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I am tired of running into bigotry and ignorance in the poetry world. Tired but no longer surprised when I do.  There is no reason, after all, to expect that any subculture or set of subcultures would avoid the hierarchies and cruelties of the broader world. I just used to believe that poets might pay more attention to their words. The latest instance comes from a statement made by Christian Bök during a Q&A at Kelly Writers House last month, a transcription of which was posted to Harriet Blog. It begins

I think that my poetics makes it viable for me to excuse a whole variety of obsessive compulsive disorders. It’s not Asperger syndrome; it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Half the battle of being a poet is trying to transform what would otherwise be dismissed as a weakness into a strength, trying to find ways in which something that should fail under other circumstances finds an ecology within which it can succeed.

How nice. How nice that he gets to decide which neurologies are bugs. Even nicer that he then goes on to describe being a poet in terms of making what others see as weaknesses into strengths. Does the differentiation from Asperger’s mean, then, that it is outside of the set of perceived weaknesses that can be turned into strengths, that it is only a flaw? Those of us who actually know about Asperger’s, I mean we who are Aspies, know better. Did he consult with any of us before deciding to talk about us?

Of course, I don’t expect he gave the utterance much thought. I don’t think he had sat down and thought, “ah yes, the difficulty of being a person with Asperger’s is entirely unredeemable.” Rather, this is what happens in a culture in which a trait or tendency has become an easy sign for “something wrong.” The whole autism spectrum is maligned by groups with money, power, and media reach.  I’ve heard self-described progressives use Asperger’s as insult aimed at the Bush administration (because, you know, we Aspies are very well known for our social skills which allow us to lie successfully for period of years).

So I’m not surprised when such things are said. It’s just, you know, poets are supposed to think about words, right? (Or is that me being too literal again?) So I’m disappointed when they say such things and more disappointed when, thirty one comments later, no one has called them out.

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