When High Functioning Aspies are the NTs

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Suppose you are on the autistic spectrum but for all of your life all of your friends and associates were NT. If you are watching Mozart and the Whale you would be thinking to yourself. Naw I am not like that for sure. I would definitely have the ability to socialize and function much better than the main character Donald. So in this regard if you are a "high functioning aspie" than in the autistic world, you are the NT and they are the "different" ones. Just some thoughts watching the movie.

I'm reading "Mozart and the Whale" right now. Is the book radicially different from the movie? In other words, not about the Newports but a fictional couple? I'm interested in seeing the movie, but right now the book is very interesting and I like that Jerry and Mary each write in their own voices instead of a combined voice.

Hmm, interesting. I'm definitely the NT of the household, my son being second runner up. But we're all autistic in some manner. So I see what you're saying, and it's kind of interesting...

I am watching the movie Mozart and the Whale and saw that scene when Donald had his boss over for dinner and Isabella made it a memorable event. I was absolutely mortified by the way I saw her behave.

I consider myself to be very highly functioning. I've never had a proper meltdown, despite being hypersensitive to noise, I can understand facial and vocal expressions (metaphors included) almost perfectly (comes from being raised by very strict 'NT' parents, I guess), but I struggle to look people in the eyes (I look at the tip of their nose instead- fools them, at least), and to maintain relationships, and unfortunately I've always been considered that obsessive and difficult girl at the back of the classroom. I wasn't diagnosed as an Aspie until I ran into a few difficulties last year in school.

I know people like Isabella, though, so Mozart and the Whale wasn't completely lost on me. I saw a lot of one of my best friends in Donald, too. (Said friend is an NT, but a complete nerd (and I mean this in an affectionate way) nonetheless).

I was really confused by what was supposed to be wrong with how she behaved. I was more mortified by Donald's obvious terror and embarrassment at her actions. I'm used to being apologized for or having (totally harmless) things I do talked about as if they're awful and embarrassing by other people. I understood why she was so angry afterwards.

(I also really identified with Mary a lot in the book, and my mom said she saw a lot of things I did in what Mary did at certain times in her life.)

I had a bit of both of their traits but definitely saw myself in Donald in the dinner scene. It was mortifying to me because of my memories of embarassing myself by trying to prevent an embarassing event. nightmare irony

You don't have your birds flying all over the place when you are preparing a meal, it comes across as very unsanitary. And heaven forbid you don't tell the husband's boss about a private conversation both of you had.

Donald was deeply embarrassed and rightfully so. Isabella should have held her tounge about the animals and her painting. A good clue to this was his style of dress. He came over in a suit and tie(like Donald) and that should have signaled to Isabella that a staid and more formal atmosphere would have been far more appropriate than the bubbly, childlike way she carried on.

The best way to have gotten clues on how to get the conversation going would have been to let the boss start the ball rolling and see what subject matter he would bring up.

Me too, I think she was acting very rudely. Donald's boss was a nice man. Anyway, she was the one who pushed him into that job in the FIRST place!

The portrayal of her in the movie made her look more like a BPD person than aspie but I could see a lot of similarities between Donald and me. I think he could have been a bit more high functioning than me though.

I think the problem with her behaviour was that she was deliberately acting "not like herself", she wasn't acting naturally (for herself) but was putting on an act/mask of a "normal" person, while at the same time being quite rude to Donald (putting him down).

She did have a point but the way she tried to make it used far too much sarcasm for Donald to be able to understand her message.

I think that high functioning aspies are more normal than the NTs, themselves.