Any others on the spectrum use FoS often?

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Joined: 27 Mar 2010
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16 Jul 2010, 10:04 pm

I use analogies quite often - I like making connections between things. Similes and metaphors I don't use as often but I usually understand them unless they're subtle. Unfamiliar expressions and figures of speech I tend to take literally though and I rarely get the "true" meaning of poetry, songs or literature unless it's explained to me.

one-A-N wrote:

I do this too

jmnixon95
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16 Jul 2010, 10:07 pm

No, I try to not use any figures of speech when I'm talking. I have a very difficult time trying to figure out what they mean in the first place...

eon
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16 Jul 2010, 11:01 pm

one-A-N wrote:

It's not that I don't understand figures of speech, it's that I cannot help seeing the literal meaning too - and often the literal meaning grabs my attention more forcefully and distracts me. I am too busy thinking "That doesn't make sense" or "That's funny" to attend to the figurative meaning. So someone says "Don't go overboard" (meaning don't overdo something), and my brain is too busy laughing at the visual image of someone falling off a ship - or even just imagining what a really excessive action would be ("so, you mean, I am not supposed to be THIS outlandish ... Or THIS EVEN more extreme outlandish? Or ..."). I am busy trying to imagine the truly "overboard" that I am not suppose to be. So my brain sometimes gets stuck on the imagery and doesn't move on.

But in other contexts I can be quite happy with figurative meanings.

Example. At school when I first read the poem Ozymandias, I was struck by the fact that it "wasn't true" - there was no such statute out in the desert. The poet had made the whole story up - or at least, that is what my school poetry book said (it is not such a made up story, according to Wikipedia). So I wrote an essay basically saying it was a fraud, the poet hadn't actually seen such a statute, it was a false report.

Eventually (probably years later) I realised that the poem wasn't meant to be taken literally: the point was the image of someone saying they had built a great empire, and now there was nothing to show - great deeds are fleeting, human achievements - especially the boastful kind - don't last. Aha! Now I understand.

But something in the back of my mind keeps saying - yeah, but it was made up, he didn't really see a statue like that. The funny thing is, I don't react like that to novels, especially fantasy novels like Lord of the Rings. I love fantasy - it is obviously made up, and I don't feel "cheated" (I don't think: "you said you saw a statue ... but you didn't. You lied!").

So I can see and enjoy figures of speech, but I cannot help seeing literal meanings and being diverted or distracted by them too. It sometimes means that I am smiling at comments that no one else smiles at - the comments may strike me as funny, because my mind is off imagining something outlandish that fits the literal or figurative words...

This.

"He lied to our faces"

[and I can't suppress laughter of someone whose head is covered in several different faces around the sides/back/top.]

I've somehow gained the skill of sensoring the ongoing amusement that regular speech and language causes me, but I've noticed it is still there, and I've noticed the sensoring really impacts my mood.

Exclavius
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17 Jul 2010, 7:54 pm

90% of the jokes I make are made from a literal interpretation of something someone said in a figurative way.

It doesn't really surprise me that the people who laugh hardest at those jokes are the ones I know to have ASD traits.

When i think of it... I don't think I ever make a joke that isn't that kinda of play on (or, really un-playing of) words. I do tell jokes i've heard if i find them funny, or think the listener would... but none of my "original quips" come from any other source.

thechadmaster
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17 Jul 2010, 8:24 pm

For the answer to this i defer to my avatar and signature. everywhere i go i carry a can-opener. (figuratively)

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Kiseki
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17 Jul 2010, 11:28 pm

When I was a kid I remember taking things quite literally and always reading words the way they were written.

But I also wrote creatively and was pretty much obsessed with metaphor. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I loved to use it then and I still do now. Though often people tell me my metaphors are odd.

SoSayWeAll wrote:

one-A-N wrote:

So I can see and enjoy figures of speech, but I cannot help seeing literal meanings and being diverted or distracted by them too. It sometimes means that I am smiling at comments that no one else smiles at - the comments may strike me as funny, because my mind is off imagining something outlandish that fits the literal or figurative words...

I wonder--no idea how old you are, or if this book was out when you were little, but I remember my mom reading a book to me that was full of literally-illustrated metaphors and similes. That was a blast!

...(BOOM! :twisted:

)

Anyway, does anyone else remember that book?

OMG, I LOVED that book! It was written by the guy who played Herman Munster, Fred Gwynne. It's called "The 16 Hand Horse." I remember it very vividly.

Last edited by Kiseki on 17 Jul 2010, 11:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wobbuffet
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18 Jul 2010, 9:23 am

I usually understand ones other people use, but I'm not creative enough to use them myself.

I wish I could, but I'm just not quick enough...so I usually just end up saying something basic or blunt. =/

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