Monday, January 16, 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
New Article Published in "Autism/Asperger's Digest"
My new article, "An Aspie's View of Death," has just been published in THE PRINT EDITION of Autism/Asperger's Digest. I just got my magazine on December 23rd. However, it may be a bit longer before the issue is released to the general public. Keep checking for updates here!: http://www.autismdigest.com/
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
How Fiction Reflects the Human Mind
This post isn't related to Asperger's Syndrome per se, but I think people with AS are more likely to identify with it.
Children's fiction is imaginative. The sky's the limit. Dinosaurs talk. Kids have super powers or can cast spells. Monsters are friends with children. And so forth. The scope of fiction narrows as you head into the intermediate and young adult section of bookstores and libraries. You won't see talking dinosaurs or friendly monsters, but a lot of imagination is still there, even in popular fiction. Harry Potter, need I say more? I actually really enjoy teen fiction. Even when a large focus of the story is centered on "high school drama," I've found that characters often have unique voices. Additionally, lots of teen fiction deals with issues such as challenging authority and "coming out of the closet." Sometimes these themes are presented in unique ways, such as in The Hunger Games.
Now walk into the adult section. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough or in the right places, but imagination seems mostly gone. So much adult fiction seems to be midlife drama, and very little of it has any kind of unique twist. As I stated, even "high school drama" books have a level of creativity. But seriously, it is so difficult to find an adult book that isn't about some woman having a mid-life crisis, or a man having an affair, or a woman feeling like dirt because she can't pop a baby out. Even in books advertised with unique storylines, these storylines take a backseat to mid-life drama. I am almost finished reading Mercy by Jodi Picoult. The book is allegedly about a mercy killing. However, the majority of it is about a man having an affair with another woman. False advertising! About 3/4 of this book would have to be cut if it were to be entirely about a mercy killing. If I read one more time about how Cam "pulls out of Mia at the last minute," and "spills," I'll mercy kill myself!
For this reason, I stick to YA fiction and the adult books I read are largely non-fiction.
To me, this progression of children's fiction to adult fiction represents the evolution of the neurotypical human mind. Children are largely imaginative. In the teenage years, some imagination is lost in favor of romantic relationships, but relationships are only one part of life. In adults, it's all about marriage and procreating. I know I'm making a generalization here, but that's how it seems, and fiction seems to represent this. We Aspies get tired of everything being about romance. We want books that make us think and that have a unique story from a unique perspective. Alas, publishers obviously realize that unless a story has at least a subplot with a romance in it, it won't sell. Adult fiction often has to be Adult fiction to sell.
Children's fiction is imaginative. The sky's the limit. Dinosaurs talk. Kids have super powers or can cast spells. Monsters are friends with children. And so forth. The scope of fiction narrows as you head into the intermediate and young adult section of bookstores and libraries. You won't see talking dinosaurs or friendly monsters, but a lot of imagination is still there, even in popular fiction. Harry Potter, need I say more? I actually really enjoy teen fiction. Even when a large focus of the story is centered on "high school drama," I've found that characters often have unique voices. Additionally, lots of teen fiction deals with issues such as challenging authority and "coming out of the closet." Sometimes these themes are presented in unique ways, such as in The Hunger Games.
Now walk into the adult section. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough or in the right places, but imagination seems mostly gone. So much adult fiction seems to be midlife drama, and very little of it has any kind of unique twist. As I stated, even "high school drama" books have a level of creativity. But seriously, it is so difficult to find an adult book that isn't about some woman having a mid-life crisis, or a man having an affair, or a woman feeling like dirt because she can't pop a baby out. Even in books advertised with unique storylines, these storylines take a backseat to mid-life drama. I am almost finished reading Mercy by Jodi Picoult. The book is allegedly about a mercy killing. However, the majority of it is about a man having an affair with another woman. False advertising! About 3/4 of this book would have to be cut if it were to be entirely about a mercy killing. If I read one more time about how Cam "pulls out of Mia at the last minute," and "spills," I'll mercy kill myself!
For this reason, I stick to YA fiction and the adult books I read are largely non-fiction.
To me, this progression of children's fiction to adult fiction represents the evolution of the neurotypical human mind. Children are largely imaginative. In the teenage years, some imagination is lost in favor of romantic relationships, but relationships are only one part of life. In adults, it's all about marriage and procreating. I know I'm making a generalization here, but that's how it seems, and fiction seems to represent this. We Aspies get tired of everything being about romance. We want books that make us think and that have a unique story from a unique perspective. Alas, publishers obviously realize that unless a story has at least a subplot with a romance in it, it won't sell. Adult fiction often has to be Adult fiction to sell.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
"How About if I Set You Up With Someone?"
Whoops, over two months since my last post. Sorry about that!
Today I was thinking about when I was a teenager and told some of my friends from camp that I wasn't really interested in dating. Every once in a while, the question, "How about if I set you up with someone?" came up. Today, I might easily dismiss that question as a response to the possible confusion they might have felt knowing that I had a prolonged crush on one of our counselors from my first year there and yet wasn't interested in an actual date with somebody more "realistic." However, I encountered this same question from my "friends" (put in quotes because they were terrible at living up to the title) in middle school even before I got my first crush. In both cases, the question freaked me out. If you are a kid with Asperger's Syndrome and people keep offering to set you up with someone, what you hear is this, "It is not normal to not be interested in dating." Some people with AS are asexual. Some just rarely get interested in anybody and think it's silly to actively look for someone (as in my case). So everybody, please, stop asking us. If we want you to set us up with someone, we'll let you know! Promise!
Today I was thinking about when I was a teenager and told some of my friends from camp that I wasn't really interested in dating. Every once in a while, the question, "How about if I set you up with someone?" came up. Today, I might easily dismiss that question as a response to the possible confusion they might have felt knowing that I had a prolonged crush on one of our counselors from my first year there and yet wasn't interested in an actual date with somebody more "realistic." However, I encountered this same question from my "friends" (put in quotes because they were terrible at living up to the title) in middle school even before I got my first crush. In both cases, the question freaked me out. If you are a kid with Asperger's Syndrome and people keep offering to set you up with someone, what you hear is this, "It is not normal to not be interested in dating." Some people with AS are asexual. Some just rarely get interested in anybody and think it's silly to actively look for someone (as in my case). So everybody, please, stop asking us. If we want you to set us up with someone, we'll let you know! Promise!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
I'm Honest and Your Baby is Ugly
Thanks for coming! I'm gradually moving my blog to Substack! You can check out this post here!
Friday, August 5, 2011
Returning to My Roots
Thanks for coming! I'm gradually moving my blog to Substack! You can check out this post here!
Friday, July 22, 2011
You Can't Live Like That!
One of my biggest regrets of my life was the fact that I mostly kept to myself in high school. With undiagnosed Asperger's, I was too scared of screwing up socially and making myself a target and going through another living hell of bullying. So I kept quiet and barely spoke to people. I didn't open up. There were a few people I spoke to during homeroom and art class and gym, and even though I knew that we could probably be good friends, I never took the chance of letting them get to know me. I blended into the background while everyone else had, as the cliché goes, the best years of their lives. I wasn't miserable, but I wasn't particularly happy either.
You can't live like that.
We need to create a world that is more understanding to people with Asperger's syndrome or their teenage and adult years will be, at best, limbo or, at worst, a living hell.
You can't live like that.
We need to create a world that is more understanding to people with Asperger's syndrome or their teenage and adult years will be, at best, limbo or, at worst, a living hell.
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