More than 2/3 of reservation lands were lost!

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon the original title of the book: 夏物語 (Natsu Monogatari). Natsu means summer and Monogatari means story. So the title translates directly as Summer Stories. And it's true — summer is very present in the novel, but there's much more to it! Our main character is called Natsuko Natsumi, and some people (at least, her sister) call her Natsu! So the second meaning of the title is Natsu's story. The English translation couldn't retain the same duality, so it uses the title of the short story that now forms the first part of the book — Breasts and Eggs.

I just found it very interesting — the way meanings and ideas flatten or simply become impossible in translation. I'm sure we lose a lot of Mieko's genius just because we read the translation (Ugh, I envy those who can read the original!)

Okay, here we go. Autism is not different between "males and females" 🤢 Autism is a spectrum that presents itself differently between all autistic individuals, there might be some overlap in characteristics between gender (not sex) due to societal expectations and how femininity is expected nowadays. For example, Margiela says that "males" have more socio-communication difficulties, but this is true for most cultures, where women have been expected to play a more social role, not just autistic women. In fact, the reason why so many autistic women are so good at masking is due to pattern recognition and systemising. Social interactions might even become a special interest for survival.

She also mentions that men show more and are less aware of their autistic traits, but this is, again, not a biological difference but a social one. Men are more likely to be tolerated despite their behaviour, autistic women are not born being more aware of their autistic traits, they are bullied/abused/pushed into hypervigilance.

The little blurb about diagnostic tools being inefficient might as well have been a footnote, given how little information is shared. Instead of a huge, inaccurate Venn Diagram about male vs female differences, a table with updated diagnostic tools might have been a better choice. That way, you can actually educate yourself and have resources in case of a misdiagnosis.

I understand that there are statistical differences between genders when it comes to how autistic traits are experienced, but focusing strictly on binary sex instead of cultural differences is a huge disservice to non-cis autistic individuals. This is the type of book that perpetuates stereotypes and makes it harder to actually get diagnosed.

During the prologue, the girl and the cat have a conversation where she asks for a hand, and the cat responds by rolling on its back and waving its paws in the air, and I need to talk about how this scene is even better in Japanese. Because the original phrasing in Japanese is 猫の手も借りたい, which means that you're so busy you'd even accept a cat's hand to help you out (even though a cat's thumbless hand would provide almost no help whatsoever).

10/10 translation, but please appreciate that the original Japanese text was a cat pun, which makes it even better 🐾