Page 1 of 1 [ 10 posts ] 

Snoopy
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 24 May 2007
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 183
Location: Minneapolis,MN

22 Oct 2007, 10:04 pm

Anyone know of any famous Aspie Authors ? These are the only people i could think of:

Truman Capote
J.D. Salinger
Edgar Allan Poe



Zsazsa
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,041
Location: Upstate New York, USA

22 Oct 2007, 10:19 pm

Where did you get your research information on these three anuthors you have listed?

Truman Copote had a very unhappy, lonely childhood...and is a homosexual...although there is nothing wrong with being gay.

J.D. Salinger (I love "Catcher In the Rye") is an eccentric...he's been married twice.

Edgar Allen Poe is believed to have suffered from Schizophrenia...I don't see how his mental illness could have been misdiagnosed like I had been and truly be Asperger's Syndrome.



MysteryFan3
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Jun 2007
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,156
Location: Indiana

22 Oct 2007, 10:22 pm

I've wondered lately if Isaac Asimov had AS.


_________________
To eliminate poverty, you have to eliminate at least three things: time, the bell curve and the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Have fun.


lastcrazyhorn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,170
Location: Texas

23 Oct 2007, 6:49 am

I heard that Shakespeare might have had it.


_________________
"I am to misbehave" - Mal

BATMAN: I'll do everything I can to rehabilitate you.
CATWOMAN: Marry me.
BATMAN: Everything except that.

http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com - "Odd One Out: Reality with a refreshing slice of aspie"


zebedee
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 30 Nov 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 280

23 Oct 2007, 7:36 am

Give me another 10 years or so ;)



lastcrazyhorn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,170
Location: Texas

23 Oct 2007, 1:58 pm

zebedee wrote:
Give me another 10 years or so ;)


Me too. :D


_________________
"I am to misbehave" - Mal

BATMAN: I'll do everything I can to rehabilitate you.
CATWOMAN: Marry me.
BATMAN: Everything except that.

http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com - "Odd One Out: Reality with a refreshing slice of aspie"


Snoopy
Pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 24 May 2007
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 183
Location: Minneapolis,MN

23 Oct 2007, 7:48 pm

A few more authors I've thought of:

1. Hunter S Thompson
2. William S Burroughs
3. Jack Kerouac
4. Thomas Pynchon
5. Vladimir Nabokov
6. B. Traven



AspieMartian
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 18 Sep 2007
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 434

24 Oct 2007, 3:22 pm

Salinger likely has an ASD of some sort, although maybe not AS. He claims there's no imagery or symbolism in his writing, i.e., everything is very literal. What little we know his behavior he does sound distinctly autistic. I think being a recluse perhaps has made him more eccentric, but that doesn't rule out having an ASD.

Poe was more likely bipolar than schizophrenic. I have never even read any argument that he had schizophrenia. Bipolar better fits his mood swings, his bouts of severe derpession and creative episodes of hypomania, and his inclination to self-medicate with addictive substances. Both bipolar and substance abuse - espeically combined - can induce psychosis.

I see no evidence of an ASD in Capote. Sorry. He did have psychological issues, as pointed out.

Kerouac may have had a learning disorder of some kind, but most likely it was ADHD, not a ASD. From what his wife and daughter say of him, he acted very much like an adult with undx'd ADHD. He clearly had Executive Function Disorder, which can occur with either ADHD or AS, as evidenced by his low impulse control, difficulty handling personal responsiblities, poor organizational skills, and avoidence issues.

I can't say anything detailed about Burroughs, but I think he was just a drug addict rather than someone with an ASD. That's my take.

Pynchon - uh, maybe. He certainly is verbose and pedantic.

Thompson - no. Perhaps a learning disorder, like ADHD, and he was definitely "altered" by his long term alcohol and drug use. But I've read Hell's Angels - do you seriously think an Aspie could do that? Go hang out with Hell's Angels and not get the crap beaten out of them? I don't.

I also thought Nabokov was thought to be bipolar. I could be wrong.

I don't know who Traven is.

Shakespeare - that's hilarious. Sorry, but his grasp of the subtle nuances of human behavior and society in his plays should make a good case that he wasn't. And what we know of him is sketchy and largely incomplete, so I don't know what evidence you could dig up to say he was an Aspie, unless you go the "Every genius in history has to be an Aspie" route, which is just dumb.

Asimov - yeah, I can see that. He could be pretty naive about people, even though he had a very sophisticated grasp of scientific things. Heinlein was like that too. They're probably both Aspies.


I strongly suspect Joseph Conrad had AS. He had very high verbal intelligence, but piss poor social skills. Mostly friendless throughout life, he did befriend Ford Maddox Ford and became overly dependant on him, as Conrad, despite being a highly intelligent person, had great difficulty taking care of himself. While they were roommates, Conrad drove Ford to near insanity with his hypersensitive personality. Conrad was known to have metldowns, relied heavy on routines, hated change in his environment, and avoided socializing. He was regarded as difficult, rude and uncouth by many people. Most of his novels deal with solitary protagonists "pitted" against society and societal norms.

I've read some arguments that Throreau had AS. That seems likely to me, from what of his writings I've read, although I don't know enough Thoreau himself to form a personal opinion on that.

I also think the American poet Robinson Jeffers probably had AS. He lived in solitude away from society a lot, but wasn't an "eccentric" per se. Said to be a child prodigy in writing and literature, he had an early "intense" interest in classical literature and languages that he maintained throughout his life. His writing style, at times so verbose it's genuinely epic, was highly idiosyncratic for his times (and since), and he did seem to be a bit "obsessed" with certain topics and themes. His poetry avoids relational person-to-person explorations, perferring to explore humanity more philosophically in its relationsip with nature. Jeffers also had an approach to poetry that challenged some then unquestioned norms about what poetry is. His tendency to question the status quo carried over into to other matter. At times he seemed to possess rather naive and myopic opinions, as when he challenged the popular support of the American people to go to war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.



Brittany2907
The ultimate storm is eternally on it's
The ultimate storm is eternally on it's

User avatar

Joined: 9 Jun 2007
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,718
Location: New Zealand

25 Oct 2007, 12:07 pm

Mark Haddon (I think that is his name)...

That is the man who wrote..."The Curious Incodent Of The Dog In The Night-Time".

He has AS.


_________________
I = Vegan!
Animals = Friends.


AnonymousAnonymous
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 23 Nov 2006
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 69,878
Location: Portland, Oregon

28 Oct 2007, 9:17 pm

What about Stephen King or Richard Mathison?


_________________
Silly NTs, I have Aspergers, and having Aspergers is gr-r-reat!