Working in Movement

Asperger's Syndrome is a "mild" form of autism that WIM has touched on a couple of times. (See Learning and Asperger's and Infant Movement and Asperger's.) But these were mainly pretty dry, objective observations characteristics of Asperger's kids and adults. I've sometimes wondered what the subjective experience might be like.

Novel's Sleuth Views Life from an Unusual Perspective takes a poke at it by talking about author Mark Haddon. Haddon has written a mystery novel told from the perspective of an Asperger teen, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. The book is a hit. It has sold well (1.5 million copies so far) and gotten critical praise. And there's a new paperback version.

Among the wide readership are some of those diagnosed with Asperger's. Their reactions have been mixed:

Some have disliked it, he said, feeling that it misrepresents them, but others have said it deals with the subject with accuracy and understanding. At a book signing in Washington, he said, a 19-year-old woman with Asperger thanked him, saying it was "like reading a book about being in my own head." Another teenager wrote to him that the book "opened a door to my mind for my parents."

Among the Apergian population might have been a famous mystery-solver from the past, Mr. Sherlock Holmes himself. The literary neurologist OIiver puts it in the article:

Asked if Sherlock Holmes had Asperger, Dr. Sacks said, "There is a strange constellation of characters whom we now call Asperger's people. It's reasonable to see Holmes in that direction."

It's interesting to me that a different form of brain organization, a different way of experiencing oneself and the environment around the self wasa relatively unknown recently. That popular fiction now lets us view life from that sort of perspective really widens how we view our own world.