Rautism
That is not a misspelling—-”Rautism” is, according to David Downs on SFGate, a 21st century movement otherwise known as “Autism Rock”; it is characterized by “the overall turning away from the fan, to the gear.” Downs describes the gear- and gizmo- centered rock of the New York band Battles in My Battles with Autism Rock — or Rautism — at the Great American Music Hall:
Battles and autistic people have trouble communicating in words. One of the first signs you might have an autistic kid, is they don’t babble by eight months of age. One the first signs that you might have Battles, is no words at all; just precise, loud, weird percussion. A nonsensical babble verse may emerge during their stay, but its source will be a white male in his early 30s; well past the babbling stage.
Then, there’s the inherent male-ness of both Battles and autism. Autism is essentially a geneto-environmental disease of the white privileged male. Battles is four preppy East Coast white guys, exalted by guy fans, some of whom have girlfriends and brought them, and most of those girls prefer “guy music” like King Crimson to their gender’s top sellers.
“Trouble communicating with words” does indeed describe my son Chralie who battles, if you will, not to babble. But autism as “essentially a geneto-environmental disease of the white privileged male”? If that is not meant tongue-in-cheek, I must expression confusion. Charlie is many things, diagnoses, lables, et cetera, but “white” he is not, neither in appearance (Charlie still has something of his summer tan) and I am most definitely ethnic Chinese on both sides.
But getting back to the music. Down writes that, while being “impressed with the technical proficiency, and overall turgidness” of Battles’ CD “Mirrored,” he did not feel he was connecting with the band’s music on an “emotional level.” As I’ve noted here, Charlie has, over the past two summers, expressed a marked preference for rock ‘n’ roll heavy on the guitar riffs (Jimi Hendrix) and minimalist about how anyone might be feeling (the Ramones). I myself prefer the sounds of female singer-songwriters emoting about their and others’ emotions and Charlie tends to tell me “all done” even before I try to sneak one of my CDs into the CD player.
Charlie has listened on and off to the band behind “All Shook Down” and it occurs to me that, along with making a lot of good noise, they also gave us “Sadly Beautiful” and Charlie and I, we do like to take the “Skyway.”
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POSTED IN: Charlisms, Music, New Jersey
6 opinions for Rautism
Marla
Nov 6, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Thanks for visiting my blog. My daughter is Hispanic. I think Autism does not care about race. I do think there are lots of children that have yet to be properly diagnosed though and some of these children may not have access to good health care. Possibly this affects the statistics of race and autism. Did that make sense? I hope so. I am going to have to take some time to catch up on your blog.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 6, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Yes, that does make sense—-a Latina mother here in New Jersey noted to me that she knows many families who are very hesitant to get a diagnosis or even an evaluation for their children: Not all of the Latino/a parents she knows are here “legally” and they have (understandably) a great fear of anything official and involving a government agency. Great to hear from you!
M
Nov 7, 2007 at 1:54 am
Emotional music can be nice for someone who has difficulties sensing the other person, connecting. The lyrics are providing little blips on the social radar.
Your alternate metaphor: It’s sort of like the dots in a pointilist painting. The more dots there are, the more clearly you can see the image. Writing-oriented music makes me purr. I’ve never listened to Neko Case, though, I will have to do that.
Marla
Nov 7, 2007 at 9:59 am
Kristina, We lived in Jersey for a while. I do agree. Fomr our experience NJ has pretty good resources so it really is too bad some families are not wanting help or don’t know where to get it.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 7, 2007 at 8:24 pm
This mom I met has started a website (whose name I cannot recall; I will post it when I do). A former speech therapist of Charlie’s works in Elizabeth, which has a large immigrant population and the E/I and preschool that she worked in was on a large scale, I have to say. She also noted to me that she did therapy with the kids in Spanish as their parents did not know English, so she knew they could practice their speech best by her using Spanish.
Kev2
Nov 8, 2007 at 8:26 pm
It’s funny seeing Pitchfork labeled “Rautism’s #1 site.” I don’t doubt that it’s a pretty autistic place.
And I agree with the author, I too have a hard time connecting with Battles on an emotional level. They’re very male and I’m very much a gay man (aka emotional and sensitive).
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