There are a lot of novels with autistic characters, and even more novels with "autistic" characters, but are any other readers on here actually autistic? What characters do you relate to the most? I recently read Cannon Fodder Fake Master Was Stunned After Being Reborn, and the MC felt like an actual autistic person, despite not being named as such.
I'm not well versed in how autistic people behave but I usually assume that when a character is said to be dumb/stupid in the novel then they probably have some type of intellectual disability
i know a few mf that got the tism. usually they tend to be ok people. i havent seen a story fully put out a mc with the tism but id love to see it.
I don't know much about autism or any other disorder, so whenever I read a novel where a character is mentioned to have one, I typically do myself the favour of ignoring the fact that they use the name of a real diagnosis and think of it more as a fantasy thing that the author made up, simply not to get any misinformation regarding the real thing. Apparently, from reviews, most such characters are sadly just written in a way where the author takes aspects, whether real or not, of a disorder and then applies it to their character, which I assume could and would be a large source of misinformation. Sorry for not actually answering your question, as I can't claim to know when an autistic character is written in a authentic way, but its late at night, and I'm so bored - please entertain me.
You can check out Cannon Fodder Fake Master Was Stunned After Being Reborn. That MC is textbook autistic, though the author never names him as such. My Husband With Scholar Syndrome is also relatively realistic, compared to most "autistic characters". I like how the MC learns to get along with the autistic ML, instead of "curing" him. That's a very good way to look at it - I usually treat it that way too. It is nice once it a while to see a good representation, though.
True! I wish I could read a novel without any worries and truly learn about the disorders being represented, not having to worry about being misled, and getting something wrong. I think such a way of absorbing knowledge could really help people to get some understanding of it, at least for me, but very sadly, that won't work. :,)
Yeah, schizophrenia and DID are probably the most commonly badly portrayed disorders. Have you ever seen it portrayed well? Either on NU or elsewhere? I recommend looking for some "own voices" novels - novels that are written by people with the identity in question. Helen Hoang has written a bunch of amazing books with diverse autistic leads. The Charm Offensive by Allison Cochrun also has a great autistic representation and depression representation. For ADHD you could check out Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Trade Me by Courtney Milan touches on some things too, though I won't be too specific to avoid spoilers. For NU stories, like I said above, Cannon Fodder Fake Master Was Stunned After Being Reborn and My Husband With Scholar Syndrome are pretty good.
Just once. Probably. But novel didn't have much chapters then so i cannot just too hastily. After all it's a condition that people unaffected would have no actual idea how it feels to be in that situation.
With autism, one person may have a vastly different experience from another with autism being a spectrum and all. Most webnovels where it's prominent basically have a form "high functioning" autism, at least romance wise. I've seen a fair few that's addressed the matter well and some that unfortunately have it as a butt of a joke. I'm not autistic but I've interacted a with folk Makes me sad that "Since The Red Moon Appeared" was dropped. If it ever gets picked up, you should give it a try. It's really good and in your ballpark
Autism falls onto a scale, in terms of intensity. The full name is "Autism Spectrum Disorder,' it also has multiple different fields/side effects. They are Spoiler: different disabilities 1) information processing 2) sensory processing 3) social awareness 4) Executive function 5) verbal and non-verbal communication 6) motor skills 7) repetitive behavior 8) perseverative thinking I'd imagine it's safe for an author to play with since it is wide and they can 'make it up' as they go.
Except they so often get it very very wrong. I've lost count of how many novels I've read in which an "autistic" character was cured by the healing power of love. Although it's a very diverse disorder, that doesn't mean you can't get it wrong, either. A lot of characters are described as "autistic", but they are just a caricature of what the author thinks an autistic person would be like. If autism could look like "anything", then literally every human would be autistic, and that's just not true. So there are some portrayals that are accurate, and some that are inaccurate.
I actually never read a story with an autistic character now that I think of it... I understand that would be frustrating.
Yes, I am autistic and know a lot of other autistic people, so I'm familiar with the diversity of experience on the autism spectrum. I'm interested in characters that feel authentic to autistic readers, even if your experience of autism is different from mine.
I do have some light autism alright, but I never read any novel where a character was portrayed as autistic. Like, there are some novels where the MC could maybe be in the autism spectrum, but I generally don't bother with entertaining those thoughts because I quite frankly don't care enough. And in all honesty, even while being in the autism spectrum, I still don't understand how it works that well (and most of my work with my psychologist revolves around my ADHD and not my Autism), so I think it would be a bit silly for me to try labeling a fictional character as autistic when I don't even understand how my Autism affects my daily life that well. So uhn... Maybe some of the novels I read have characters that could be labeled as autistic, but... I honestly dunno, nor have I ever tried to look too deep into it.
If you are interested in learning more about Autism, I highly highly recommend the book Knowing Why. Each chapter is on a different topic, by a different autistic person, so you really get a sense for both the diversity of the spectrum and how it impacts every aspect of life. I've been reading a lot about Autism lately due to a very recent diagnosis, and this one is by far the best resource I've read so far. I usually don't read non-fiction, and have a hard time focusing when I do, but this book was in perfect bite size chunks that made it easy to read. I recommend trying all of the chapters (I was surprised by which ones were the most interesting), but skipping to the next chapter if it's dull. Since each chapter is written by a different author, they each have their own writing style as well.
Ah, thanks, but I'm not really interested~ I'll just wait until my psychologist feels like it's a good time to try focusing on my autism, since my ADHD is giving me more immediate problems.