11 February, 2010

Henry Darger was a person

Picture of a flat gravestone with grass growing over it. It says: Henry Darger, 1892-1973, artist, protector of children.

Henry Darger was an ASD person who lived in the Midwest, like me. Like me he enjoyed praying and arts and crafts.

He was treated badly when he was a kid and he wanted very much to help kids. He tried to adopt kids sometimes, but no one would give a child to someone like him. He had one friend. He was a janitor and he spent a lot of time writing and going to mass. He collected pictures of kids who had been murdered, but his favorite disappeared. He said it was a huge calamity and disaster. He wrote 15,145 pages of a book about kids rescuing other kids from monsters and adults.

Everyone says that Henry Darger probably wanted to hurt kids and it’s lucky he never got to be around them very much.

Also everyone looks at his pictures and doesn’t read his books.

A Henry Darger picture. Hard to explain, they're sort of chaotic, but a bunch of little girls are standing around and there are some guys in what look like soldier's uniforms, and some nooses. It looks like some of the girls saved the rest of the girls from being hung by the soldiers. All the girls are wearing jumpers or dresses or skirts, except one girl who is naked, and is sitting on the ground to the side.

Henry Darger had one friend and his dad died when he was thirteen. He was put in an institution for being creepy, jerking off, or I suspect stimming. Henry Darger’s friend was worried about kids, too.

People are into naming their bands after him, but it’s already my name without even trying. I’m not sure why ASD people don’t feel more excited about Henry Darger. I like him a lot. My dad and I like going into Henry Darger exhibits and buying postcards with credit cards that have our name on them. My dad always tells people about Henry Darger using a worked-out series of phrases.



I think it’s important to remember that he wasn’t happy. We can’t think that arts and crafts is more important than happiness. Henry Darger is in a better place and probably doesn’t care, but he never got any of the money that people spend to get his arts and crafts in their exhibits.

7 comments:

  1. I'd never heard of Henry Darger before. He sounds like he was a good guy; it's too bad he never got to adopt a child, work with children or otherwise live his dreams.

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  2. you should probably read about him on wikipedia or something, I was being overly stylistic/facetious and not necessarily clear. I mean, he could have been a Super Evil Pedophile, I just doubt it. he's extra interesting though.

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  3. the movie -- "in the realms of the unreal" -- is worth watching. it's on youtube.

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  4. thank you so much todd, I didn't know that it was on youtube

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  5. Um...I said he didn't want to hurt little kids--that other people have taken his writing that way but I think he just identified with kids and wanted to help them. I don't like people saying that he wanted to hurt kids, anymore than you do.

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  6. Researching him for a project. This is my favorite post on him I have have yet read. Thank you.

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  7. Was this written by a 13 year old boy?

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