Albrecht, admiring Loid's rose garden: Quite impressive, you must have had a lot of experience gardening.
Loid, who lived in the Orokin equivalent of a commie block for the better part of his life and the most experience with plants he had were the few potted snake plants on his windowsill: ...you could say I had quite a lot of academic experience with gardening.
(translation: Loid read a lot of books on gardening to pass the time and daydream about the hypothetical garden he thought he would never be able to get)
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Percentage of arable land of a countrys whole area
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2:34 AM EDT August 5, 2024:
The Red Krayola -
"Hurricane Fighter Plane (Free Form Freakout)"
From the album The Parable of Arable Land
(1967)
Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm
File under: H-Town Psychedelia
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Autism headcanon:
Fern Arable (Charlotte's Web)
Note: This is about the book character only, not her portrayal in Hanna-Barbera's animated film or by Dakota Fanning in the 2006 live-action film.
*Through most of the book, she prefers animals to people. The only other child she plays with is her brother Avery; she doesn't seem to have any close friends. Instead, she's content to spend hours sitting quietly in the barn cellar and watching Wilbur in his pigpen. Obviously, being a loner and having a hyperfixation (animals) are two classic ASD traits, and a special affinity with animals is common for people on the spectrum too, especially children.
*Her mother is so concerned about her spending so much time alone in the barn instead of with other children, and how sincerely she seems to believe that the animals talk, that she consults the family doctor about her. The doctor is unconcerned, but it still shows that her behavior isn't "normal."
*Her uncle, Mr. Zuckerman, calls her "a queer child."
*Her fixation on Wilber and the other animals distracts her from practical things: for example, when she daydreams about him in class and accidentally answers "Wilbur" when the teacher asks her to name the capital of Pennsylvania.
*Yet she's intelligent for her age, with a more advanced vocabulary than the average eight-year-old (e.g. "injustice," "aloft," "sociable").
*At the same time, she's very sensitive and doesn't always think rationally or regulate her emotions very well. ("Fern, you will have to learn to control yourself," her father says.) She cries easily throughout the book, and at the beginning, she sees no difference between euthanizing a weak, undersized piglet and killing a human baby.
*When the rotten goose egg breaks, she reacts to the horrible smell by screaming and then starting to cry. A bit of an overblown reaction, unless she's hypersensitive to smell, as many people on the autism spectrum are.
*She sometimes doesn't seem to "read the room" very well. For example, at the fair, when Wilbur doesn't win first prize and the adults are all disappointed and sad, she interrupts the moment to ask for money to ride the Ferris wheel again.
*She understands the animals' speech when none of the other human characters can. When she tries to tell her parents about it, her mother thinks she's just making it up. While understanding animal language isn't an average autistic trait, it's still relatable to those of us whose perceptions and abilities are different than most other people's and tend to be misunderstood.
*In the end, as she develops a crush on Henry Fussy, she loses interest in the animals and stops visiting the barn, because she's "growing up" and wants to avoid "childish things." This might reflect that some children on the spectrum, especially girls, become more social and learn to "mask" as they get older.
Now some people might argue that these traits are just her being a child, or just her unique personality. I don't think E.B. White set out to write her as autistic. But I still think it's a valid headcanon. Especially since, from all I've read about White – his introversion and shyness, his own affinity for animals, his chronic anxiety, etc. – I sometimes wonder if he was on the spectrum himself.
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I read Charlotte’s Web back when I was nine so it was nice to read your thoughts on it. I remember liking it when I read it despite my arachnophobia.
That's another great thing about this book! It helps little kids overcome a fear of spiders if they have one! Because Charlotte is gentle, caring, and brilliant. (She's a total Ravenclaw, let's be honest.) She protects Wilbur, both in terms of trying to save his life and also protecting his innocence and feelings. She doesn't tell him that she's dying until she must, and depending on the version, she elects not to tell him about The Smokehouse either. Charlotte is fascinating because she's clearly been alone for a long time and is now grappling with what it means to have a friend again. A friend who is on a higher rung of the food chain yet clearly has no concept of what that means.
I could gush about this tale until I keel over. Seriously, this story means so damn much to me.
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