Comments | acaciaonnastik: Rec Request: urgent!

acaciaonnastik

Rec Request: urgent!

Nov 16, 2007 23:32

(Because I'm sort of struggling with the depths of despair here, a little.)Does anyone know of a decent (or even half-decent. Or crappy, for that matter. I'm desperate here.) piece of genre fiction, fan- or original, where a main character was autistic or otherwise neurodivergent?I really, really need a Hero Like Me right now.

Comments 4

moggymania November 17 2007, 06:49:57 UTC

I'll have to think about official/diagnosed characters...oh wait, there's one of the protagonists in Diane Duane's A Wizard Alone is, and she actually does a fairly good job of describing what it's like. (She blows it in one critical way, but it doesn't mean the rest isn't worthwhile.)

There's also the main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon -- the kid is diagnosed autistic, and the author does a surprisingly good job at portraying one of us from the inside.

If you can accept undiagnosed but author-confirmed, check out Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones, or most of her other titles (WW is the most flamingly obvious)... In very short, I was in contact with a very close friend of hers, who told DWJ about how her books had made a huge impact on me -- and DWJ told her to let me know that she's actually synaesthetic and strongly suspects she's autistic as well. Her fan-built website has a few little essays/commentaries by her that might help you as well. (I consider her a hero of sorts, just ( ... )

maggiebloome November 17 2007, 14:47:57 UTC

Hmm. There's a memoir called Look Me In The Eye that I've heard good things about. Not genre fiction but something.

Late, late, late, late late comment. shiplizard March 5 2008, 01:03:28 UTC

Someone recently told me that they were playing a character with Aspbergers-- in the not-obvious, not-trendy-disorder-of-the-week, not-yet-diagnosed vein. She said I could show you the game and the character, if you are still interested.

Realizing that of course, you are probably out of the depths of this particular despair.

xahra99 August 12 2008, 18:48:56 UTC

hi, longtime watcher, first time posting, yadda yadda.
I was intrigued by your mention of autistic pov novels, cause I've just read a great one.
You might like to try Elizabeth Moon's The Speed Of Dark,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Speed-Dark-Elizabeth-Moon/dp/1841491411
It's about an autistic man living in the not-so-distant future who's given the chance to be 'cured' by particupating in a science program.