Fictional characters with AS
In contrast, all the female characters seem to be intensely "neurotypical"...(particularly Lucy).
I'm not sure about that. Lucy is a bossy boots; her social skills are actually quite limited; she either "organises" people, gives them advice, or tells them off in a pedantic/pernickety way. And the tomboy could be AS, very retiring/silent, etc. Only the little sister might be "normal"!
Did anyone mention the professor in Tintin? Or the Thompsons?
Carrie in "Carrie's War", ( by Nina Bawden ), and maybe her brother, and the boy staying at the Wouldbegoods, and David in "I am David". Badger in "The Wind in the Willows", at least half of the children in the "Swallows and Amazons series", Uncle Quentin in the Famous Five series, Jim in "Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis, and most of Anita Brookner's hero(ine)s, aswell as lots in Flannery O'Connor's stories.
In older books the interesting thing is that there are masses of possible/likely Aspergers characters, but their eccentricity or difference is completely taken for granted, accepted, even admired/appreciated.
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Last edited by ouinon on 09 Mar 2009, 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
(1) Classic Witch (the weird antisocial know-it-all who lives at the edge of the village and scares all the kids)
(2) The Oracle (the seemingly simple woman who erupts in painful truths and quite accurate predictions
(3) Incubus, Succubus, Devil's Whore (The hypersensual, intense woman who attracts men but is socially defenseless).
In classical or mythological or fairy tale literature where you have an intellectual female, like Cassandra, half the time she has Asperger traits, [ but ] many people wouldn't recognize the Witch archetypes as Asperger models. ... The stories are written so that all talented, isolated women do things that make them deserve to be attacked and killed, ... hated and feared.
Very interesting. I agree with that analysis.
Asperger men in the past, ( in literature and history ), are less visibly "odd" because that kind of behaviour was accepted in men, ( then ). But in women it was feared.
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Interesting that it has arisen since feminism created space for AS women, "space"/rights/opportunities for the "alarming" AS woman, that had not previously existed.
However I think it is possible that such fear of "logic" ( as opposed to emotion ), may be the result of increasing amounts of scientific proof of our being determined by our genes and environment; a panic in the face of evidence that we do not have free will.
And perhaps this explains some of the fear of people who seem to personify that kind of relentless logical progression.
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gina-ghettoprincess
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I just realised that all of the main characters from Friends (with the exception of Rachel, who is NTness incarnate) have some aspie traits.
Phoebe - she is seen as weird, and she stands by her principles even when other people don't agree.
Chandler - making jokes at inappropriate times (I do that too, LOL). And once Ross and Rachel had to explain various social rules to him, like that if someone asks if they look fat, you just answer instead of looking at them first.
Joey - he's too sociable to be an aspie, but he takes things literally a lot. Also, he has "weird" eating habits, like eating a massive jar of jam with a spoon (I do that as well, LOL).
Ross - he's obsessed with palaentology and annoys the others by talking about it. He corrects people's grammar a lot as well.
Monica - OCD for sure, she's always cleaning and is really organised.
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In contrast, all the female characters seem to be intensely "neurotypical"...(particularly Lucy).
I'm not sure about that. Lucy is a bossy boots; her social skills are actually quite limited; she either "organises" people, gives them advice, or tells them off in a pedantic/pernickety way. And the tomboy could be AS, very retiring/silent, etc. Only the little sister might be "normal"!
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Hmmm, I never thought of Lucy in that way before. I guess when I watched the show as a child, Lucy seemed to have social skills- (but then again, what did I know?). I remember she seemed quite confident, and appeared quite comfortable in the world, like she belonged here. This, to me, seemed to be what other kids were like, but not me. I guess that´s why I related to Charlie Brown so much, he seemed to be as uncomfortable and out of place as I was. Actually, although many of the other Peanuts characters have AS traits, I still think Charlie Brown is the most Aspie. Who knows, maybe the creator has AS traits?
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Ror is. Note how he doesn't use pronouns, his rigid thinking, his lack of personal care, his "poverty", his lack of empathy, his monotonous voice (even more so in the book), his obsessiveness, flat affect, etcetera. They call him a sociopath, but he ain't one.
John kinda is the next step up from "genius syndrome" in my opinion.
Ror has always been how he is for the most part, whereas John being turned into "god" made him lose some human relatedness (but nowhere near as much as people think).
I can see it. Ozymandeus Has some traits as well like his high intelligence, cunningness and his bizarre obsession with ancient Pharoahs.
i do not know if he is written with AS in mind, but i certainly identify with some of his lines.
there is not very much on youtube about the show and this is the best clip i could find, but there are many much better scenes i remember.
I can remember my parents telling me there was an episode in which he was interacting with a member of the psychiatric profession who thought he had AS, and that Martin said that was nonsense.
You wish.
Don't start all that again. House is an Aspie... and he isn't. Okay it's a matter of opinion so quit arguing!
Anyway, the ones that really spring to mind for me are Adrian Monk (I know he's got OCD but he was an 'odd' kid) and Stork from Storm Hawks. He's kinda obsessive, paranoid and doesn't like to be touched. I think he's funny and a lot like me! (I know paranoia isn't part of AS but it's something I suffer with...)
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Autism wasn't known; but autistic people existed, and that archetype was used to create characters like Sherlock Holmes (who, I think, most likely would have been Aspie if he were a real person instead of a fictional character).
Huck is not Asperger's, nor anything else. His distance from society is related to his family situation, not any difference in neurology.
An obvious case, from a more modern children's book: Zero, from Holes.
Speaks very little, considered "ret*d" and underestimated by just about every adult, and is mathematically gifted and capable of rapid calculation, despite never having been taught math. He's also illiterate, at least at the beginning of the story.
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This is such an interesting discussion. I'm learning a lot.
Some people mentioned Mr. Bean. I don't believe he qualifies because I read the interview where the actor says he is playing an adult four-year-old. Hilarious as all get-out though.
I just published a science fiction trilogy where some of the characters have autism and Asperger's, including the main character. If you hate religion, don't read them. https://www.amazon.com/Shatterworld-Tri ... oks&sr=1-2
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