Sorry this is late!

The super-crip mythology supports this narrative of people with disabilities, in this case people with autism, as only socially valuable if they are exceptionally intelligent either in a mathematical, logic driven way, or in some cases, this is applied to people with disabilities’ exceptional artistic talents. Crake and the other students frame themselves very obviously not in terms of disability, but in terms of giftedness, but Jimmy as an outsider, as “Jimmy, the neurotypical” (Atwood 203) sees their “demi-autistic” characteristics in terms of “social ineptitude – these were not your sharp dressers” (Atwood 193-94). Jimmy continues by states that in Watson-Crick culture, there is “a high tolerance for mildly deviant public behavior” (Atwood 193-94). But, as Jimmy recognizes this behavior may see socially unacceptable to him, it is however acceptable in this particular community or culture which values a specific kind of intelligence above everything else. And again, this example reinforces the socially constructive nature of disability, how disability is perceived, in this case especially, as very much determined upon a culture’s views on acceptable or normal intellectual and physical abilities.

Another part of Watson-Crick culture is referencing anyone outside of this culture, anyone that isn’t demi-autistic and brilliant, is labeled as “neurotypicals” or “NTs,” which Crake defines for Jimmy as “minus the genius gene” (Atwood 194). Jimmy becomes labeled as “neurotypical” by the Watson-Crick students, because as he realizes earlier being a student in the Compounds which was “awash in brilliant genes, none of which he’d inherited from his geeky, kak-hearted parents” (Atwood 174). Jimmy understands the implications of being called “neurotypical” in Watson-Crick culture, he realizes it is equivalent to being called “Cro-Magnon or something,” (Atwood 203) ultimately meant to other and dehumanize Jimmy. What is fascinating about the use of “neurotypical” in this narrative is how its usage in some ways is a reappropriation of activism done by people with autism.”Neurotypical” is used in a way that distinguishes people with autism as people who think differently, who do not view the world in a ‘neurotypical’ way. In some ways, it is a kind of reclaiming of autism, or being proud to be autistic. The Watson-Crick students are definitely using in these terms of pride, but they are also using it to exclude people who do not fit into this framework the autistic super-crip – there must be specific kinds of advantages to one’s intellectual difference, and most likely in this culture, the artistically inclined super-crip would not be accepted.

In contrast to the world of Watson-Crick, there is the culture of the Children of Crake. And, the Children of Crake do actually have a culture of their own despite Crake’s attempts at eliminating their genetic dispositions to form cultures, religions, myths and art. Under Graham’s definition of an “intelligence…approaching that of humanity,” the Children of Crake fulfill the guidelines of having “metaphysical systems of their own, including myth, ritual and religion” (Graham 129). And in this culture, Jimmy, or Snowman as he called by the Children of Crake, is isolated as the only non-Children of Crake. Snowman positions himself in terms of physical disability in comparison to the Children of Crake’s physical perfections of being “amazingly attractive,” (Atwood 8) “admirably proportioned (Atwood 100) they are all “sound of tooth, smooth of skin. No ripples of fat around their waists, no bulges, no dimpled orange-skin cellulite on their thighs. No body hair, no bushiness. They look like retouched fashion photos…”(Atwood 100). In contrast, Snowman describes himself as “too weird,” “deformed,” (Atwood 42) being “monstrousness,” (Atwood 101) “some grotesque flasher,” (Atwood 153) and as “postulant, cankered” (Atwood 169). Most significantly, Snowman compares himself to having a whistle “like a leper’s bell” and that “all those bothered by cripples can get out of his way,” but he does stipulate that he is not “infectious,” that he is so physically and genetically different from the Children of Crake that no matter what they are “immune from him” (Atwood 153). So, again as Jimmy/Snowman is the outsider of this culture, like he was at Watson-Crick, he constructs himself as lacking, as inadequate, and in some ways, as possessing disabilities in comparison to the norm established by the Children of Crake or by Crake and the Watson-Crick students. Importantly, Jimmy/Snowman’s disabilities are illustrated in bodily inadequacies, unlike Crake whose ‘disability’ is intellectual and social, but still very much not seen or constructed as a disability in the culture of Watson-Crick.