Reading Response #18

          "Autism and Rhetoric" is an article written by Paul Heilker and Melanie Yergeau--Paul as an associate professor of English, and Melanie as a PhD candidate in rhetoric (Reading About Writing, 261)--that aims to expand the preconception of how others--especially to the public discourse at large-- see those who have autism and instead suggest that "autism is a profoundly rhetorical phenomenon"; a "way of being in the world through language" (Reading About Writing, 262). This method both writers believe in relates strongly with the concept Krista Ratcliffe calls rhetorical listening, where as she puts it, "signifies a stance of openness that a person may choose to assume a relation to any person, text, or culture" (Reading About Writing, 265). Using this openness, as the writers see it, they can them "shine a bright and insistent light on how brazenly rhetorical any utterance [...] about autism really is," (Reading About Writing, 262) and in looking at autism as a unique rhetoric language, the possibility to "fundamentally challenge some of our most foundational assumptions about autism and autistic" will offer a discourse that can stand on its' own just fine with other discourses, expanding representations that benefit various communities (Reading About Writing, 266). 

          With the help of the relationship Heilker has with his autistic son, along with the experiences Melanie got involved in as a response to her own thoughts about autism, both writers agree that if autism is to be seen as a rhetoric, it will "allow us to reconstrue what we have historically seen as language deficits as, instead, language differences" (Reading About Writing, 269). It's that definitive language someone like John Swales, writer of "The Concept of Discourse Community," sees inside those discourse communities. So, as he explains one of his characterizations of a discourse community, which involves "using lexical items known to the wider speech communities in special and technical ways," he is referring to language--or actions--only that community understands (Writing About Writing, 473). So when Heilker talk about how his son "recites long strings of stock discourse - reciting the entire script of the movie Toy Story," the son is expressing a structure that is wholly comfortable with himself, aware no one but him is willing to cite the whole script if the mood strikes. It might be because the son do not want to deal with what James Paul Gee sees the "more overt and direct conflicts between two or more of their Discourses than do others," where those conflicts invoke dominance as a primary survival tool to feed against other discourse, which does not reflect on how the son want to deal with those communities. Or it might relate on how Wardle, using sociologist Etienne Wenger's theory of belonging, sees the participation needed for a community to function, such as engaging "a 'common enterprise' that newcomers and old-timers pursue together to develop 'interpersonal relationships'," invading in the discourse an individual with autism formed by himself (Writing About Writing, 524). Either way, Heilker and Yergeau are aware that because of an "absence of stable scientific or medical knowledge about autism," there's still a long way to go for those who have autism feel like they can be comfortable belonging among a public that still hasn't fully grasp the expression their community work under (Reading About Writing, 262).

          All in all, this article provides a new context towards a subject I've been interested in, but written in a way that relates to my writing studies. Looking into further, it's interesting to see an article that claims to represent both of the authors slowly form into different narratives if necessary precautions are needed. By that, I mean that when the time comes for the writers to express themselves regarding a topic inside the text, a shift of objective academic writing form, where the factual basis of the main text will then involve in a more first person affection related to the authors, usually towards the actions they do with others, or the observations they notice towards a subject they are involved with. This shift results in an article that puts a community in a sympathetic light, appealing my sense by seeing, for myself, how those who have understanding of those who have autism can bring to a community, resulting in a delightful article that makes me glad writers like Heilker and Yergeau are around to try and make the world a little more bearable. Speaking of which,  it was starling to see so many pop culture names listed throughout, reminding me that I have no complaints to using such subjects to further illustrate a community. I'm confident that with the awareness I mentioned, both authors will achieve the goals they talked about, and I'm rooting for them to be the underdog and overcome those feelings, no matter how hard it will be.