Neuroqueer Heresies: Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities

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Required reading for any scholar of trans, queer, disability, and/or neurodiversity studies from one of the preeminent scholars on neuroqueerness (and a co-coiner of the term! Over the course of many years Nick Walker has meticulously documented the origins and semantics of the evolving language that is co-created within autistic culture. Her expansive definition of what it means to engage in "neuroqueering," and to "be neuroqueer," is refreshing. If you are new to these topics—particularly if you are a non-Autistic person—some may be challenging to read.

Very few books have ever left me with such a frustrating recurrence of feeling "This is such a poor way to put this and I can see why people probably bully you" followed by "damn, but you're right though". For someone like me who was diagnosed as autistic last year at age 57 this has provided an invaluable and affirming perspective on how I perceive and experience the world. However, the text closes off possibility of more complicated discussions like that through its derisive tone and insistent focus on grammar policing.I've been keen to find a book that, from an autistic perspective, describes what it is to be autistic, the right language to use, accommodations that can be made and the social model of disability. Neuroqueer Heresies collects my shorter writings on neurodiversity, autism, and Neuroqueer Theory, including 120 pages of brand-new material that’s never before been available online or in print. I really recommend this for service providers and allies, a lot of it is certainly written for that audience. This is because an entire population is diverse, including both those with extra privilege and those who don't conform to normative standards. The early essays were flawed and frustrating to read, and I am disappointed that they were published without being edited significantly or rewritten.

They are no more neurotypical than they are a chemical engineer, because they have the potential to become one in 20 years. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms - but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation. The long-awaited second instalment in Samantha Shannon's Sunday Times and New York Times-bestselling series Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. Throw Away the Master’s tools is a popular essay detailing the reasons we need radical changes to improve the lives of Autistic people. Walker encourages the reader to be their true, authentic, oddball selves, regardless of what socio-cultural expectations dictate.

Among the early sections of the book, the one that concerned me most was the grammatical prescriptivism chapter. I am aware that this book is meant to be an academic text, especially since the author literally wrote that she intended to use this book as a textbook for courses she teaches. While the author is expansive in her views on who gets to be "neuroqueer," she is quite judgmental when it comes to the ways people choose to speak publicly about and embody autism in the world.

She's also a professor of psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies, an aikido teacher, and a lifelong zen practitioner. It is something of a compilation of older pieces, plus retrospective commentary, plus a few newer pieces that elaborate nuances. ACT Contact / FAQ About Events / Videos Merch / Subs Sign in/up Neuroqueer Heresies : Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities Walker, Nick More by this author. This book is for those of us who were always railing against injustice, even when we didn't fully understand what it was we were fighting for or against.There also seems to be a hierarchy of autistic people - those who should be trusted and those that are “tame autistics” benefitting from a life of internalized oppression. I am slightly annoyed to find that the ideas I thought I had that were original have actually been thought before, and articulated more elegantly than I could have done. However, Walker's prescriptivist lens has, to give one example, the unfortunate consequence of obscuring the neurodiversity within autistic populations. The concept of neuroqueering has been transformative for me and I only wish for many many more people to learn about and engage with this concept. Nick Walker is a queer, transgender, flamingly autistic author of both speculative fiction and nonfiction, and co-creator of the urban fantasy webcomic Weird Luck (weirdluck.