hey, im autistic too, what is wrong with the rep in the curious incident of the dog in the night time?
(i’m gonna assume this is in good faith, cause if you— as an autistic person— have read it, then you would at least have a distinct feeling of disgust. /gen /nm)
short answer; it portrays autistic people as elitist, unempathetic, deserving of abuse, dangerous, and with extremely low comprehension of the world around us. the character is described as having aspergers— a term coined by a nazi to describe autistic people whom he deemed useful enough to society to not be discarded. (read: killed. hans asperger was a nazi eugenicist. aspergers and autism are one in the same.) the author’s research was literally jackshit, which he has admitted to. (“it’s a book about being an outsider.” says the guy who wrote it with the intent of portraying aspergers.)
bonus: it was my only exposure to autism in media before i was diagnosed, and you better believe that made me hate myself. (and, i had only read it because, get this; it’s taught in schools. institutionalised ableism at its finest.)
long answer:
Spoilers ahead. The book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is an award winning book by Mark Haddon, famed for its depiction o
I don't begrudge Mark Haddon his freedom of speech. What I find objectionable is that he seems unaware of, or, worse, indifferent toward, th
(^ this article makes some questionable distinctions between aspergers and autism; and is not written by an autistic person, instead with some autistic input; but the rest of it is right on the money)
in conclusion, i hope mark haddon rots learns from his mistakes— that probably killed many of us that have caused harm to the perception of autism in the public eye.