Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 17, 2008 9:45:43 GMT -5
I have some experience with what's called high-functioning autism.
As I was thinking about how to explain what that is, I came upon a bizarre idea for a speculative story (as is kind of my habit...).
Society says that autistics are more or less brain-damaged, compared to us regular folks. It's a "regular" society and people with autism don't function well in it.
But what about a story that pulls a Planet of the Apes? Our heroes find themselves in a world in which "normal" is what we would call autistic?
What would a society structured according to the autistic mindset look like?
People would have incredible memories (mostly location-specific) and would consider people without that kind of memory to be retarded.
People would have minimal verbal interactions and would consider loquatious or "party" people to be defective.
The entire society would be visual-based and anyone who preferred the written language would be considered challenged.
Restaurants would serve a variety of bizarre foods and would automatically remember the one kind of food that any patron would eat. Indeed, as soon as the person entered the establishment the kitchen would be automatically alerted to begin preparing that person's one and only food type. Anyone who needed a menu, who couldn't decide what he wanted to eat, would be considered a freak in need of shock treatment.
Everyone would carry special familiar items (favorite "accessories" that gave them comfort) and the world would be fitted out with holding places for these things. Anyone who didn't want or need a special companion item would be considered damaged.
Everyone would do things the same way every time. The sequences would be immortalized and sacred. Every person could have his or her own sequences, but it was expected that it would be performed in the same order every time. Anyone who made it up as he went along and did things differently from last time would be considered a sociopath.
There would be no parties. There would be no coffee klatches. Instead of parks there would be expanses of tables or carpet upon which people could lay out their special items in categorized order whenever the need struck them. Homes would be fitted with whole rooms devoted to laying out toy cars or spoons or DVD cases or whatever else.
The society would be extremely well-ordered. Politeness would be unheard-of. And everyone would be expected to organize his corner of the world.
The streets and traffic would be filled with people having their daily tirades (not unlike our reality, I know, but with an autistic intensity). Indeed, an automatic traffic system would've been developed that brought people where they needed to be independent of the mood of the occupants.
There would be no organized sports; only individual sports. There would be no such thing as cliques or racial segregation. Everyone would be friends with everyone. There would be no social boundaries. There would be no wars--merely intense but transitory personal squabbles.
Conversation would involve quizzing each other about each person's area of obsession: "What's your favorite Pepsi product?" or "What's your favorite movie distributed by Columbia/Tri-Star?" These conversations would be repetitive and circular and carried on even when both parties knew the answers. If anyone answered differently than how he'd answered before, it would be a sign of mental instability.
Everyone would love big sloppy dogs. Everyone would terrorize cats. Cartoon signs would replace text signs. Graphic novels would be the only kind there are.
Stores would specialize in one thing only: the thing the owner obsesses on, of course. Art would consist of creative displays of the objects of the artists' obsessions--often being an array or assortment of the important things in that category (like all the logos of all the brands of automobile in the world).
All of society--including the urban areas of town itself--would be categorized in an orderly fashion.
Historical markers would be everywhere, because autistic memory is incredible and is linked to place. "Remember when we lived in Arizona and the cat got out?"
How would our "normal" travelers appear in such a world? They would be freaks. People would lock them away as a danger to society. No one would try to understand them--except for one researcher, who happens to obsessively categorize all anomalous discoveries.
For awhile, this person would be our heroes' only link to the outside world, and would be their only hope for escape. But as soon as this researcher learned enough about them to satisfy himself about where they should be categorized, s/he'd be on to other things.
The janitor would be stuck with them, angry that someone had messed up his beautifully organized jail cells with these bothersome freaks who move things! Someone get in here and remove them right away.
If you haven't noticed, it's my heart to help people realize that autistics aren't broken or defective. Indeed, in many ways they're superior to "normal" people. It's only by lack of numbers that they're not in the majority and thus able to structure society to better fit them. They're incredibly intelligent people whose intelligence is of a different order than ours.
Maybe the way to do that is to tell a good story.
Jeff
As I was thinking about how to explain what that is, I came upon a bizarre idea for a speculative story (as is kind of my habit...).
Society says that autistics are more or less brain-damaged, compared to us regular folks. It's a "regular" society and people with autism don't function well in it.
But what about a story that pulls a Planet of the Apes? Our heroes find themselves in a world in which "normal" is what we would call autistic?
What would a society structured according to the autistic mindset look like?
People would have incredible memories (mostly location-specific) and would consider people without that kind of memory to be retarded.
People would have minimal verbal interactions and would consider loquatious or "party" people to be defective.
The entire society would be visual-based and anyone who preferred the written language would be considered challenged.
Restaurants would serve a variety of bizarre foods and would automatically remember the one kind of food that any patron would eat. Indeed, as soon as the person entered the establishment the kitchen would be automatically alerted to begin preparing that person's one and only food type. Anyone who needed a menu, who couldn't decide what he wanted to eat, would be considered a freak in need of shock treatment.
Everyone would carry special familiar items (favorite "accessories" that gave them comfort) and the world would be fitted out with holding places for these things. Anyone who didn't want or need a special companion item would be considered damaged.
Everyone would do things the same way every time. The sequences would be immortalized and sacred. Every person could have his or her own sequences, but it was expected that it would be performed in the same order every time. Anyone who made it up as he went along and did things differently from last time would be considered a sociopath.
There would be no parties. There would be no coffee klatches. Instead of parks there would be expanses of tables or carpet upon which people could lay out their special items in categorized order whenever the need struck them. Homes would be fitted with whole rooms devoted to laying out toy cars or spoons or DVD cases or whatever else.
The society would be extremely well-ordered. Politeness would be unheard-of. And everyone would be expected to organize his corner of the world.
The streets and traffic would be filled with people having their daily tirades (not unlike our reality, I know, but with an autistic intensity). Indeed, an automatic traffic system would've been developed that brought people where they needed to be independent of the mood of the occupants.
There would be no organized sports; only individual sports. There would be no such thing as cliques or racial segregation. Everyone would be friends with everyone. There would be no social boundaries. There would be no wars--merely intense but transitory personal squabbles.
Conversation would involve quizzing each other about each person's area of obsession: "What's your favorite Pepsi product?" or "What's your favorite movie distributed by Columbia/Tri-Star?" These conversations would be repetitive and circular and carried on even when both parties knew the answers. If anyone answered differently than how he'd answered before, it would be a sign of mental instability.
Everyone would love big sloppy dogs. Everyone would terrorize cats. Cartoon signs would replace text signs. Graphic novels would be the only kind there are.
Stores would specialize in one thing only: the thing the owner obsesses on, of course. Art would consist of creative displays of the objects of the artists' obsessions--often being an array or assortment of the important things in that category (like all the logos of all the brands of automobile in the world).
All of society--including the urban areas of town itself--would be categorized in an orderly fashion.
Historical markers would be everywhere, because autistic memory is incredible and is linked to place. "Remember when we lived in Arizona and the cat got out?"
How would our "normal" travelers appear in such a world? They would be freaks. People would lock them away as a danger to society. No one would try to understand them--except for one researcher, who happens to obsessively categorize all anomalous discoveries.
For awhile, this person would be our heroes' only link to the outside world, and would be their only hope for escape. But as soon as this researcher learned enough about them to satisfy himself about where they should be categorized, s/he'd be on to other things.
The janitor would be stuck with them, angry that someone had messed up his beautifully organized jail cells with these bothersome freaks who move things! Someone get in here and remove them right away.
If you haven't noticed, it's my heart to help people realize that autistics aren't broken or defective. Indeed, in many ways they're superior to "normal" people. It's only by lack of numbers that they're not in the majority and thus able to structure society to better fit them. They're incredibly intelligent people whose intelligence is of a different order than ours.
Maybe the way to do that is to tell a good story.
Jeff
