special cool video essay preview 4 blog followers

my friends Trip and Grace who I have spent a lot of time with lately

I have been working on the script for a video essay about Façade for a while now, and maybe if I share a chunk of that script I will feel held accountable to finish it. So here we go:

I’m going to get a bit personal and read you a section of my autism evaluation report.

Julia had the tendency to quickly say mhmm as this evaluator spoke, which was interpreted as her wanting to skip the information. On occasion, the evaluator asked if Julia already knew the information but she answered that she did not.

When I read this sentence, it floored me. This is something I was completely aware that I did when in social situations, especially when having things explained to me. But in my mind, chiming in with a mhmm, yep, yeah, uh huh, was me indicating that I was following along with what the other person was saying. And I’m sure there are plenty of people in the past who have interpreted it that way. But for the first time I realized that there have been situations where my habit, my active choice, has come across as rude, and I had no idea.

And that’s what playing Façade is like. You say something that you’re sure is correct, that will help improve the situation, and Trip and Grace just stare at you. Blankly. Or worse, they take things the opposite of you meant them. You say that Trip needs to take a step back, and Grace thinks you’re saying she’s overbearing. So you make small talk, pick up one of their crusty PNG tchotchkes, ask about the magic 8 ball, and it just makes things worse. You have to gamify your interaction, try to figure out the right thing to say at the right time, and no matter how much you overthink it, you might leave this place worse than you found it. Because the name of the game has always had a double meaning. Grace and Trip are putting up a very flimsy façade of a happy marriage, but you, as the player, are choosing what to think about them, if you want to play a character, and seeing if you can push through the frustrating differences between the way your brain works, and theirs. After all, what the game calls a façade could just as easily be called a mask.