#The reason i jump tv#

A book is a conversation between you and its author. вЂDrawing from withinвЂ™ and вЂreflecting the externalвЂ™ is not an either/or, I think. As a writer, do the reasons matter вЂ“ is it about drawing from within or reflecting the external? Reading can be escapism as much as it is to learn about our lives. This all sounds a bit wishy-washy, but I think solutions arrived at in this way can be as valid and вЂroad-testedвЂ™ as solutions imparted to you in a short, sharp sermon. The other person might be dead, or from a different culture, or both, or (in the case of The Reason I Jump) non-verbal вЂ“ but you read their thoughts, and think about those thoughts, and think and daydream and come back to the book, and put it down for a few hours or days, and mull it over and change your mind, and change your mind again. Whatever вЂbig issueвЂ™ we are dealing with in life, will one of the best places to find solutions be books?

#The reason i jump tv#

That doesnвЂ™t mean TV shows canвЂ™t do character either вЂ“ think of Mad Men or Call My Agent! вЂ“ superb, character-driven narratives вЂ“ but in terms of relating a fictional life to our own, I think books win. A viewer is a more passive recipient of the narrative than a reader. As a reader we have to concentrate, but we get to be in charge of time вЂ“ unlike a TV show or film вЂ“ so the process can be more reflective which is in one sense вЂbetterвЂ™.

I stammer, and as a patron of the charity Stamma encounter many other stammerers: but on the page or the computer screen, we are all fluent.Д«ooks contain the lives of others and reflect our own lives back at us вЂ“ why is it still the best medium to do that?ДЄ reader is an active collaborator. I would add that вЂequalisingвЂ™ is of great importance in the area of communicative disability. Sure, words on a page exist only as words, and are вЂ“ in and of themselves вЂ“ stripped of the reputation, charisma and circumstances of the writerвЂ¦ even though these attributes can and do enter the words via the choice of words, via style. Is a book a great equaliser? The words you are reading could be from Shakespeare or a Japanese teenager who has never spoken вЂ“ but on the page there is just someoneвЂ™s story. That required shift in thinking is a major part of making the world an autism-friendlier place. Excuse the shouty caps, but if readers only take one sentence from this interview, I want it to be that one. It taught me to interact with autistic people in the same way IвЂ™d interact with a neurotypical kid and to think about autism as much more a COMMUNICATIVE impairment, and less as a COGNITIVE impairment. The book taught me to assume competence in all autistic people, including my son. The book refutes some damaging but widespread falsehoods about autism: that autistic people cannot love, or imagine, or aspire that, to autistic people, nobody else in the world possesses a mind that, essentially, if your kid gets a diagnosis of вЂsevere autismвЂ™, you have lost your kid. Why self-harm? What causes meltdowns? How might our son understand and experience the world? I could write 5,000 words on this and still not be done, but briefly: NaokiвЂ™s book helped us understand many aspects of our sonвЂ™s behaviour which had mystified us. How did reading his words change your life? My wife is from Japan and came across The Reason I Jump on Amazon when searching for books to help us understand our own pre-verbal autistic son, who was then вЂpresenting with demanding behavioursвЂ™, as the euphemism puts it. What circumstances led you to discovering him?

By these methods he has written a number of books about life as an autistic person, including the international bestseller The Reason I Jump вЂ“ which in turn inspired a documentary of the same name. However, with much effort, he can communicate independently by pointing to letters on an alphabet grid and spelling out sentences.

He is autistic and вЂpre-verbalвЂ™, that is, cannot verbally converse. Reading makes your mind expansive.ДЄ young man born in Japan in 1991.

These new truths can change our opinions, our outlooks, even our minds themselves. To read them can be to open up that container and let the contents out into your mind. ThatвЂ™s вЂwords on a page for youвЂ™, isnвЂ™t it? Words on a page can be containers of truth, especially if theyвЂ™ve been assembled with care, skill and sincerity. Why can something as simple as words on a page unlock a new way of seeing the world? In 2013, he and his wife translated the Japanese book вЂThe reason I jump: one boyвЂ™s voice from the silence of autism,вЂ™ into English.ДЄhead of the release of the documentary inspired by the same book, Mitchell tells The Big Issue about the power of reading and how it has helped with his understanding of his autistic son. David Mitchell is a novelist and screenwriter who has had two novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize.