8:10am July 2, 2014

So… I don’t know how many of you believe in things like this or not.

I happen to think that objects are not quite as inanimate as they seem. They aren’t alive in the scientific sense of alive, but they have another form of life, and that is as theirselves. Not an anthropomorphized version of themselves, but as something that is uniquely themselves, no two alike, with certain ‘personality traits’ (that are different from those of a living creature, but still exist, and what else can you call them) etc. The Young Wizards universe does a really good job of portraying this in a fantasy-fiction setting.

Anyway, one of the great things about being able to crochet or otherwise make things, is that you can weave entire ideas into what you’re making. I’ve made myself blankets that have protection written all over them (if you know how to read it, anyway), and I wrap myself in them when I’m scared at night, especially after nightmares. I can customize the personality of an item to the personality of the person I am making the item for – and it will get along with them much better than it would if I’d made what looked like the same thing, but for someone else.

I guess some people would call it magic, or magick, or whatever, but to me it’s just one of those things that comes along with making things: You get to shape far more than the physical aspects of what you are making. But you don’t have unlimited sway over what goes on, you also have to respect your materials, because they may have their own ideas about what they do and don’t want to turn into. The best artisans are the ones who are able to follow what the material wants, yet enhance it with their own touches, making something more than the sum of its parts.

But I remember the first afghan I ever made, it looks kind of raggedy compared to subsequent ones but I love it. Anyway, I remember that each time I pulled a stitch through with the hook, I could feel protection closing off the stitch, and it turned into a powerfully protective blanket, which I still use all the time. I don’t think I could bring myself to give it away easily, it’s bonded to me really well.

Anyway, enough rambling about crochet. I imagine my experience isn’t uncommon among artisan/Pagans? (As little as I normally associate myself with the Pagan community, they’re the closest fit for my religion, I have to admit.) And among others who, for whatever reason, see “inanimate” objects as being alive, and know how to interact with an object as that object instead of as what humans would project onto an object.

And if one more person bores me with an ableist/racist rant on “anthropomorphism” and “animism” and how both of these are “lower forms” of thought, I’ve got a cluebat for you. The very first time I talked about this, another autistic blogger wrote a long, condescending post about anthropomorphism and how that is what I was doing. It also contained gems about how “animism” is an attribute of “primitive” religions only, hence the racism as well as ableism.

I don’t expect anyone to see inanimate objects the way I do, and would never try to “convert” anyone to my way of seeing things… which I see as neither anthropomorphic nor animist, those are terms other people have come up with to explain things they don’t understand, and they don’t suit me.

I just expect some little smidgen of respect for my views, however different they are from modern Western cultural norms. I can’t help it if my brain didn’t absorb all of those norms in childhood, and that therefore I never learned to unsee things that most people start out seeing and learn to unsee as their culture teaches them they don’t exist. I know lots of people don’t see things this way and that’s fine, I’m just not in the mood for a pointless fight over essentially religious differences.

(And no, I don’t mean that autistic people are oblivious to our cultures. But I do think that sometimes we don’t absorb as much of our surrounding cultures in certain areas as most people would. But it’s hit or miss.)

Anyway, this sound familiar to anyone else?