The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

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I know this book as been discussed before, I have now read it. I did think that I may have AS due to difficulty dealing with people. After reading this book I have decided that I don't have it as I cannot relate to lots of issues in it. For example sensitivity to noises, touch etc.

How accurate is this books representation of AS?

There is a good discussion thread on the book here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=2729

The issue that you have brought up, as far as how close the interpretation is, is addressed. Personally, I think Christopher is lower functioning than most people on this site. A lot has been discussed saying that he seems to have *every* aspie trait possible, and is therefore not completely realistic (most aspies have some, but not all of that). There are many things Christopher does and feels, though, that people here can relate to.

Why did you think you had Asperger's before reading the book? What changed your mind?

The book made me change my mind because quite a few bits didn't apply to me and what sort of applies does not to the extreme in the book. Why I thought I had it is because two different people have mention it to me now, they are in no way connected. Can anybody recommend any other books that are about people with AS? My view is that reading a book about other people’s experiences is the best way to find out by seeing what applies to me.

As a narrative, I agree with Civet that it is
too broad of descriptive in the topic of autism.
If you read our stories and posts and see his
LFA?, HFA(I think not), AS(hmmm? I don't know?)
thus it does have some flaws.

hmmm? How many of you on WrongPlanet are
so dorment and lack expression. I DEFINELY DON'T
SEE IT here, and fiesty as I am I definely can't see
my self so dorment to his character.

Age 15 isn't that dorment unless a communicative
LFA?

Hmmmm? I am still reading the book and enjoy
how the author can weave between christophers
insight and the NT persons insight. Excellent in
that perspective.

BUT....IF I WERE A NT AND THOUGHT THIS WERE
HOW...autistic people were, Hmmm? NOT! NOPE!
AND these people on WrongPlanet must be NT's
then. Hmmmm?

Most intrigued and slightly disappointed so far.
Ghosthunter

I'm actually reading that book in my Launguage Arts class at the Aspie school in Boiceville, NY that I attend. It's a pretty good book, but, I do agree that he may be lower functioning than te members of this board.

I would recommend you read "Pretending To Be Normal". It's an autobiographical account of the (female) authors journey through aspergers. Her level of functioning seems to be on par of that with most people on the site.

I don't know what 'dormant' means in that sense.

At the age of 15 I was passive in the extreme, though. Didn't talk to many people. When I did talk to people, it was mainly non-communicative echolalia and stuff I'd heard other people say, repeated back later. Didn't initiate interactions in ways others could see (was described as not being interested, but in fact was sometimes interested but so unable to show that interest that I apparently looked like I didn't care at all). If I was somewhere where I was allowed to go outside (which wasn't most of the time), I left and tried to go places and kept getting picked up by police who didn't seem to think I should be outside. I didn't know that I had an outside appearance or what mine was, so I was confused by this. There was a period that year when I was considered extremely violent, but that was circumstances more than anything (not that they saw it that way).

Christopher seemed slightly unrealistic, but only because the particular mix of traits didn't always mesh together in a way that I would see it in most autistic people. That's common when non-autistic people write composite autistic characters -- the traits don't fit together the same way they would in real life, even if the kind/number of traits is otherwise accurate. Other than that, he doesn't seem too unrealistic to me, although a very different (more hyper-rational, I couldn't sustain the kinds of thoughts he has) subtype than I am.

It's also important that he had been overprotected his whole life in addition to being autistic, and that shaped the amount of the world that he knew about.

For other books about autistic people that are by autistic people, here's a partial list:

http://www.autistics.org/library/booklist.html