I spent yesterday at home, not well enough to go into work. A few weeks previously, I had noticed in the Radio Times that a film called Snow Cake was being shown. The blurb mentioned that one of the characters had Asperger’s Syndrome. I was sufficiently interested to order a copy of the DVD, and so yesterday had the opportunity to watch it.
In my view, Linda, played by Sigourney Weaver, is further along the autistic spectrum than AS, but she is high functioning to the extent that she appears to live independently (although the film makes clear that she is in reality significantly dependent on other people). Several AS traits do play a part, including a tendency to take everything literally. It’s quite a moving film. Alex (played by Alan Rickman) seems to have difficulty expressing his emotions; in contrast, Linda appears to lack emotion, although I suspect that I’m putting that simplistically. She asks Alex whether people usually cry at funerals (her daughter has been killed in a car accident).
I knew about the accident from reading a synopsis. I didn’t really want to watch that part of the film, but, of course, it was unavoidable. I was reminded of Fly Away Home, which starts with a car accident (and also has a strong Canada connection). But in “Fly Away Home”, the child survives the accident …
Review
Some kind of virus, a particularly unpleasant manifestation of which is tinnitus in my left ear. But trying to do what we can. A friend has been diagnosed with cancer. I don’t think that it makes sense for me to be sharing my virus, but at least I can drive the family to visit her. She is our daughter’s godmother.
I should be able to drive on, and maybe watch the ‘planes coming in to land at Edinburgh Airport. I guess that our son will prefer to stay with me …
Journal
Our family logistics normally require that wife and I take turns to attend church. Being at home this morning, I thought of listening to the scene from Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” which takes place on a Sunday morning. For me there is particular resonance as the protagonists converse while the congregation is singing hymns in the background.
Peter Grimes is an odd character. Benjamin Britten clearly sympathises with him. Peter Grimes is a classic loner – I wonder if he nowadays would be diagnosed as having Asperger’s Syndrome. Apparently, he does mistreat his apprentices, but is he desperately trying to gain acceptance? The happy ending being, it seems, almost obligatory in the films which we get to watch – how do we cope with tragedy?
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The red sky didn’t, in the event, presage anything dramatic. In fact, the weather here has been unremarkable. We’ve had snow, but not to write home about …
I spent Thursday with my daughter in the Sick Kids. She was having some plastic surgery done. It was a long, anxious day, but the surgeon has said that it went according to plan. It’s easier, knowing the system fairly well – knowing that it is the anaesthetist’s job to look after the patient through the operation, so that when a bearded man says, “We’ll take good care of her,” it’s a genuine reassurance …
Journal