Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

stillthewordgirl:

pragneto:

oodlenoodleroodle:

madeofpatterns:

lizardywizard:

rewby:

hey so i know that dismissing all the “this is just like when ___ happened in ___ book/movie/tv show” posts as “white privileged liberalism” is real popular right now but like

a lot of autistic ppl process real life events through fiction

and comparisons are the only way we can understand the severity of something

(heck my four year old brother is autistic and he only speaks referentially he literally can’t understand something you’re saying unless someone has said it in a tv show)

so like when i say “oh this is just like when umbridge took over at hogwarts” what i mean is “this is a funny thing to say, yes, but im also contextualizing my experience in a way that means i can understand fully the emotions and social context involved because i’m autistic and don’t understand these things like allistics do”

(allistics are welcome and encouraged to reblog)

Not just autistic people but anyone with brainweirds around empathy, too.

Or even just… that’s really, really common for everyone?

To a significant extent, that’s *why fiction is a thing*. 

And… sacred texts are also centered around stories, and people reference the all the time in dangerous situations. 

It’s not trivializing and it’s not privilege, it’s… being human and using stories to understand things. 

Also, Umbridge is one of the most terrifying villains ever.

Also the narrative can be used to know what to do when the situation is happening. Did Umbridge just get elected president of your country? Oh shit that’s bad right? What should we do? Well, what did the characters you love do in that situation? Did they wait and see? Or did they form a club that met regularly where they taught each other how to fight the forces of evil? Did they quit school with a bang creating as much havoc and trouble for the evil forces as they could when they left? 

This is such a great post and I wish it had been around weeks ago.

That last quote is one of my favorites.

(Source: rewb, via lupinatic)