Category: Blog

Bryce Anderson, Daniella colon-cosme, Haley Schnitzer, Lanie Taylor ( Scribe) 

Haley: The list relates to the characters we saw throughout the book with many of the characters being neuroqueer. 

Bryce: I think in terms it’s like…Aster at some points we get a glimpse of what she feels in terms of her psychological state and how her personality bucks interactions with others and identifying self-consciousness with how she interacts with others. Mentions the end of part 3, and she didn’t want to say the wrong thing and ruin the mood. It carries out throughout the book, and things that most people do not think about, and how she has to make an effort to interact in the way that neurotypical people would interact. 

Lanie: Agrees,  Aster likes to mimic and to make sure she thinks about what she says to avoid angering others. 

Bryce: Giselle and Aster played house, but kissing Theo made her feel different. It’s sort of like she doesn’t know how to move around Theo, or interact in the ‘right’ she becomes hyper-aware of her actions. 

Talks about the sex scene between Aster and Theo and how it affected Aster. She was out of her comfort zone and Theo helped make her feel welcome and comfortable

Bryce: Talks about the racial differences and how it affects how they are seen. Lowerdeckers being seen as not desirable, which Theo counteracts with being attracted to Aster and seeing her as beautiful. They value each other in an emotional way and that’s even a sort of transformative experience for Aster because she is able to connect with someone on a different level. 

Bryce: The note was sweet and creepy. 

Lanie: we have to stan Theo for his asking for consent, 

Bryce: Aster had to give a physical maker and say yes, for that consent. 

Breakout room 2 

Haley: What did you think about the ending?

Bryce: Bittersweet. But at what cost? For freedom for freedom’s sake to just get off. But there was loss with it and that is always sad. 

Lanie: Its

Daniella: It’s bittersweet that she was able to get off the ship, but at what cost

Bryce: It feels like, as a message goes, she has the choice, freedom that exists, but at what cost. Is it worth it to live on the planet where you are the only one, maybe there are other people on that earth. Survival is key. They must have left for a reason. Read a scene where Aster wanted to bring Giselle back to life, how it relates back to Aster’s ability to grow plants. Their relationship is almost a foil, Aster has a consequence for being neurodivergent, Giselle has her own disability, but she lives on the outside able to express herself. She was almost a balance to Aster, even though there were differences, she showed Aster how to be ‘normal’ in a way. 

Lanie: Agrees, Giselle is loud and expressive, Aster is drawn in within herself, and quiet. 

Bryce: Giselle ran around Matilda, through the vents and finding where Asters mother was. The fact that aster said that she was sad to find her mother’s skeleton, but it was harder with Giselle, and now she has to bury her sister on an empty planet. 

Foss: The amount of time on the ship has been 300 years, but on earth, it has been about 1,000 years. 

Haley: Confused behind the motivation behind the people being on the ship and why they were seeking out a new planet. 

Daniella: Like the ending and how it was up to interpretation 

 Breakout room 3

Lanie: It read a lot like how the others did

Haley: Did think it was interesting that it brought up the first known piece of literature from an autistic author. that this text is contrasting what everyone else’s piece worked on

Bryce: it was interesting in the way it went about reassigning meaning to the text, talks about the part that autists and their category of specific behavior that would be classified as not neurotypical. There was a need to classify everything. he thinks that separation would not be accomplishable. 

Lanie: Talks about how classifying people based on different diagnoses and part dehumanizes them

Haley: Talks about ejaculation and how it is interesting. How people oversexualized autistic people, and how it makes it inappropriate. 

Bryce: How do you redefine that, it can be used, but there are better words that could accurately describe the abrupt utterances of an autistic person. There is a sort of negative framing that is inherent in the definition of the world that harkens back to old categorizing, or old discoveries in the field of autism. 

Bryce: Tells foss about wanting to separate the original meaning of the definitions and to take it away from that negative connotation. That categorizing is a pathological activity, whereas any other behavior is seen as normal and does not need logging. Trying to define it, feels like trying to define a single ‘normal’ person.

Faith: it was a hard piece to read, but it was a good piece because it gave a bunch of background, such as court cases, and what actually happened. Other pieces have given us opinions, but this gives us actual facts and discrimination. It tied it together for me and helped me see why it is such an important topic. 

Lanie(Scribe): brings up how autistic individuals are viewed on how they affect neurotypicals

Brianna: I thought that it was interesting how there is a concept of dividing neurodiverse and neurotypical. They always think that it just ‘happens’ and wanting to fix whatever is going on. Classes, school, medication, etc. Connects that to her high school and how seniors had to have volunteer and she volunteered at a special class at an elementary school. She got to see firsthand how some parents reacted/interacted with their children. How parents are the biggest part of how disabled the child feels. 

David: parents support how they treat their child. It is the most important factor. 

Brianna: Agrees that it is very important. She talked about a little boy how his parent did not want to deal with her child. The parent was completely dismissive of the child’s disability and it affected the child in his confidence in his learning. It does fall onto the parent. 

Faith: agrees with the parent being a big depending factor.

Lanie(scribe): Talked about my cousin and how his parents treated him the same as their other children and that it helped him have a sense of normalcy rather than being treated based on his disability. 

Brianna: relates back to her experience at the preschool

Faith: talks about her mom and how she works with an autistic nonverbal child and how she wanted to include the child. 

Pt: 2

Lanie(scribe): People with any sort of illness is blamed on demonic possession

Faith: Talks about how Frankenstein’s monster is a bad representation of autism because it demonizes autism. 

Lanie Taylor (Note taker), Karlie Jahn, Faith Hopkins, Arden Jones

Arden noticed a theme throughout the readings in how disability is sexualized
Faith: Talks about how people thought disabled people would be better off dead
Faith: Talks about the image from the stories, how the way we put in the narrative to support the healthiness of the main character with the disabled friend.
Arden: Disabled characters are there to uplift the nondisabled character
Faith: Disabled people are there to teach the main characters to enjoy life and that it is not fair because disabled people can enjoy life
Faith: disability as a prosthesis, used as a crutch to perceive normalcy.
Karlie: It is the idea of the main character having the cynical view and when seeing the disabled character, they have a positive change of heart
Arden: Feels that disabled people should be the ones to represent disability, but it could potentially damaging
Faith: Most shows and movies only focus on the struggle of the disability, not the positive aspects
Arden: says that disability is apart of someone, but it should not be the only thing that the show focuses on
Faith: Deaf people almost lost their way of communication by almost being banned from using sign language
Gay people were also considered to be disabled