start to appear. It turns out that there is a real person inside there! Birger found a way to communicate to us neurotypicals as we say now. He shares what he feels inside, what interests him, and what he would like to say out loud to us if he were able. He tells us that he does not want to be an "inside-me anymore", "ich will kein inmich mehr sein". It is a great tragedy for him that there is so much going on in his world, but that he can not express it freely.

His writings were interesting to read given the psychological context of the author. I, a Dutchman, tried to read it in his native German, but that was quite a challenge because he used no interpunction or capitalization whatsoever. And the fact that it is a diary that does not have a coherent narrative does not make it easier either. Occasionally, it was also difficult to understand what he was speaking about, as his context of being an autistic adolescent man from thirty years ago in Berlin is so very different from mine. I decided to skip or skim over several sections.

Before and after his diary entries, there are some guidance texts that provide some background information on Birger and the Sellin family as well as explain autism as it was understood in the early 1990s. Which is to say that it was not understood very well back then. Both Birger as well as the editor, Michael Klonovsky, feel the need to refer to the 1988 film Rain Man to help us understand autism. That film really had a profound impact on our popular understanding of the disorder. It's interesting that Birger already felt that autism was not well represented in that film:

"ein film wie rainman (sic) heitert die gemuter auf
er sagt aber nichts von dem totalen chaos reichlicher angst und die unsagbare traurigkeit und einsamkeit in uns dieser film zeigt eine fassade zum zwecke der unterhaltung
ich will einem film mit jamlia machen der in die tiefen der autistenwelt inansteigt
er soll aufdecken und gute analytische innere dinge im gedanken und gefuhlsleven arbeit leisten
ich freue mich aus die arbeit an dem film
20.9.92" (p. 76)

For now, I got enough out of the book. Maybe I will get the English translation at some point to have an easier time reading about Birger's inner world.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
RubenSibon | 2 reseñas más. | Aug 31, 2022 |
Das erste Buch von Birger Sellin wirkt anfangs sehr verwirrend und vielleicht sogar fremdartig auf den Leser.
Mit der Zeit lernt man seine Sprache kennen und bemerkt genau durch diese, dass seine kommunikative Entwicklung große Fortschritte in dem Zeitraum gemacht hat.
Die Sprache, besser geschrieben, jedes einzelne Wort, in dem Buch, ist sehr wohl wollend bedacht und drückt genau das aus, wie es gemeint ist.
Zugleich zeigt es einem die abgründe seines Autismus und seine sehr stark betonte Gefühlswelt, von welcher einige lernen könnten.
Kurz um: Das Buch ist eine Reise zu einem uns unbekannten Ort, der uns dennoch sehr vertraut wirken kann.
… (más)
 
Denunciada
PhillU | 2 reseñas más. | Oct 20, 2009 |

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Estadísticas

Obras
6
Miembros
89
Popularidad
#207,492
Valoración
½ 3.5
Reseñas
3
ISBNs
19
Idiomas
4
Favorito
1

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