Gary Numan rockumentry "Android in La La Land"

Post Reply New Topic

Gary Numan: Android in La La Land is a surprisingly touching rockumentary about one of music's true geniuses

Thanks, I must check that out! He's why I found this place.

HighLlama, oddly enough, he was instrumental to me too, regarding ASD.

I love unabashedly self-identified Aspies! Unfortunately for those of the celebrity bent, having a diagnosis (what Johnny Dean of Menswear calls "nineteen pieces of paper" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fqnfa4Ic0c )) is expected of them by those who describe a long train of abuses and usurpations from those poseurs who are seen to desire all the presumed fun and adventure that comes with cozying up publicly to the diagnostic name -- as if it can't be shareable without lawful permission.

In Numan's case, he admitted last year ( https://autism-connect.org.uk/users/blo ... 3751d88916 ) to having no such diagnosis, though a child psychologist suggested as much in Numan's youth. For too many, that is a bridge too far. For me, I applaud Numan's eventual inclusion of enough facts about his Asperger syndrome to convince me that he is honest.

Maybe, just maybe, evidence of a diagnosis will be included in the recently released documentary film about his career and life, Gary Numan: Android in La La Land ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5378224/plo ... _=tt_ov_pl ). Meanwhile, he serves us well by standing as a man who is knowledgeable about his Asperger syndrome with or without his own "pieces of paper."

I didn't know the latest is that Numan was not diagnosed.

I'm not one of those who reject the undiagnosed or self-identified, far from it, I, like you, defend those who seem sincere.

But I'm a wee bit taken aback, as way back when, I was under the impression he'd been diagnosed hence the announcement I thought I'd heard about in the 2000s.

Well, even if he's not officially diagnosed after all, it was back in the early 2000s when I saw a headline claiming he was announcing he had Aspergers ----- and out of sheer curiosity as to what that even was, I researched it........and got the shock of my life, regarding myself.

It was instrumental in my first discovery in any way, shape or form that the things that had always been "wrong" with me might actually come under an umbrella that had a name. It was an admittedly nosy curiosity about Numan's "admission" that started that, so at least for that I'm grateful.

Yes, I too think he may get a lot of closure out of finding out for sure, and at the risk of being an armchair clinician, I would not doubt that he would find they confirm his and his wife's and his childhood psychologist's suspicions.

It's especially, for me, the childhood psychologist's reported remarks that add to the general impression that Numan is very likely correct about himself.

I'll say one thing, that even if or when it comes out that someone in the public eye was, or was not officially diagnosed -- or for that matter, is or is not possibly even on the spectrum after all -- one thing that publicity can still serve to do is to make others hear about the condition and perhaps do their own research, as I did.

Even just hearing about it by someone who may not be correct about themselves, can be helpful in making someone out there go: "That trait they mention is something I do... that other trait they mention marked my whole childhood.....what is this thing?" That's what happened to me, and the rest is history, lol.

Yes, I can absolutely see how he would take that as a confirmation rather than an informal suggestion. Plus, that era was still the time when possibly many people simply had a doctor give their opinion rather than actually send them through a formal evaluation, and the opinion was accepted as enough to go forward from. It was a different time back then. He was lucky to even get someone identifying Asperger's by name to him -- I'm about his age and I wish someone had, for me!

Autistic or plenty of aspie traits all that matters to me that Numan and his New Wave brethren produced music that I related to at a time I needed it.

I liked and like what we call "Classic Rock" today, like some of it a lot. But it with bands going from big arena to big arena, groupies in every city, getting "wasted" in every sense of the word all day long was not me. New wave people sung nervous, sounded like they were surrounded by toughs about to beat them up, the music was not sexy smooth like disco but choppy, jerky. They did not always get the girl and they were not classically good looking and if they were they covered it up with wierdness. I was in my early to mid 20's with little confidence or direction. People talk about very late diagnosis and finding out there are others like them. This was my 1978-80's proto version of it. Not exactly like it, "New Wavers" was a much wider spectrum of people then autistics are with plenty of very NT and obviously very extroverted involved but most unconventually wierd in some way. When the local hippie progressive rock radio station switched to a New Wave format their slogan was "Dare to be Different". Exactly. Nerd or geek had yet to become just another segment of the population to be marketed to, no British "eccentricity" in America they were the outcasts.

Some react to diagnosis positively, some despair. When it came my time to be diagnosed 3 decades after New Wave I had already had a practice run so to speak.

Numan is rightly revered as an Electronic Dance Music pioneer today, but that the time there was a huge backlash against him at home. The UK mainstream thought he was a traitor, too German faciast influenced, The punk rock purists dispised him for openly desiring to be a pop star, how dare he own his own plane . By 1981 his career seemed over before it had really started.

A review of the film published by Variety magazine ( https://variety.com/2016/film/markets-f ... 1201734252 ) stated that "The elaborate futuristic atmosphere of his live shows, his 'robotic' movements and emotionally remote demeanor were, he says, not just artistic decisions but also ways of coping with various mood and behavioral problems related to the Asperger syndrome he wasn't diagnosed with until fairly late."

It appears that he has been diagnosed, after all.

This doesn't really add to the discussion but I think this tune of his is amazing: