Editorials
Vivarium, Caregiver’s Fatigue, and Neurodivergent Kids
After I watched Vivarium I was curious what others online thought of the film, which is pretty standard for movie-goers. I liked it and wanted to see if other people liked it too. Something that came up again and again was parents saying things like “I have an autistic son, this reminded me too much of him, I couldn’t watch this” or lamenting on the difficulties of parenting. While many comments were just off-handed remarks, some were downright mean and ableist and reminded me how neurodivergence is treated.
Casting A Shadow: Octavia E. Butler
Award-Winning writer Octavia E. Butler was born June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, CA., raised by her widowed mother (her father passed when Butler was very young) and grandmother. Although Butler had dyslexia, she still had a growing and voracious appetite for reading that was fed by her mother who would bring back books from homes she worked in, eventually getting a library card for young Octavia. She especially grew fond of science fiction, the genre that she would escape into a world that was all her own.