As an autistic person, I enjoyed Speed of Dark up until the end. I hated the end. I would not recommend this book to anyone -- especially other autistic people.
Interesting to hear. I know I read some interviews of Moon where it's mentioned that the book had been received, for the most part, positively by the autistic community. Mind if I ask what it was about the end that you hated? I can probably imagine, but I'd like to hear your views. :)
What I hated was that the protagonist spends the entire book fighting against being cured, then at the end he takes the cure, loses all his friends but lives happily ever after as an astronaut. In my opinion it would have been much better if he remained autistic but still succeeded in becoming an astronaut. I've been trying to tell people ever since I was diagnosed that being autistic does not mean you can't do what you want to in life, and here's a book that just contradicts that completely.
I wondered during the book if he would say no to the cure and succeed regardless. That obviously wasn't the case, but I did wonder if that's where the book would end up.
I do think I understand Lou's reasoning in the book, which is why the ending worked for me. Granted, I approach it from a different perspective, and if he'd said no to the cure, I think I would have still been satisfied. However, his point about change happening all around him and him changing in spite of not wanting to made sense, as did the idea of "what if?" But I definitely understand your disappointment, and I see the contradiction.
Still, I was glad to see some of the characters not take the cure, and I was glad to see that Lou's theory about why the cure was developed was right on.
I'm not comparing being autistic to being retarded by any means. However, the experimental procedures are comparable, as is both protagonist's desires to reach their goals. Also comparable is the points of view, which are written from viewpoints not common in literature, and which force us to society from a different point of view.
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I do think I understand Lou's reasoning in the book, which is why the ending worked for me. Granted, I approach it from a different perspective, and if he'd said no to the cure, I think I would have still been satisfied. However, his point about change happening all around him and him changing in spite of not wanting to made sense, as did the idea of "what if?" But I definitely understand your disappointment, and I see the contradiction.
Still, I was glad to see some of the characters not take the cure, and I was glad to see that Lou's theory about why the cure was developed was right on.
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