LJ Idol Week 7: "No True Scotsman"
LJ Idol Week 7
Topic: "No True Scotsman"
Keywords: Asperger Syndrome, autism, short story, teen
( Hypothesis Contrary to Fact )
Topic: "No True Scotsman"
Keywords: Asperger Syndrome, autism, short story, teen
( Hypothesis Contrary to Fact )
It’s not based on real-life events per se, although I drew a bit from people with Asperger Syndrome that I’ve met. I myself do have some autistic-spectrum issues -- nonverbal learning disorder, which is in some ways like a mild version of Asperger, and sensory integration dysfunction, which is where I got a lot of the stuff about Peter’s sensitivity to noise and crowds and so on. It’s funny, I was worried before I started that I didn’t know enough about Asperger per se to write a story like this, but once I settled into his voice it was much easier than I expected; I found myself drawing more from my own life and autistic-spectrum issues than I expected to. (Assuming I did it right... I hope no one with Asperger reads this and feels I’ve got it completely wrong!) I will admit that having read Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (AMAZING book) was helpful, although the protag in that book has far more severe autism than Peter does.
(Unrelatedly, I love your icon... yay Red! *Fraggle icon solidarity*
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