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TUF
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23 Dec 2018, 5:53 pm

I'm not going to waste much time here on whether Scrooge was autistic. I've lurked on WP over the years and know this comes up every year so it must bore forum regulars by now. My own opinion is he wasn't because his behaviour changed and he wasn't always the scrooge we know.

However, I think he wasn't all bad for the things he got condemned for. Maybe this is because I'm not Christian and Dickens was (I assume).

What I don't like about Scrooge is, no matter how introverted, it only costs a rich man financially to give money to the poor in the way that he was asked about it. He could easily have given a few bob or at least not been so horrible in reply.

What I don't mind about Scrooge is, he became introverted over the years (as many people do) and didn't go out to parties (which is rare even in NT middle aged people, it's a youngsters game) and didn't believe in Christmas. Even if you're a Christian, what is the moral purpose in celebrating beyond the church gate if one doesn't want to?

I think if he's NT, which I presume he is, then the fact he only had one employee means he really ought to have known about Tim. But then I had a similar situation where I didn't know a colleague had cancer until long after everyone else did. It must have been lonely for Bob to be alone at work, poor and cold at work like that.

What bothers me about the other characters is at the party just because Scrooge didn't want to keep Christmas their way, or at all, they were making fun of him. And no ghosts came to them. They could just have left him out but instead they made him a laughing stock of the whole party.

I'm a bit scared tbh cos I'm aspie so I often eat Christmas dinner, do the games (so I'd meet their 19th century approval), do the gifts then leave while everyone else gossips and watches TV in an overly lit, noisy living room. It makes me wonder if they make fun of me like Fred made fun of Scrooge. I do give some of my money to people who need it, I do like Christmas but I don't keep it like everyone else does.

The story makes me think an awful lot about a lot of things. I think everyone must have a bit of a chain if it's by the standard of 'did you ever pass a beggar on the street and not give money'. But then, we deserve that. What people don't deserve is being made to feel guilty like the ghosts did to Scrooge just because they don't keep Christmas the typical way or party like NT youngsters into middle age.

And the final ghost scares the wits out of me because unless I get to be very good friends with my, as yet non existent, first cousins once removed, I don't think anyone's going to care when I die. Assuming I die as an old person. Right now, my closest people are older relatives and my not so close people are all older friends.

Of course, you can do lit analysis and I don't mind if this thread goes in multiple directions to do with the book and its adaptations (as long as you don't expect me to reply to everything) but I just heard a reading of it and it gave me a very visceral, personal reaction and I related more to Scrooge than to anyone else.



HighLlama
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24 Dec 2018, 6:23 am

I don't think he's introverted so much as bitter. He's kind of a Shylock who's redeemable and safe for children.