HBO's Autistic Slaughterhouse Architect

Half a decade ago I picked up "Thinking in Pictures" from the book exchange tray outside the University Mini-mart. It was more like a supermarket trolley than a tray really, and as a place meant for discarded books, it had a quite a lot of decent books in it. The book is the personal biography of Temple Grandin, who is an autistic slaughterhouse architect. I'm not really surprised someone finally made a movie about her life, although the combination of "autistic" and "slaughterhouse architect" did make me think that it was possibly one of the weirdest memoirs out there, and that it was such a niche topic the book was not about to become a best-seller anytime. But there you have it, HBO has made "Temple Grandin", the biopic of a slaughterhouse architect.

On retrospect, it does have the makings of a film with great popular appeal. It is two things that a certain type of person (e.g. the Social Liberal) would find compelling in a story. The humane treatment of animals and the understanding of people that are significantly different from the rest of us. Like some of the reviews say it, it's a cross between "Fast Food Nation" and "Rain Man". Throw in the feminist element and it's one hell of a lefty hit.

The biography is really refreshingly written too. Temple Grandin's autism puts her on an extreme end of the visual-logical segment of the intelligence matrix, and this way of thinking is expressed in her style of writing. I feel like I really got a sense of how she thought through the way she strung sentences together. She is also shocking self-aware at times, and I remember thinking occasionally, while reading the book, that the way she wrote was so straight forward and honest that it was unmistakably different. It was like entering another world, but one that actually exists and is a part in all of us. Only that it can't be reached because our brains are wired differently.  

Also, who knew how much thought had to go into designing slaughterhouses. A knowledge of the animal, and animal crowd behaviour, and the designs that can affect them psychologically for better or for worse. In this case, as in a lot of other cases to do with living spaces, the form definitely affects the function.