Introduction to Syllabi
My Autistic Media Consumption and Hobbies
I don’t enjoy consuming media casually, I always have a goal in mind when seeking out content. The idea of watching the same TV show over and over feels mindless and unappealing to me. I understand the concept, having a comfort show that you return to when you feel like you’re craving a constant. This is anecdotally common amongst neurodivergents online, although I wonder if the opposite is true for anyone else.
I’m a late diagnosed autistic person with a Masters’ degree, which basically means I was always great at school unless verbal participation was involved or any kind of socializing. It also means I’ve been doing a lot of weird things my whole life that I didn’t realize allistic people just…don’t do. One of those being a preoccupation with checking off content on specific lists I create. The back of every school notebook will show hundreds of lists I planned to take on. Lists of anime to watch in high school based on Tumblr posts, lists of horror films to find at the video store in college, lists of disturbing books off of TikTok to distract me from grad school, languages I plan to learn post-grad school, etc. The easy part is creating the list, and picking out the content. The hard part is actually getting through the list. Those I am with may choose to watch content that isn’t on my list, or I won’t have the time to read through a stack of Russian literature that month. What I always seem to lack is a plan, and due to my academic background, that’s where the syllabi comes in.
Syllabi helped to keep me on track in courses, especially during highly independent online classes. So why not create syllabi for my media consumption and hobbies? Why not create additional structure to the lists I’m already making?
The syllabi are for my own enjoyment, but perhaps could become a template for someone else to follow along. Maybe we could have digital discussions about content, enriching each other’s media experience, synthesizing it with other ideas we are discovering? Maybe you’re a film student tired of the pretentious ‘classics’ and would love a fake course on found footage horror?
This Substack is going to serve a few purposes:
a space to post content autistic content that others may relate to
a semi-professional space to share my plans, thoughts, work-flows, reviews, and analysis of ideas
a space to inspire responses or directions to begin for those who also strive to constantly be learning
a semi-casual way to write and structure content, that makes the most sense to my brain
Beyond the above points, I hesitate to promise certain types of content and regularity. I don’t want this post to become just another one of my lists I never finish. I hope to find soft structure, to learn things, and to share my experiences.
Current Topics of Interest:
Japanese Horror
French New Wave Cinema
Professional Development as an Archivist/Librarian
Goth Subgenres
Red Scare podcast’s required reading (I know… we’ll talk about this)
Russian Literature
Weird and Disturbing Literature
The Golden Dawn and Hermeticism
Absinthe: Wormwood and Star Anise
Russian Language
Contortion: Personal Splits
This is a big list, but it’s all of the things I currently want to learn about and achieve.. somehow. The range of content is vast, but if broken down I wonder how much I could actually do? I’m going to try and make a personal syllabus for each of these items using past syllabi for reference, and linking good starter content (often wikipedia pages or youtube bibliography type videos). I don’t have any streaming services or ebook desires, as I really love analog media. There is a video store near me that I rent content from, and a large tbr stack of books already in my possession. Some books I also get from the library at my job, but I’m trying to focus on working through my collection.
Thank you for reading my introduction post!
If you’re more interested in goth outfits, follow my instagram or for ‘Day in the Life of a School Archivist’ content try my tiktok.
