Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Kateřina Cenková
The Asperger Narrative Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr.
2012
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………… Kateřina Cenková
I would like to thank doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr. for his support and advice.
Table of Contents
Introduction ...... 5 1. Asperger Syndrome ...... 7 1. 1. Literature as Intervention ...... 10 2. The Genre Problem ...... 12 2. 1. The Uses of Genre: Genre Functions ...... 14 2. 2. Genre Functions and Asperger Narrative ...... 15 3. Contemporary Fiction on Asperger ...... 18 3. 1. The Asperger Hero: Christopher Boone ...... 21 3. 2. The Hero‘s Voice ...... 23 3. 3. The Lost Heroine: Caitlin Smith ...... 28 3. 4. The Unreliable Narrator ...... 29 3. 5. The Boy from the Tree House: Marcelo Sandoval ...... 34 3. 6. The Typical Hero ...... 36 3. 7. Asperger in the Future: Lou Arrendale ...... 42 3. 8. They Are Not Like Us ...... 44 3. 9. The Asperger Detective: Jacob Hunt ...... 49 3. 10. The Asperger Mystery ...... 50 3. 11. The Mother‘s Only Boy: Seb Taylor ...... 51 3. 12. Me and My Family ...... 52 3. 13. The Asperger Narrative ...... 56 Conclusion ...... 58 Bibliography ...... 60 Summary ...... 64 Resumé ...... 65
Introduction
In 2003 Mark Haddon wrote a book about a 15-year-old boy, Christopher, who suffers from Asperger syndrome. Asperger syndrome (AS) is an autism spectrum disorder causing limited understanding of emotion and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 2). The Syndrome, however, unlike other autism spectrum disorders, does not affect cognitive or intellectual development (3).
Haddon‘s book captured the audience with its fascinating hero and his voice. It won the
Whitbread Book of the Year Award, the British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award and other prizes (―Mark Haddon‖), and became popular with both children and adults.
Haddon‘s novella, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is not the only
AS-concerned narrative written in the English language. There are many other such examples of contemporary fiction. Authors such as Jodi Picoult, Kathryn Erskine or
Kathy Hoopmann deal with the subject. Most of such stories are narrated by the peculiarly rational voice of the Asperger-suffering hero, which not only allows the readers a closer look into the hero‘s world, but also helps them learn more about themselves and the absurdity of the world surrounding us all.
This work focuses on several examples of contemporary fiction concerning AS.
The analysis and comparison of these examples in the course of this text concentrates primarily on the literary techniques used in the narrative construction of the hero, other narrative devices, specific language of the texts, their themes and their motives. The common features of the books identified by their analysis are used in this work to categorize these texts as ―Asperger narratives‖ – a new genre emerging from the contemporary interest in autism spectrum disorders and the need to reach understanding of them.
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In the first chapter of this work the reader is briefly acquainted with the basic facts about the Asperger syndrome, its symptoms, the methods of its diagnosis, and the possibilities of intervention. The aim of the chapter is to provide the reader of this work with a simple background of medical information and further to point out the role of
Asperger narrative in public discussion of AS, and the ways in which AS concerned literature may help reduce the effects of specific difficulties arising from the AS condition. The next part of the text deals with the study of genre, the definition of genre, its functions and the relevance of generic analysis in contemporary literary studies.
Using the Asperger narrative as an example, the subsequent section enumerates the benefits of generic thinking for literary analysis. In further parts of this work the texts chosen as examples of Asperger narrative are analyzed in order to identify and enumerate their common features, which present a consistent set of criteria distinguishing Asperger narrative from broader generic categories, in accordance with contemporary approaches toward genre. The chapters should provide a brief introduction of individual texts marked as Asperger narratives, generic analysis of these texts and a comparison of its results. The identified points of connection between the texts are then used to describe Asperger narrative as a generic category.
This work contributes to the wide discussion of the role of generic analysis in today‘s literary thinking; through close examination of selected AS concerned texts it establishes Asperger narrative as an independent genre, and likewise, it draws attention to the problem of Asperger syndrome and its representation in literary fiction.
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1. Asperger Syndrome
AS is a developmental disorder of social learning, communication and social interaction (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 2) causing language impairments and repetitive patterns of behavior (3). The syndrome was first observed in children and described by psychiatrist Leo Kanner from Baltimore in 1943 (Frith 672) and by Hans
Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician working independently on Kanner, in 1944
(Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 2). The term Asperger syndrome, however, had not been used and the disorder had not been widely discussed in the English-speaking countries until the publication of Lorna Wing‘s paper on the disorder in 1981 (Frith
673). Wing not only raised awareness of the AS in professional circles, but also proposed changes to the definition of AS and was the first author to link Asperger with autism (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 2). She suggested the existence of an ―autism spectrum‖ – a scale of autistic impairments varying in their effects on the patient‘s cognitive or social development (Frith 673). Though the relation between AS and autism remains a subject to doubt, the recent diagnostic criteria of AS and autism only differ in Asperger syndrome‘s ―apparently normal cognitive functioning and language development‖ (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 2, 3) – This means people with AS, unlike autistic people, should not have language-learning problems as little children.
Both AS and autism are highly variable disorders (Frith 674), but as Fred Volkmar and
Amy Klin notice in their comprehensive volume on AS: ―Although described the year after autism, the body of research on AS is much less advanced than on autism‖ (26).
Among the symptoms of AS count difficulties in social interaction caused mainly by non-typical expression: though people with AS are usually very eloquent, their speech seems odd to others, as they tend to maintain the same high level of formality in their expression for every occasion (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 3).
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They habitually use longer words of Latin origin rather than short words with multiple meanings to avoid ambiguity and may have problems misinterpreting implied meanings as literal (Attwood 67). People with Asperger mostly hate metaphors and phrasal verbs as they are unable to recognize their meanings off-hand and have to learn them in advance so as to make their communication style more natural and effective. The structuring of conversation presents a problem as well. People with AS often lead long and comprehensive monologues regardless of their listener‘s interest, they are unable to comply with the timing and rhythm of conversation, have problems interpreting the other speaker‘s message and formulating replies (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 3).
Written communication is often preferred by people with AS (Frith 677). More symptoms include inability to learn social rules, limited facial expression (Attwood 28,
29), undeveloped sense of personal space (29), eye-contact avoidance and following poor face recognition (Frith 677).
All these impairments relate to and are to a certain degree caused by AS patients‘ ―failure of empathy‖ (Frith 676) – their inability to understand other people‘s facial expressions and complex emotions. The social difficulties are further complicated by special patterns of behaviour such as perseverant pursuit of chosen interests, refusal of changes in daily routine, unwillingness to adapt to novelties in the environment, and sometimes personal rituals (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 3).
Opposed to the problems experienced by Asperger individuals in the social domain stand their remarkable mental capacities of non-social character (Frith 679).
People with AS share a similar pattern of perception with weaker central coherence and stronger emphasis on detail (680). Uta Frith of the UCL Institute of Cognitive
Neuroscience assumes that this fact combined with the near absence of limitation of perceptual processing may explain the extraordinary logical, memory and verbal
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abilities of Asperger individuals (680). Victoria Lyons and Michael Fitzgerald list other theories explaining Asperger individuals‘ special skills in addition to the ―Central
Coherence‖ theory, for example the ―Male Brain Theory‖ (45), and summarize all types of extraordinary skills which may occur with the Asperger syndrome: their list includes superior IQ, good eye for detail, strong interests, strong systemizing – an advantage in math, engineering, music or science, great memory, various talents or strong focus (47).
Many authors point out (e.g. Frith 683, Lyons and Fitzgerald 41) that with compensatory learning and support gifted Asperger individuals are capable of great academic or scientific achievements.
Frith, nevertheless, notices that ―it is ironical that the cognitive strengths can obscure the social difficulties, and that this may lead to less willingness to acknowledge the need for guidance and support‖ (683). – The diagnosis of AS in a child is a question of the parents‘ observation and clinical judgment supported by diagnostic interviews rather than any reliable tests (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 4). Because Asperger individuals do not appear severely impaired, may seem relatively normal in their social interaction, and strike others as outstandingly intelligent, their impairment can often pass unnoticed by the people in their immediate environment, or the effects of AS on the individual‘s life may be depreciated (Frith 683). This situation is unfortunate, since any autism spectrum disorder presents severe strains and difficulties in the patient‘s life
– difficulties which, in the case of AS, can be very successfully avoided or alleviated by an early diagnosis and intervention (683). Educational programs aiming at each
Asperger individual‘s strengths to deal with their weaknesses proved a particularly effective method of intervention (Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar 6). To enable more people with AS to receive the needed support, it is necessary to raise awareness of the disorder among the general public (Frith 683).
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1. 1. Literature as Intervention
Writers creating fiction about Asperger individuals and their world use one of the possibilities to raise public awareness of the disorder. Attracting public attention to the problems of AS is one of the purposes shared by the texts grouped in this work under the label Asperger narrative. The impression of AS taken from Asperger narratives might play an important role in drawing a personal picture of the syndrome and its characteristics, as the proposed genre Asperger narrative has close to or forms a subgroup of the popular genres such as the novel or the detective story, and could be thus more successful with the readers than other kinds of AS-related writings, such as autobiographies by people with AS, reference handbooks, psychological reviews or academic articles.
Uta Frith mentions the wholesome effect of the representation of AS in media:
―Descriptions of Asperger syndrome in the media created strong resonance in the general public... many sufferers who had been searching for an explanation of their problems were now beginning to diagnose themselves‖ (673). The enthusiasm surrounding medial interest in autism spectrum disorders is, nevertheless, not unconditionally shared by others. Douwe Draaisma, Professor of History of Psychology, argues that the public picture of AS created by the media and art does not always match the psychological description of the disorder and encourages wrong ideas about AS and autism in the audience: ―In quite a few cases, media representations of talent and special abilities can be said to have contributed to a harmful divergence between the general image of autism and the clinical reality of the autistic condition‖ (1475), and he suggests that ―a better understanding of the autistic condition and the talents that may come with it demands that we should carefully observe the intricate interaction between the ‗expert‘ view of autism and the general perception of autism as it manifests itself in
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the way autistic persons are represented in novels, biographies, autobiographies and movies‖ (1476). From this point of view, reading an Asperger narrative should be considered merely a starting point on a way to become acquainted with the facts of AS condition, or it might perform its role in the public discussion of AS with ambiguous results.
Another way in which literature and creative writing help Asperger individuals deal with their impairment is well illustrated by the growing number of autobiographies written by people with AS (e.g. Gerland, Robinson, Tammet). Uta Frith notices that
―Many individuals with Asperger syndrome are prolific writers,‖ (681) and stresses the profound retrospective self-analysis which is often present in autobiographies by
Asperger individuals: creative writing seems to have great impact on the development of the Asperger-suffering author‘s self-awareness (682). The therapeutic benefits of creative writing are further explored by Julie O‘Connell in her dissertation. O‘Connell concludes her work by suggesting a creative writing curriculum for individuals with AS
(6).
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2. The Genre Problem
The expression ―Asperger narrative‖ is used in this text to describe a distinctive literary genre. What exactly is meant by ―genre‖? — Searching for an up-to-date definition of genre, one may come across varying notions hiding under the same term.
Throughout its 2000 years‘ history (Chandler 1), the study of genre has become a helpful instrument of enquiry not only in literary theory, but also in rhetoric, art, media theory or linguistics (1). Whereas sociolinguistics newly applies the concept of genre on the use of language in social situations in general, and defines genres as ―abstract, socially recognized ways of using language‖ (Hyland 114), literary, film or art criticism use the category of genre to identify a certain ―type of text‖ (Chandler 1) within their domain of study.
Since classical times, genre as a particular class of texts has been identified by its variously defined selective criteria. Aristotle used the categories of ―objects‖,
―means‖ and ―manner of imitation‖ to distinguish between different kinds of poetry – comedy, tragedy, epic and dithyrambic poetry at his time (Aristotle 45). Today, literary genres would be similarly distinguished on the basis of themes, motives, language, literary techniques or forms, and others. The distinguishing criteria of genres are not necessarily seen as exclusive to a particular genre by contemporary genre theories. In fact, different genres may be identified on the basis of different combinations of the same generic features: ―Particular features which are characteristic of a genre are not normally unique to it; it is their relative prominence, combination and functions which are distinctive‖ (Neale qtd. in Chandler 2). Today‘s theorists (e. g. Chandler, Frow) usually describe three contemporary approaches toward genre taxonomy: 1)
―definitional‖ (Chandler 2) or ―Aristotelian‖ (Frow 53), which relies on the traditional identification of the characteristic features of each genre and places a single text into
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exclusively one generic category; 2) the ―family resemblance approach‖ developed by
Alastair Fowler (Chandler 2, Frow 54), which emphasizes similarities between individual texts constituting a genre and stands on the fact that a single text ordinarily does not have all the characteristics attributed to its genre; 3) and the ―prototypical approach‖ (Chandler 3, Frow 54) suggesting that some texts may serve as model examples of a given genre, being ―more typical members of a genre than others‖
(Chandler 3).
It would be really rather difficult to count the total number of currently existing genres. In contrast to past theories of genre, which tended to treat genres as natural, stable and rigid categories, contemporary genre theorists mostly emphasise the dynamic aspects of genres and the possibilities of their overlapping: ―Genres... are not discrete systems, constisting of fixed number of listable items‖ (Gledhill qtd. in Chandler 2); ―It is difficult to make clear-cut distinctions between one genre and another: genres overlap, and there are ‗mixed genres‘...‖ (Chandler 2). The shifting nature of genres is sometimes explained by their historical or social character: some theorists hold that genres are categories fully dependent on the current social and historical situation, whereas others believe that there are consistent ahistorical principles governing the classification of genres (Chandler 3). Those authors who see genres as socially and historically determined categories completely resist any theorisation of genres and insist on purely descriptive approach toward genre taxonomy (Frow 70).
The opposite of such approach presents the structuralist theory of genre, employing a completely systematic understanding of genre (Frow 69). Structuralists‘ theoretical genres do not necessarily have to have their concrete expression in the current literary production – they might be models of writing used in the past or they migt be predictions of genres that have not yet been developed (69).
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The socially and reader-oriented views of genre are mostly based on the argument that theoretical genres are only constructs invented by theoreticians and analysts, which have no reflection in reality (Chandler 1). Following this logic, what counts are the ―de facto‖ genres – generic taxonomy used by authors and their readers apart from theorists (Chandler 2). Frow, however, points out Bowker and Star‘s observation, that ―people juggle vernacular (or folk) classifications together with the most formal category schemes‖ (55). Frow agrees that theoretical concepts created by academic study of genre underlie the origin of generic labels used by the public, and suggests a compromise: ―in dealing with questions of genre, our concern should not be with matters of taxonomic substance (‗What classes and sub-classes are there? To which class does this text belong?‘) – to which there are never any ‗correct‘ answers – but rather with questions of use: ‗What models of classification are there, and how have people made use of them in particular circumstances?‘‖ (Frow 55).
In other words, the relevance of genre analysis to contemporary literary studies lies in the identification of its uses or functions (a point with which this work largely identifies).
2. 1. The Uses of Genre: Genre Functions
The basic and first recognized function of genre can be considered classification and organization of a given body of texts. Giving a second thought to the significance of classification for literary analysis, the genre analyst Schaeffer draws attention to the fact that ―literature has always tied the question of genre to the question of what literature itself is‖ (qtd. in Dowd 21), pointing out that literary genres offer criteria to distinguish literary from non-literary texts. The genre‘s function of classification then extends towards identification — in the words of Jacques Derrida, it is necessary to ask: ―Can
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one identify a work of art, of whatever sort, but especially a work of discursive art, if it does not bear the mark of a genre, if it does not signal or mention it or make it remarkable in any way?‖ (64). Garin Dowd agrees: ―Indeed the ability to know what a literary genre is (and to know what the true genres are) is a measure of the extent to which one knows in what literature inheres‖ (Dowd 21). From this point of view, genre theory remains an inextricable part of literary thinking, necessary to the notion of literariness itself.
More functions performed by contemporary models of genre apart from classification include for example author-reader communication (Chandler 7), specific text-reader response – genre-based interpretation (8), and construction of the target group (9).
2. 2. Genre Functions and Asperger Narrative
To mark the boundaries of Asperger narrative as a new genre means to employ the functions of a generic label. The enumerated genre functions therefore serve here as the grounds for reasons why it is useful to recognize Asperger narrative as a genre. The function-based arguments in favour of Asperger narrative as a new genre can be divided into three groups: 1) classification reasons, 2) communicative reasons, and 3) interpretative reasons.
First, there is the argument of classification: as a separate genre, Asperger narrative would simply be sorted out of the vast category of novel or detective story, which fact corresponds with the basic purpose of classification: it helps toward better orientation of the reader. In accordance with today‘s systemic notions of genre and its definitions, certain characteristic features of individual texts belonging to Asperger narrative, and specific combination or relations between such features can be used to
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establish Asperger narrative as an independent genre. These features, such as the specific language, the themes or narrative techniques, will be further examined in the course of this text. The presence of such features in a text marked and selected as
Asperger narrative could thus be expected and searched for by potential readers. The importance of classification as a basic function of genre is well illustrated by the existence of various Asperger- and Autism-focused reader lists edited by members of online reader groups and corresponding online booksellers‘ genre lists (e.g. Giles; Suz
"treadingwater"; Kim B). Genre classification is sometimes used as a marketing device in these instances. The genre-based or topic-based lists created by customers of online booksellers help to navigate the target group through the wide range of offered literary production.
Second, there is usually a common communicative purpose to most literary works belonging to the same genre. Recognition of a new genre and the individual texts which may be subsumed under it then helps to discern such central communicative purpose in the texts. Some authors connect the question of definition of genre with its purpose; for example Carolyn Miller holds that ―a rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centered not on the substance or form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish‖ (qtd. in Chandler 4).
Most of the texts under the category of Asperger narrative follow two or three major communicative purposes: they see to bring more light into the ―Asperger matters‖
– to inform the reader and to inspire the reader‘s understanding of the AS condition, they try to show the inner world of an autistic person from both the artistic and psychological point of view, and they might be written to arouse compassion and sympathy in the reader. Such purposes exceed the main and more general purposes of broader genre categories such as the novel, and they differ from communicative
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purposes of similar genres, for example the detective novel (to amuse the reader with intellectual interplay the criminal – the detective, to create suspense, thrill or sense of mystery. . .) or stories for youth (to encourage identification with the young hero, to convey a moral message, to explain the process of coming of age. . .). The existence of these distinctive communicative purposes of Asperger narrative as another distinguishing criterion presents another fact in favour of the constitution of Asperger narrative as a separate genre.
The third reason for Asperger narrative‘s recognition is interpretative – reading a text about autistic hero with the knowledge of its belonging into the category of
Asperger narrative means reading it in context of other such texts. The textual characteristics of an individual Asperger narrative would not be interpreted as idiosyncrasies, but as generic features: for example, the voice of an AS-suffering hero would not be seen as the author‘s idiolect, or a construct simply attempting to intrigue the readers, but as a language of a particular type of hero – to be compared to others such as him. Daniel Chandler argues that ―semiotically, a genre can be seen as a shared code between the producers and interpreters of texts included within it‖ (5) – genre is considered a common ground on which the writers and their readers come to an understanding.
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3. Contemporary Fiction on Asperger
Fiction dealing with Asperger syndrome is a relatively recent phenomenon. As was mentioned above, the term Asperger syndrome was introduced to the English- speaking world in 1981 (Frith 673), yet the disorder was not formally recognized until
1994 (Greenwell 271). Since then, however, the interest in Asperger syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders has been rising constantly. Characters suffering
Asperger started to appear on TV screens, in films, magazines, or in fiction, and ―from being virtually unknown only twenty years ago, Asperger syndrome has now become almost a household word‖ (Frith 673).
This text deals with some of the novels offering the perspective of an Asperger hero written in the last ten years:
Mark Haddon‘s bestseller Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a story narrated by a 15-year-old Christopher Boone, a boy with Asperger resolved to untangle the mystery of his neighbour‘s dog‘s murder. Haddon‘s career includes working with mentally or physically disabled children and adults, painting, illustrating books and magazines, and writing children‘s fiction (―Mark Haddon‖). His book won the praise of both critics and its readers for its absorbing story and realistic depiction of the Asperger mind. Haddon, however, admits he did not do any profound research into AS before writing it (Greenwell 283).
Jodi Picoult‘s House Rules, told by multiple voices, among them the voice of
Jacob Hunt – an Asperger-suffering youth accused of the murder of his tutor. Jodi
Picoult is an established author of commercial fiction from Hanover, New Hampshire
(―About Jodi Picoult‖). Most of her works centre on a family dealing with
―contemporary crises: teen suicide, bullying, childhood sexual abuse, school violence‖
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(Keller 1). To write House Rules, one of her eighteen novels, Picoult gathered plentiful material from young people with Asperger.
Kathryn Erskine‘s Mockingbird, whose heroine, 10-year-old Caitlin Smith has
Asperger and has to deal with loss in her family. Erskine, former lawyer, turns her experience from growing in six countries into children‘s books (―Kathryn Erskine‖).
She offers an account of her research on Mockingbird on her website (Erskine,
―Research‖).
Elizabeth Moon‘s The Speed of Dark, a sci-fi novel from the near future, told mostly from the perspective of Lou Arrendale, a high-functioning autist pushed for an experimental treatment of his condition by his greedy employer. Moon writes as a parent of an autistic teenager to challenge contemporary stereotypes of disability (Hand
2). Her philosophical story touches the issues of identity, theory of human mind, or nature of disability.
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, narrated by Marcelo
Sandoval, an Asperger son of a successful Mexican-American lawyer made by his father to spend his summer working for a law firm. Francisco X. Stork, son of a
Mexican immigrant living in El Paso, Texas, struggles with bipolar disorder and writes stories about young outsiders (Mehegan 2). In college, he and other members of a religious movement L‘Arche lived with people with disabilities in order to gain mutual experience (2).
And Haze by Kathy Hoopmann, whose Asperger hero Seb has much better understanding of maths and computers than that of social reality of his high-school, which fact gets him into trouble when a computer-hacking crime is committed in the neighbourhood. After publishing a series of Asperger stories for children, Hoopmann decided that Haze, her fourth book on Asperger, would be written for teenagers
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(Hoopmann, ―Haze‖). Haze, unlike the other analyzed novels, is a third person narrative. It is included in this analysis to represent Hoopmann‘s extensive work in the area of AS literature for children and youth as well as the publications of Jessica
Kingsley, a publishing house specializing on literature about autism and AS (―Home‖).
Kathy Hoopmann is an Australian writer living in Dubai since 2003 (Hoopmann,
―About‖), a teacher ―involved with children with Asperger syndrome for many years,‖
(Hoopmann qtd. in Greenwell 272) and a mother of an Asperger son (272).
These pieces of writing are at first glance connected through their protagonists:
All of these stories are about people with AS. All of their heroes are young or children.
Moreover, reviewers often find these texts difficult to place into a single category within the conventional frame of genres. They include elements of mystery, drama, comedy or psychological study and more: For example the labels of ―mystery‖ (Suellen
105), ―gagathon‖, or ―suburban comedy‖ (Greenwell 282) are used in connection with
Haddon‘s Curious Incident, with Picoult‘s House Rules it is ―domestic drama‖ (Keller
1) or ―whodunit with a twist‖(1), likewise ―young adult novel‖, ―legal thriller‖ or
―morality tale‖ (Lipsyte 1) are used to describe Francisco X. Stork‘s Marcelo in The
Real World. Reviewer Rebecca Rabinowitz characterizes Haze by Kathy Hoopmann as a ―mix of genres‖ (15), which ―integrates high school, Asperger‘s syndrome, abused teenagers, and a mystery‖ (15).
Nevertheless, instead of searching for the aptest account of possible generic labels applicable on every one of these writings, it might be more useful to consider the traits they have in common, and explore the possibility of their forming a separate generic category, as was suggested earlier in the text. To remind the reasons given to justify this step: the use of a new generic label, ―Asperger narrative‖ in this case, might help improve orientation of the reader and solve the difficulties with sticking a generic
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label onto such texts. Furthermore, such categorization would better reflect the common goals or purposes of these texts. Also bearing the notion of a separate genre in mind while reading would influence the audience‘s interpretation of the texts.
3. 1. The Asperger Hero: Christopher Boone
Thought different contemporary approaches toward genre offer varying explanations of its nature, they all largely rely on the identification of similarities between given texts to describe the genre to which these texts belong. So the question whether the above outlined group of texts can be treated as a genre can be answered positively if there are such similarities, common traits or characteristic features in these texts to be found.
When reading fiction about Asperger – Asperger narrative – what suggests itself as its obvious generic feature is the Asperger character. Texts chosen for analysis in this work all feature an Asperger protagonist. The presence of an Asperger hero throughout a novel influences significantly the structure of its story and the language in which it is told. This, however, could probably not be said about the limited presence of a minor character with Asperger. It is likely that texts featuring only minor Asperger characters could not be labelled as Asperger narratives.
The most famous of Asperger heroes from books is Christopher Boone, the main character of Mark Haddon‘s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. 15-year-old
Christopher lives in a house with his father in Swindon, a small town near London. He takes care of a rat called Toby, likes science and maths, and dreams about becoming an astronaut. Christopher‘s daily routine is disturbed when he finds Wellington, a neighbour‘s dog, dead on the lawn in front of the neighbour‘s house, and is accused of
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its killing. Christopher resolves to find the real killer and write a ―murder mystery novel‖ (4) about his being a detective.
Christopher‘s task is, however, complicated by his behavioral problems, and his difficulties with communication and interpretation of other people‘s meanings or behaviour. The book does not mention Christopher‘s having the Asperger syndrome at any point, but the readers gradually learn that Christopher doesn‘t like people to touch him, and may react by hitting them when he feels intimidated (Haddon 5); he ―finds people confusing‖ (9), ―does not like looking at people's faces― (18), or that he „likes things to be in a nice order― (12) and invents special rules to follow every day, such as: seeing 4 red cars in a row passing = good day (12); or food of different colours must be served not touching on the plate (22).
No wonder Christopher‘s father is not in the least enthusiastic about his son‘s effort to investigate the dog‘s murder. Christopher‘s Asperger, nevertheless, is not the only reason his father wishes him to ―stay out of other people‘s business‖ (Haddon 14).
The other reason is Christopher‘s mother, claimed dead by the father, but in fact living in London with another man. She probably solves her problems with raising a difficult child by escape. Christopher, living for more than two years in the belief that his mother died of a heart attack, goes through a serious shock when he finds mother‘s letters to him in his father‘s bedroom. Another astonishment comes with the revelation of
Wellington‘s killer. Christopher finds out it was his father who killed the dog after a row with their neighbour. He decides he cannot trust his father anymore and flees to
London to live with his mother.
Christopher‘s perilous journey actually leads him to the door of his mother‘s apartment. Though his mother abandons her new life in London to live with Christopher in a small place in Swindon, and Christopher reconciles partly with his father, who buys
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him a dog, the novel‘s ending leaves the readers to doubt about the future. Christopher‘s bond with his father will probably never regain its former strength, and his mother relies on medication to cope with her depression for the time being.
3. 2. The Hero’s Voice
The readers learn this whole history from Christopher. Choosing an Asperger character as a narrator is always a brave step taken by an author, because, as Bill
Greenwell notices: ―. . . an Asperger character presents an unusual challenge to the writer. He will not socialise easily; his language may be ponderous; his literalism will prevent, it would seem, the use of metaphor‖ (274). Greenwell rightly points out the particularities of language, style and character construction used by writers to convey the manifestations of Asperger syndrome.
In those cases where the Asperger character is cast in the role of the first person narrator, the realities of AS such as literalism, perseverant behaviour, or restricted interests, greatly affect the authors‘ choice of language devices in the creation of their hero‘s voice: they will allow only a limited use of vocabulary, and restrict the use of metaphors, other forms of figurative language, or phrasal verbs.
Christopher Boone gives a particularly detailed explanation of his problems with metaphors in the Curious Incident:
. . . people often talk using metaphors. These are examples of metaphors:
I laughed my socks off.
He was the apple of her eye.
They had a skeleton in the cupboard.
We had a real pig of a day.
The dog was stone dead.
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The word metaphor means carrying something from one place to
another, and it comes from the Greek words μετα (which means from one
place to another) and φερειυ (which means to carry), and it is when you
describe something by using a word for something that it isn't. This
means that the word metaphor is a metaphor.
I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and
people do not have skeletons in their cupboards. And when I try and
make a picture of the phrase in my head it just confuses me because
imagining an apple in someone‘s eye doesn‘t have anything to do with
liking someone a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking
about. (Haddon 9)
In fact, authors of all discussed novels write their Asperger hero unable to understand commonplace metaphors:
I don‘t understand why people never say what they mean. It‘s like
immigrants who come to a country and learn the language but are
completely baffled by idioms. (Seriously, how could anyone who isn‘t a
native English speaker ―get the picture,‖ so to speak, and not assume it
has something to do with a photo or a painting?). (Picoult 29)
A part of Devon will always be with you.
Which part, I wonder. No parts of his body are left because he was
cremated. That means burned up into ashes. (Erskine, Mockingbird 15)
―. . . it‘s helpful to assume that most people are looking out for number
one.‖
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At that moment, I picture a group of people standing on a corner
waiting for a big number one to appear. Arturo must have seen the
blankness in my eyes, for he says, ―It‘s a figure of speech: looking out for
number one. It means to consider one‘s own interests first.‖ (Stork 44)
―Don can be a real heel,‖ she says.
Don is not a heel; he is a person. Normal people say things like this,
changing the meaning of words without warning, and they understand it.
(Moon 33)
―Watch out. Barbarella‘s on the war path,‖ said Jen suddenly as their
headmaster rounded the corner. ... Seb frowned. ―He‘s not at war.‖
(Hoopmann, Haze 70)
This means that authors of Asperger narratives must avoid using figurative language while constructing the voice of an Asperger hero, and they more or less keep to the rule. The authors naturally differ in their skills with which they maintain the illusion of an Asperger mind. Considering The Curious Incident, Greenwell observes that: ―Haddon rarely catches himself out, and . . . when he does, he has a defence prepared‖ (280):
He . . . had a very hairy nose. It looked as if there were two very small
mice hiding in his nostrils.2 (Haddon 10)
2 This is not a metaphor, it is a simile, which means that it really did look
like there were two very small mice hiding in his nostrils... (Haddon 105)
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Some authors, however, are not so meticulous. Although the use of simple simile and metaphor might be justified by the fact that people with Asperger gradually learn to recognize their meanings, some expressions used by Jacob, Jodi Picoult‘s Asperger hero, seem very unlikely to be thought by a person with Asperger: ―And me? I sat like a statue with my lungs on fire, until I was on the verge of passing out‖ (Picoult 29).
These lapses into ―neurotypical‖ language could thus be explained simply as their author‘s inattention to detail. Or, more likely, the inconsistencies of style reflect every author‘s struggle for a well balanced compromise between the authentic description of a voice of the Asperger hero and the readability of their novel.
In addition to the specific language, there will be other characteristic stylistic features of the Asperger hero‘s voice: the narrative will usually include lecture-like passages, dictionary quotations, the hero‘s monologues, or similar digressions reflecting the Aspergian obsessive interests. Christopher Boone‘s greatest interests are numbers, space and Sherlock Holmes. In one of his typical entries he explains to his readers the ways in which numbers affect the world on the case of frog population in the school pond:
Here is a formula for a population of animals
NNEW = λ(NOLD)(1 - NOLD)
And in this formula N stands for the population density. When N = 1
the population is the biggest it can get. And when N = 0 the population is
extinct. NNEW is the population in one year, and NOLD is the population in
the year before. And λ is what is called a constant.
When λ, is less than 1, the population gets smaller and smaller and
goes extinct. And when λ, is between 1 and 3, the population gets
bigger... (Haddon 46)
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The characters of other discussed novels show similar eagerness to share the ideas concerning their special interests or other problems absorbing their minds.
Elizabeth Moon‘s Lou from Speed of Dark thinks about the probability that three incidents with smashed tyres in a row are enemy action:
―There is only one chance in twenty-seven that all parts of the statement
are true: that the first incident is an accident, the second incident is a
coincidence and the third incident is enemy action. That is three-point-
seven percent, giving an error rate of ninety-six-point-three for the truth
value of the entire statement. But there are nine cases – one-third of the
total – in which the last case is enemy action, which drops the error rate
with respect to the final incident to sixty-seven percent . . . ‖ (Moon 209-
210)
Jacob from Jodi Picoult‘s House Rules tries to strike up a conversation about forensics with his classmate:
Me: An AP test—acid phosphatase test—it‘s used with a forensic
light source to test for presumptive semen. It‘s not as conclusive as DNA,
but then again, when you get a rapist who‘s had a vasectomy, there won‘t
be any sperm, and if an AP test and a 530-nanometer trispot is all you‘ve
got—
Owen: Get the fuck away from me, freak. (Picoult 53)
The heroes‘ propensity for lengthy monologues is touched upon in the remaining novels as well. Caitlin from Mockingbird becomes interested in the function of human heart and gives a summary of her findings about that topic on page 26 of Erskine‘s novel. But where Haddon, Moon, Picoult or Erskine can use the first person narrative to include actual evidence of their protagonist‘s verbosity in the form of dictionary entries,
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Hoopmann has to be content with the outward description of her hero Seb‘s self-centred conversation:
Seb talked to his shoes and Kristie listened intently... for a good thirty
seconds.
Then she crossed her arms, bit a rough edge from a fingernail.
Refused to catch Jen‘s eye.
Wriggled. Watched an ant walk up the wall. Wondered how it would
carry a crumb so large. Picked fluff from her skirt. Finally she rose and
Jen saw her say, ―Thanks.‖ (Hoopmann, Haze 42-43)
Finally, F. X. Stork only makes his hero admit that he tends to ―monopolize the conversation‖(108) while talking about his interests without giving his readers any proof of this statement. In those texts, where the heroes‘ ponderous monologues actually appear, they form the most cohesive part of the narrative in terms of language use. As can be seen on the examples above, they are often written in a specific type of formal register (mostly scientific) from which they rarely diverge.
3. 3. The Lost Heroine: Caitlin Smith
Kathryn Erskine‘s novel Mockingbird is a story told by 10-year-old Caitlin
Smith, a girl with Asperger who likes drawing and dictionaries. Caitlin looses her only friend and advisor when her brother Devon is killed in shooting at the Virginia Dare
Middle School. Her mother died two years before, her father‘s grief seems too overwhelming for him to cope with, and Caitlin is on her own. Throughout the 130 pages of the narrative, Caitlin is trying to find a solution to the situation. She looks up a definition of ―closure‖ in her dictionary, which says: ―the state of experiencing an emotional conclusion to a difficult life event such as the death of loved one‖ (Erskine,
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Mockingbird 43). Caitlin decides that closure is what she and her father need to get over
Devon‘s death, and searches for ways to reach it.
However, for Caitlin with her Asperger it is difficult to tell the important things from unimportant details, to understand another person‘s emotions, to join a conversation or to interpret other people‘s meanings. Caitlin is helped to overcome these strains by her school counsellor Mrs. Brook, who patiently explains to her all the secrets of social life during their walks in the school yard. Though her first attempts to get to know other children at school are rather clumsy, with Mrs. Brook‘s guidance,
Caitlin succeeds in finding a friend. She also manages to figure out the meaning of closure: it is ―the act of bringing to an end; a conclusion‖ (Erskine, Mockingbird 83), it means she and her father must build together a wooden chest – her brother‘s unfinished scout project. Everything seems to take its course toward happy-ending. Caitlin helps her father finish the chest and regain his self-possession, the community slowly begins to recover from the shock of the high-school shooting, and Caitlin is getting used to life with friends.
3. 4. The Unreliable Narrator
Caitlin‘s narrative concentrates on dialogues. Her confusion becomes most apparent in her attempts at conversation. She has problems communicating with others because she is unable to follow the rules of verbal communication. In addition to the problem described in the previous chapters – the urge to lead monologues about one‘s obsessive interest – Asperger characters like Caitlin are slow to understand the conversation‘s structure and rhythm, because they have difficulties interpreting body language, tone, intonation and hedges. Caitlin has to learn the meanings of some situations and her replies in advance:
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Thank you Caitlin.
She doesn‘t move. This means she is waiting for me to say
something. I hate that. It makes my underarms prickle and get wet. I
almost start sucking my sleeve . . . but then I remember. You’re welcome,
I say.
She moves away.
I got it right! I go . . . put a smiley face sticker on my chart under
YOUR MANNERS. (Erskine, Mockingbird 12, emphasis original)
But sometimes even replies studied in advance won‘t help:
I’d like you to be in a real group. How about joining Emma and
Brianna?
No.
More kids laugh.
Mrs. Johnson narrows her eyes and mouth at them but turns back to
me. Excuse me?
No Thank You. That‘s another sticker for my YOUR MANNERS
chart.
Everyone laughs now. (Erskine, Mockingbird 29, emphasis original)
The Asperger characters of other discussed novels have similar problems. Seb‘s inability to interpret Kristie‘s body language is apparent from the extract on page 28 of this text; Jacob uses movie quotes as easy replies to questions of others; Lou complains about the complexity of speech; Marcelo Sandoval admits having great difficulties with starting a conversation; and Christopher does not seem to recognize that someone is trying to start a conversation with him:
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If someone asks me what I‘m doing for the weekend, I can‘t respond as
easily . . . I‘ll stumble over how much information is too much, and so
instead of giving a blow-by-blow description of my future plans, I‘ll rely
on someone else‘s words.
Doing my best De Niro Taxi Driver impression, I‘ll say, “You talkin’
to me?‖ (Picoult 29, emphasis original)
I feel the words tangling in my head, in my throat, and struggle to get
them out in the right order, with the right expression. Why can‘t people
just say what they mean, the words alone? Why do I have to fight with
tone and rate and pitch and variation? (Moon 12)
I sit down and put my hands on my legs. I want to say something to
Wendell, who seems to be waiting for me to start the conversation, but I
can‘t think of anything to say. Despite hours of practicing . . . initiating
―small talk‖ is still a formidable challenge for me. (Stork 69)
He said, ―I have spoken to your father and he says that you didn't
mean to hit the policeman.‖
I didn't say anything because this wasn't a question.
He said, ―Did you mean to hit the policeman?‖ (Haddon 10)
The Asperger characters‘ communication troubles might be partly due to another cause: data overload. Because most people with Asperger syndrome have non-selective perception, the amount of information attacking their brain in one moment can distract their attention in conversation. Caitlin Smith from Mockingbird is an excellent young
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artist. Her drawings are faithful copies of reality as well as evidence of their author‘s sense of detail and observation skills. In some passages of her narrative, Caitlin describes the bulk of information she notices:
I push my door open and wade through the clothes and books and papers
and pencils and yarn and stickers on my floor and go to my bed where
there are one hundred and fifty-three stuffed animals including key
chains and Mc-Donald‘s Happy Meal toys but the one I want is Red Dog
and he is sleeping under the bed with my purple fleece blanket . . .
(Erskine, Mockingbird 18)
Unfortunately, Kathryn Erskine does not include many of such passages in her novel, so when they do appear, they sometimes feel as schematic means to make
Caitlin‘s character fit her diagnosis. Authors of the remaining analyzed texts also describe or include evidence of their Asperger characters‘ weak central coherence:
There‘s a world out there I know nothing about. A crazy stream of
data that bombards every waking minute of every day. (Hoopmann, Haze
7)
The cars in the parking lot are different colours and sizes. Thirty-seven
percent of them, this morning, are blue. Nine percent are oversize: trucks
or vans. There are eighteen motorcycles in three racks, which would be
six apiece, except that ten of them are in the back rack, near
Maintenance. (Moon 3)
The desk next to the copying machine is made of gray metal and is
smaller than the larger wooden desk that is adjacent to the door. The
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larger desk has a white CD player with headphones connected to it, and
on the wall in front of it there is a picture of a snow-capped mountain
peak. The rest of the mailroom is filled with metal shelves that go from
the floor to the ceiling. These metal shelves are packed with large brown
folders. I notice that the metal shelves have steel wheels and that under
the wheels there are tracks that allow the shelves to move sideways in
order to access the shelves behind. (Stork 48)
Mark with his hand sliding up Jessica‘s shirt at the pizza place. His
hideous orange sweatshirt. The earring in his left ear. The bruises I saw
once on Jessica‘s side when she reached for a book on a high shelf, two
uneven purple ovals like quality stamps on a cut of beef. She told me
she‘d fallen off a stepladder, but she looked away when she said it. And
unlike me, who looks away out of comfort, she does it in moments of
discomfort. (Picoult 96)
Siobhan has long blond hair and wears glasses which are made of
green plastic. And Mr. Jeavons smells of soap and wears brown shoes
that have approximately 60 tiny circular holes in each of them. (Haddon
7)
All discussed writers mention their protagonist‘s lack of central coherence at some point of their books, but Mark Haddon and Jodi Picoult are the only authors using this ―stream of perception‖ technique on a larger scale. Though novels describing
Aspergian overstimulated mind through long descriptive passages might get ponderous at certain moments, inclusion of such passages adds credit to their hero‘s voice.
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Furthermore, Haddon‘s and Picoult‘s readers easily find out they cannot rely on the narrator to choose only the relevant pieces of information. The novels expect them to do their own evaluation and selection of presented facts. This is true about other stories told from the point of view of an Asperger character as well, only it comes out less apparent from novels, which centre primarily on dialogues.
3. 5. The Boy from the Tree House: Marcelo Sandoval
As was illustrated in the previous chapters, stories about Asperger characters teach their readers that people with Asperger do not use or understand figurative language, like to rattle about their restricted interests, have problems structuring conversation, and sometimes feel overwhelmed by the amounts of information they perceive. All this, however, does not say anything about their personality.
Asperger narratives are not written as stories about a disease. Their authors rather seem to wish the readers to forget about the disorder and discover the personality of their hero hiding under the manifestations of Asperger syndrome. So, in addition to the question: What does it mean for a hero of a novel to have Asperger syndrome? it is also possible to ask: Who is the typical hero of an Asperger narrative?
Marcelo Sandoval is an Asperger hero of Francisco X. Storks‘s Macelo in the
Real World. He is also a son of a loving mother, a nurse in a hospital, and a strict father, a lawyer. Marcelo lives in a tree house and goes to Paterson, a school for children with special needs, where he takes care of Haflinger ponies. His father, Arturo Sandoval, does not agree with Marcelo‘s isolation from the ―real world‖ (20). He believes his son needs to ―expand beyond his comfort zone‖ (23) and makes Marcelo work in a law firm for the summer. Marcelo is promised that if he ―follows the rules of the real world‖ (23, he will be allowed to spend another year at Paterson instead of a regular high-school;
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and although Marcelo is afraid of what might happen to him in the ―normal environment‖ (22), he tries hard to comply with his father‘s wishes.
In the competitive environment of the law firm starts an office drama. Marcelo‘s father would like him to befriend Oliver Wendell, the son of his law firm partner. He thinks Marcelo ―needs to be around a young man like Wendell‖ (155). Marcelo thinks
Wendell is a disgusting sexist and a spoilt brat. Instead, he makes friends with his new boss, Jasmine, an attractive and hardworking head of the firm‘s mailroom. Unlike
Wendell or Wendell‘s father, for whom Marcelo is simply ―Mr. Spock‖ (87) or ―regular
Forrest Gump‖ (65), Jasmine is tolerant and willing to listen to Marcelo. He confides in her, and tells her everything about his condition, and his special interests. Jasmine is fascinated to find out that Marcelo‘s greatest passion is religion, he likes ponies, he collects CDs and hears IM – internal music – music that comes to him only in his head.
Marcelo wonders whether he is attracted to Jasmine. Other men in the office clearly are, since they stare at her most of the time. Wendell even comes up with a cunning plan to get Jasmine to his yacht, and urges Marcelo to help him. Marcelo does not want to set
Wendell against him, but he is determined to save Jasmine from Wendell‘s claws, and answers him with equivocation.
The second part of the novel turns into a morality story. When Marcelo finds a photograph of a girl with a disfigured face among the firm files, he feels a strong urge to find out more about her. Jasmine helps him with the ―investigation‖ and they discover evidence that their client, manufacturer of windshields, is responsible for the girl‘s injury and many others. Marcelo can‘t understand the reasons that lead his father to assist such colossal injustice. He decides to help the girl win her case and get damages that would pay her operation. He betrays his father‘s law firm and hands a decisive piece of evidence to the plaintiff. Although Arturo Sandoval is furious, Marcelo knows
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he did the right thing, and reconciles himself to the fact that he must go to a regular high-school next year. His fear of the ―real world‖ is smaller, because now he knows
―the real world can be stranger than Marcelo‘s‖ (Mehegan, 1).
3. 6. The Typical Hero
In this story from a law firm, Marcelo Sandoval is the hero; Wendell Holmes is the villain. If the readers talked to Wendell in the street, they would probably take him immediately for a bad guy. He wears awfully expensive clothes, he talks about women as if they were cattle and practically oozes scorn. Meeting Marcelo in person, the readers might get a little confused about what kind of person he is.
As other characters with AS, Marcelo would not respond easily to other people‘s friendly remarks. His impaired empathy and problems with intonation might cause others to perceive him as a rather cold and reserved young man. To his father‘s observation ―You and Jasmine are getting along then‖ (Stork 94), Marcelo says nothing because to him ―that sounds like a conclusion and not a question‖ (94). He had to learn at social interaction classes at school that ―When people tell you that a relative of theirs has died, you are supposed to say that you are sorry‖ (108).
Another Asperger hero, Lou from The Speed of Dark, unfortunately gives similar impression of indifference:
―Hello, Lou,‖ she says. ―Reading?‖
―Hello,‖ I say. I do not answer the question, because she can see that I
am reading.
. . .
―My, my,‖ she says. ―That‘s a thick book. I didn‘t know you liked to
read, Lou.‖
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I do not understand the rules about interrupting. It is always impolite
for me to interrupt other people, but other people do not seem to think it
is impolite for them to interrupt me in circumstances when I should not
interrupt them.
―Yes, sometimes,‖ I say. I do not look up from the book because I
hope she will understand that I want to read.
―Are you upset with me about something?‖ she asks. (Moon 227)
Nevertheless, Marcelo and Lou are far from the rudest Asperger heroes. They have already learned many ways to overcome their impairments, and in many cases they are able to figure out the right replies, whereas Christopher, Caitlin, Jacob, and Seb might pass for regular monsters in the eyes of their family and friends. Their lack of empathy makes them seem unemotional and sometimes almost heartless. Seb never hugs his mother. Christopher doesn‘t cry when he hears his mother died. He is simply interested in what kind of heart attack she died of. Jacob has never given his mother a birthday-present on his own initiative. Caitlin insists on calling her deceased brother
―Devon-who-is-dead‖ to show her father that she realizes he does not live anymore.
However, thanks to the first person narrative, which opens a window into the mind of the Asperger hero in most of the discussed books, the readers can see that
Asperger characters are anything but cold, reserved or heartless. They simply misunderstand. The readers are rather alarmed at the sharp contrast between the
Asperger hero‘s intention and the results of their behaviour, and moved by the their frustration. One of the most satisfying storylines then is the one in which other characters in the book get to know the personality of their Asperger friend concealed by the disorder.
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Though the typical Asperger hero is not exactly a sympathetic figure, they are far from indifferent. In fact, the notion of Asperger characters having feelings for other people is often emphasized in the books. Marcelo, for example, thinks ―. . . maybe there is something wrong with me. Maybe I will never feel that someone is beautiful‖ (Stork
113), but he soon discovers his feelings toward Jasmine.
In addition to love, the typical Asperger hero possesses other traditional virtues of heroes such as bravery or intelligence. Marcelo proves his courage several times, for example when he decides to go work in his father‘s law firm despite his fear of interaction with ―normal‖ people; or when he stands up to his father and helps the poor injured girl win her case against a wealthy company. Christopher is scared to talk to strangers, and he ―had never been anywhere apart from the shop at the end of the road on [his] own‖ (Haddon 58), yet he sets off to London to find his mother. Other people make Caitlin feel nervous and confused, but she tries talking to them to find a friend, nevertheless. Lou takes part in a fencing tournament. Jacob, confident of his extensive knowledge of forensics, patronizes the police detectives, and Seb defends himself against internet detectives‘ accusations. These things take some courage and one doesn‘t have to have Asperger syndrome.
Intelligence also counts to the positive qualities of the typical Asperger hero.
Most of the Asperger protagonists of the discussed books are characterized by outstanding intelligence in a certain cognitive domain. Christopher is an excellent mathematician. At the end of The Curious Case he gains A marks in his A level Maths examination and presents his favourite task in appendix of the book. A critic, seeing the task, noted: ―it looks like an alien object, and it makes me feel queasy‖ (Greenwell
281). Lou‘s calculation on probability of enemy action reproduced on page 27 of this text shows his unusual mathematical-logical intelligence, and in the course of The Speed
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of Dark the readers learn that texts about neurology are no problem for Lou as well. His great memory helps him study books for two or three years‘ neurology course in a few weeks. Seb is a teenage computer genius, assembling his own computer, writing his own programs; and Jacob informs the readers at the beginning of House Rules that he
―memorized the periodic table without even trying . . . taught [himself] how to read
Middle Egyptian; and . . . helped [his] calculus teacher fix his computer― (Picoult 29).
Marcelo and Caitlin do not show evidence of any exceptional logical intelligence, yet they are both endowed with different kinds of special talents. 10-year-old Caitlin is a remarkable artist, and Marcelo hears music noone else can hear. In the book, Marcelo‘s ability to hear internal music is examined by doctor Malone, who finds interesting patterns of activity in Marcelo‘s brain. Naturally, social and emotional intelligence are never among any Asperger hero‘s strenghts.
Keeping things in order makes people with AS feel safe and comfortable, so the diagnosis of Asperger also means that Asperger heroes will be punctual, pedantic, and unadaptable. This is to a various degree true with all mentioned Asperger characters. All of them, for example, keep similar schedules of daily and weekly activities, which are often included in the books. Marcelo‘s schedule for monday morning looks like this:
5:00 A. M. WAKE UP
5:05 A. M. REMEMBERING
5:35 A. M. FEED NAMU
5:40 A. M. DUMBBELLS
6:00 A. M. CONTINUE WITH READING OF PSALMS
6:30 A. M. BREAKFAST (INSTANT CREAM OF WHEAT, BROWN SUGAR,
BANANA, ORANGE JUICE)
6:45 A. M. SHOWER AND DRESS
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7:00 A. M. WAIT FOR ARTURO TO GO TO TRAIN STATION (STORK 37)
Sometimes, people with AS in the books seemingly lack sense of humour. This is the case of Lou, Seb and Christopher. Lou wonders whether normal people have something like ―their other mind reading, knowing when someone is joking and when someone is serious, knowing when a word is used correctly and when it is used in a joking way‖ (Moon 198). Christopher warns his readers: ―This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them‖ (Haddon 5). Seb‘s mother describes her son‘s sense of humour: ―[Seb] never joked. Well, that wasn‘t quite true.
He had his own sense of humour no one else quite understood‖ (Hoopmann, Haze 7).
Seb‘s mother‘s observation probably expresses best what is going on with
Asperger heroes‘ sense of humour. Their sense of humour stands on the contrast between their rational view of the world and the crazy ideas of the so called ―normals‖.
Other people cannot understand it unless they see into the heroes‘ heads – and the readers often do when they read Asperger narratives.
Christopher eventually admits there are jokes he understands:
And I realize that I told a lie in Chapter 13 because I said ―I cannot
tell jokes,‖ because I do know 3 jokes that I can tell and I understand and
one of them is about a cow, . . .
There are three men on a train. One of them is an economist and one
of them is a logician and one of them is a mathematician. And they have
just crossed the border into Scotland (I don't know why they are going to
Scotland) and they see a brown cow standing in a field from the window
of the train (and the cow is standing parallel to the train).
And the economist says, ―Look, the cows in Scotland are brown.‖
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And the logician says, ―No. There are cows in Scotland of which one
at least is brown.‖
And the mathematician says, ―No. There is at least one cow in
Scotland, of which one side appears to be brown.‖
And it is funny because economists are not real scientists, and
because logicians think more clearly, but mathematicians are best.
(Haddon 65)
Writing about people with Asperger the authors usually pay attention to their hero‘s relationship toward animals. Typically, protagonists of Asperger narratives like dogs or cats. In his book Mark Haddon points out the fact that for people with AS animals are often easier to understand than human beings: ―I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating‖
(Haddon 4); and Francisco X. Stork likens Aspergian mind to the mind of a cat, quite literally; he suggests that Marcelo‘s brain functions similarly to a cat‘s brain:
Dr. Malone . . . says, ―Toby, look up those tests they did with the
cats, you know, the ones where they scanned them while someone
dangled a string in front of them. I think the hypothalamus was affected
there too.‖
I can‘t help smiling to myself. I like knowing that my brain is like a
cat‘s. (Stork 7)
Jacob Hunt from House Rules has a similar idea:
I think cats have Asperger‘s.
Like me, they‘re very smart.
And like me, sometimes they simply need to be left alone. (Picoult
119)
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This idea of cats‘ minds compared to minds of people with Asperger is, however, not very surprising in Asperger narratives, since it appears very often in literature about AS, especially in didactic handbooks for children. Kathy Hoopmann, for example, is also the author of a book called All Cats Have Asperger’s Syndrome.
To conclude about the personality of the typical Asperger hero: The typical
Asperger hero likes cats, or dogs; cares about people too, though it often does not seem so; does brave things almost every day; thinks Bernoulli equation is a nice pastime exercise; likes things being in a nice order; has problems to understand other people‘s jokes sometimes, but has an original sense of humour of their own.
3. 7. Asperger in the Future: Lou Arrendale
In Elizabeth Moon‘s picture of the near future, autism is a very rare phenomenon. Her novel The Speed of Dark is set in a time of scientific and technological development which allows to treat neurological disorders in pre-borns and infants. 35-year-old Lou Arrendale is one of the last generation of autists born before the discovery of such treatment. Despite being labeled as an autist in the text of the novel, thanks to the early intervention available at his time, Lou‘s diagnosis gets closer to Asperger syndrome than autism (Greenwell 273).
Lou is working for a pharmaceutical company. He and other autistic employees analyze patterns of numbers and symbols running over their computer screens to find formulas for new drugs. This task would be difficult for ―normal‖ employees, but for autists with their special cognitive processing, it is easy. Lou is obsessed with patterns.
He sees them everywhere: in music, in stars, in the fabric and colours of people‘s clothes, or in their movements. This ability to spot patterns makes him very good at his job and also at fencing, Lou‘s favourite pastime. Lou goes for a fencing practice into the
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house of his friends, Tom and Lucia. He never told anything about his fencing group to his psychiatrist, who would put it down as ―violent tendencies‖ (Moon 24). Fencing offers Lou great opportunity to interact with people out of the autism spectrum. At Tom and Lucia‘s house Lou finds friends and even falls in love: with Marjory, a good- looking girl working as a researcher at the local university.
Lou‘s trouble starts at work: the company‘s new unscrupulous manager, Mr.
Crenshaw, presses the autistic employees to join in a new experimental treatment of autism for adults owned by the company. Lou and his autistic co-workers are threatened to loose their jobs if they do not cooperate. Lou‘s friends at Tom and Lucia‘s and Mr.
Aldrin, his boss at the pattern analysis department, are trying to help him find legal advice and a solution to this problem.
In the fencing group, Lou faces a more dangerous threat. Don, one of the fencers, is attracted to Marjory as well. Unfortunately, Don has an aggressive temper, which shows in his treatment of Lou and makes him fall out of his friends‘ favour. Don becomes insanely jealous of Lou, damages his car three times and eventually attacks
Lou with a gun in a parking lot. Lou is lucky the police kept an eye on him and are soon enough in the place to prevent Don from harming him.
Mr. Aldrin goes to higher places in the company and finds a way to get rid of
Crenshaw, but some of the autistic employees have already decided to take the treatment. Lou now feels free to make his own decision as well. He researches brain functionality to gather all possible information about the surgery. The procedure seems dangerous enough, but what Lou fears most are the possible consequences of a successful treatment. The doctors seem sure there can be no reason why autistic people should want to remain in their condition. Lou, however, realizes that ―autism is a part of who [he is]‖ (Moon 290). The brain surgery might turn him into a different person.
43
Moon here challenges the views of autism and Asperger syndrome as diseases, as something to be cured, pointing out that Autistic perception of the world might be both a curse and a gift.
Lou opts for taking the treatment. His brain quickly recovers; his memories slowly come back. Lou can now fulfill his childhood dream and become an astronaut.
He goes to college and after seven years makes it to space. His former life, however, is all gone. He does not enjoy fencing, does not meet his friends from the circle, and does not feel anything toward Marjory anymore.
3. 8. They Are Not Like Us
Lou‘s job is very important to him. His success at work and his independence give him confidence. Lou works in a kind of protective environment, among other
―autistic‖ people who have similar problems as him. Their work is important for the company, which allows them special accommodations such as a private gym or classical music recordings collection. Lou feels relaxed and comfortable in such working environment and makes good progress.
Lou‘s confidence enables him to join the fencing group of ―normals‖, so Lou and the readers have an opportunity to compare the two social units he belongs to: his work and the fencing circle. People in the fencing group are friendly and tolerant, especially Tom and Lucia, the oldest members and fencing teachers. Lou feels at ease among them, and believes they are his friends, but at the same time he is aware that he has to try harder than the others to fit in. In this social unit, he has to adapt to others; he has to learn to interpret their expressions and find adequate responses: ―‗Want to play?‘
Don says, nudging me with his elbow. He means do I want to fence with him. I did not understand that at first. Now I do‖ (Moon 26-27).
44
And, despite his five year‘s experience in the group and all his effort, sometimes he gets confused:
―Tom and Lucia both sounded angry with Don,‖ I say. She [Marjory]
gives me a quick sideway glance. I think I am supposed to understand it,
but I don‘t know what it means. (Moon 32)
―What are you reading, Lou?‖ Marjory asks.
. . .
―Cego and Clinton,‖ Lucia says, as if that is a title.
―Wow,‖ Marjory says. ―Good for you, Lou.‖
I do not understand. Does she know the book just from its authors?
Did they write only one book? And why does she say the book is good
for me? Or did she mean ―good for you‖ as praise? I do not understand
that meaning, either. I feel trapped in this whirlpool of questions, not-
knowing swirling around me, drowning me. (Moon 189)
Also, there is Don, the rotten apple of the group, showing xenophobic tendencies. Don has never been able to accept Lou in the circle. He makes jokes about
Lou that upset the whole group. He complains about Lou‘s ―obsessive‖ behaviour: ―Lou wears the same clothes every week – clean, I‘ll give him that, but the same – and this thing he has about where to store his gear . . .‖ (Moon 55). Don puts it simply to Tom and Lucia: ―He‘s [Lou] not like the rest of us—‖ (Moon 65).
In Lou‘s working group, Lou never has to play the role of a ―normal‖ (Moon
165). He and his autistic friends understand each other perfectly:
. . . I hear Bailey calling from down the hall, ―Anyone for pizza?‖
. . .
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A quick flick of a glance at my friends‘ faces is all I need to know
who is coming and who is not. We do not need to talk about it; we know
one another. (Moon 7)
The group identity is further strengthened by their having a secret language:
―‗Ezzer,‘ I say. Ezzer means ‗go ahead‘ in our private language. . . . Many people have a private language without even knowing it. They may call it jargon or slang, but it‘s really a private language, a way of telling who is in the group and who is not‖ (Moon 9-
10, emphasis original).
People in the ―autistic‖ working community feel the need to assimilate into the
―normal‖ society, yet they realize their differences all the same. The ―autistic‖ community provides them with the needed sense of belonging, and it also represents a form of resistance to the idea of ―normalcy‖. In their group, normal is being autistic.
Who is not autistic, does not belong there. This works as a little paradox in the book: the
―autistic‖ people, so eager to be accepted by the ―normals‖, show similar intolerance when it comes to deciding ―who is in the group and who is not‖ (Moon 10). Their younger colleague Joe Lee, who went through the early treatment of autism the others were born too early to receive, will probably never be perceived as a member of the group:
―So you admit you are not one of us,‖ I say and Joe Lee stiffens, his
face assuming an expression I‘ve been taught is ―hurt feelings.‖
―How can you say that, Lou? You know it‘s just the treatment—‖
―If you give a deaf child hearing, he is no longer one of the deaf,‖ I
say. ―If you do it early enough, he never was. It‘s all pretending
otherwise.‖ (Moon 12)
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In The Speed of Dark, Lou has a possibility to choose between the environments.
His working circle presents a refuge from the alien ―normal‖ world. In other Asperger narratives it is rarely so. The setting mostly stresses the dichotomy Asperger hero – the outside world. The heroes move between given social units, mostly family, school, or work. They always have to adapt to some degree to circumstances in a particular group.
This hero‘s need to somehow ―deal‖ with the outside world is an underlying presence in all Asperger narratives.
The closest to Lou in terms of options has Marcelo Sandoval. In Paterson, the school for children with disabilities he attends, not everyone has Asperger, but Marcelo still feels free and protected there, and he is not at all enthusiastic about his father‘s plans to send him to Oak Ridge High School: ―Arturo [father] needs to be convinced that the best way for me . . . is to continue at Paterson, where I can learn at my own pace, where I am learning to make decisions and becoming responsible and independent, all the things he wants me to be‖ (Stork 11).
Marcelo‘s father brings his son to the ―competitive environment‖ (Stork 43) of his law firm. He wants him to adapt, to ―follow the rules of the real world‖ (Stork 20).
Marcelo sees it his way: ―Arturo is basically asking me to pretend that I am normal, according to his definition, for three months‖ (Stork 23).
Both Marcelo and Christopher go to school for children with special needs.
Christopher, however, does not really feel a part of the school community. He thinks:
―All the other children at my school are stupid‖ (Haddon 21). Christopher‘s need to prove his intelligence and skill to the world is satisfied when he manages to find his mother in London all by himself and when he passes his A level in maths.
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Seb, Jacob and Caitlin all have to deal with their days at regular high school.
They don‘t have any group of refuge that would give them the sense they belong somewhere. Both Seb and Jacob are bullied. All the heroes experience alienation:
What are you doing? Laura asks.
Sitting next to you.
Why?
Because I want you to be my friend.
Laura looks at the people around her. They are all giggling and
holding their trays but not sitting down. These are the girls who usually
sit at Laura‘s table.
You can sit down, I tell them.
They look at each other and laugh or roll their eyes.
You’re sitting where Anna sits, Laura says.
Oh, I say. It‘s nice of her to tell me because I honestly don‘t
remember where every one of them sits. I take a bite of my cheese
sandwich.
So move, Laura says. Her eyes are getting squishy and narrow.
I Look At The Person. Where do you want me to sit?
At a different table. (Erskine Mockingbird 97,emphasis original)
―Are you looking forward to anything this week in school, Jacob?‖
Sure. Rampant dismissal and abject humiliation. In other words, the
usual. (Picoult 54)
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. . . others decided that Seb was a nerd and not worth bothering with.
(Hoopmann, Haze 30)
3. 9. The Asperger Detective: Jacob Hunt
In her seventeenth novel, House Rules, Jodi Picoult writes about an 18-year-old boy with Asperger who becomes involved in a murder case. The story of Jacob Hunt,
Picoult‘s hero, is told from multiple points of view – the readers learn about Jacob‘s problems from his mother Emma, his brother Theo, from Jacob himself and from other characters in the book. Jacob is very good at chemistry, his greatest interest is forensics and he never misses an episode of his favourite TV show CrimeBusters. Jacob invents his own cases and arranges mock crime scenes for his mother and brother to analyze and find the ―killer‖. For his last year‘s birthday, Jacob got a police scanner radio, and now he crashes different crime scenes, explaining the police investigators how to do their jobs.
Jacob-the-investigator turns into Jacob-the-suspect when his social skill tutor,
Jess Ogilvy, is found dead. The police find evidence leading to Jacob. He and his family become a target of unwanted public attention. The symptoms of Jacob‘s AS such as eye contact avoidance, pressured speech, or difficulties with answering questions are by many interpreted as indisputable signs of guilt. In the courtroom Jacob admits he moved
Jess‘s body and set up the crime scene. Even his mother is no longer sure he did not kill
Jess.
The whole truth is revealed at the very end of the novel. Jacob found Jess already dead, but he noticed evidence that his brother Theo had been at the crime scene.
He knew that Theo had a habit of breaking into empty houses for fun. Maybe Jess surprised Theo and he had something to do with her death. Jacob decided to protect his
49
brother. He tried to arrange the crime scene so that it would lead the police to Jess‘s boyfriend and determined not to tell the police anything that might point to his brother.
All this was not necessary, since Jess actually died in an accident. She slipped on a wet floor in the shower and hit her head.
3. 10. The Asperger Mystery
Jacob Hunt is not the only Asperger hero with passion for forensic science and solving mysteries. In fact, the theme of mystery appears in four out of six analyzed stories. Christopher Boone solves the mystery of the dead dog and his apparently deceased mother, Marcelo investigates the case of a girl injured by a defective windshield, and Seb is involved in a search for a software pirate. Christopher‘s and
Jacob‘s stories are both about murder.
Mark Haddon draws a parallel between Christopher and Sherlock Holmes:
. . . I like Sherlock Holmes and I think that if I were a proper detective he
is the kind of detective I would be. He is very intelligent and he solves
the mystery and he says
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever
observes.
But he notices them, like I do. (Haddon, Doyle qtd. in Haddon 33,
emphasis original)
Christopher realizes the similarities between his perception pattern and the famous detective‘s observation skills. Furthermore, Christopher has the ―power of detaching his mind at will‖ (Doyle qtd. in Haddon 33) also attributed to Sherlock
Holmes – his mind can be fully absorbed by a particular activity.
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The choice of mystery as a storyline helps attract attention to the Asperger heroes‘ cognitive strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand the heroes may use their special skills such as their outstanding memory, sense of detail, or strictly logical thinking to solve the case; on the other hand they have to struggle with data overload, impaired empathy or poor face recognition.
3. 11. The Mother’s Only Boy: Seb Taylor
Although the Asperger narratives often feature the element of mystery, they usually include other themes such as the hero‘s self-discovery, coming of age, or the theme of a family dealing with the Asperger syndrome. All these motives appear in
Kathy Hoopmann‘s Haze.
Seb Taylor likes computers. He does not like sports or any other group activities.
Seb is ―brilliant with numbers and facts‖ (15), but ―hopeless with people‖ (15). He has only one friend, a popular boy named Guzzle. Seb believes that Guzzle and he are friends only because ―they‘d met before looks counted. Before sport defined a man.
Before others decided that Seb was a nerd and not worth bothering with‖ (Hoopmann,
Haze 30). Seb is a regular target of the local school‘s group of bullies. One of them,
Kaziah, a beautiful and clever, but a very cruel girl, torments Seb‘s classmate Kristie in the school yard. Seb stands up for Kristie and wins her friendship as well as friendship of girls in her lot: Madeline and Jen.
A new computing teacher, Miss Adonia, appears at the school. Seb is impressed by her expertise and agrees to take private lessons from her at home. Miss Adonia, however, seems too curious about Seb‘s life. It comes out that she works as an internet investigator and came to town with a man called Rodin to find a hacker of the new
Octoplus program. Seb feels betrayed, but Miss Adonia does not really believe in his
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guilt. She is the first person to tell him about Asperger syndrome and about the possibility that he suffers from it. Seb‘s new friendship with the girls is not without problems, but when they find out about his Asperger, many things about Seb‘s behaviour are easier to understand.
Seb also tells his parents, who are very unhappy to have their only son labeled with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, but they also feel things are lately changing for the better. Kristie, Madeline and Jen start to make visits at Seb‘s and he and Madeline are getting closer to one another. Madeline shares Seb‘s interest in computers, and confides that she has a mysterious cyber-friend; a person nicknamed Mr. Minty, who always comes with a valuable piece of advice when contacted through the internet.
Madeline and Seb find out someone gained outside access to Seb‘s computer, and with the help of Mr. Minty they track down the connection to Rodin. It comes out Rodin is a rogue operator in the cyber-security company, and Octoplus was cracked so that the investigators could track his methods.
Seb‘s name is cleared, he and his friends pass the exams at school, and Seb and
Madeline are seeing each other. Seb‘s friend Guzzle, however, decides to quit school and leave the town and Seb. He wants to work; to be far away from his stepfather. He wants ―a life worth living‖ (Hoopmann, Haze 127).
3. 12. Me and My Family
Seb will soon have to make decisions for himself. He does not yet know what he wants, because he hardly knows himself. He does not know what makes him so much different from others; what makes him the target of bullies: ―Seb raged at his inability to understand . . . why him?‖ (Hoopmann, Haze 9). Then he finds out about his Asperger.
The question comes quickly: ―Am I like this because of Asperger‘s Syndrome?‖
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(Hoopmann, Haze 63). Seb believes he is, and it explains a lot of his confusion. When he knows AS is the cause, Seb can now find solutions to many of his problems.
He starts to grow up; to realize new responsibilities: to his friends, to Madeline, and to his family. Seb‘s family has been affected by his inexplicable behaviour. His mother remembers him as a baby: ―It was as if a little alien I couldn‘t understand and had no way of communicating with had invaded my world. And now he‘s all grown up and I still don‘t know my own son.‖ (Hoopmann, Haze 90). Seb thinks neither his relationship with his father is ideal: ―He [dad] . . . thinks I‘m a wacko‖ (64).
Learning about his diagnosis, Seb now knows there is help at hand. His friends and Miss Adonia can explain him the rules of social life, and Seb can learn to communicate with his parents. Finally, Seb succeeds in making his mother happy:
Exams were over.
Seb stared at his results . . . He handed his report to his mother. She
smiled with relief. She gave him a quick hug and to her astonishment he
returned the embrace. He held her too tight, as if he wasn‘t sure of the
correct pressure involved in hugging, an he let go so fast she stumbled
backwards, but she stared at him in wonderment.
―Thanks Mum,‖ he said, the words awkward off his tongue. ―For not
giving up on me.‖
―You‘re welcome,‖ she said, holding back tears of love that she knew
he would misinterpret as sadness.
―I‘m going over to see Maddy. Is that OK?‖
―Fine,‖ she said calmly, as she thought to herself, ―That is so
incredibly, wonderfully fine that I could scream.‖ (Hoopmann, Haze 156)
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Like Haze, The Curious Incident, Mockingbird and Marcelo in the Real World are meant as children‘s literature or stories for youth. Their heroes are children or young people, and they include the themes of self-discovery and coming of age. Seb makes his first step toward self-discovery when he learns about the possibility he has Asperger syndrome. The other discussed characters are already aware of their diagnosis, but still there are many things about themselves to be revealed. Christopher‘s journey helps him test his capabilities and find confidence. He knows he wants to take his A-level-further maths and A-level-physics, go to university in a city, and become a scientist; and now he also knows he can manage all this: ―And I know I can do this because I went to
London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and
I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything‖ (Haddon 103, emphasis original). In Mockingbird, Caitlin is helped with her self-discovery by her school counsellor. For example, she is encouraged to self-evaluate her skills:
. . . I tell her my list and make my head go back and forth like a ticktock
of the clock.
Drawing. Tick.
Memorizing stuff. Tock.
Remembering stuff other people forget. Tick.
Looking stuff up in books and the computer. Tock.
Being helpful. Tick.
Hearing stuff that other people can’t. Tock.
Being nice. Tick.
Being honest. Tock.
. . . (Erskine, Mockingbird 50, emphasis original)
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Marcelo at first thinks his best options for self-development lie in Paterson. At the end of the summer, however, he is rather surprised with the results of his self- discovery: ―There are times when I wonder whether I ever belonged at Paterson. Here I am functioning in the real world, having conversations with people, detecting what is on their minds, imagining what they must be feeling, in a way that many autistic kids are never able to do‖ (Stork 185). For these characters, self-knowledge – the knowledge of their possibilities and limits, also means self-confidence as a new step toward maturity, toward the point at which Caitlin, Marcelo, Seb and Christopher can ―take decisions for
[themselves] and do things on [their] own‖ (Haddon 21-22).
Sometimes, however, it can be difficult to tell whether these texts about AS are primarily focused on children. In some cases there is confusion about the intended audience: ―. . . there is a curious debate about whether or not The Curious Incident is a children‘s novel‖ (Greenwell 282). Its limited vocabulary matches the children‘s fiction, but the reasons for its use often lie in the psychology of the main character, and the range of themes and motives involved sometimes suggests mature audience. The same could be said Kathryn Erskine‘s Mockingbird.
One of such disputable themes recurring in most books is family dealing with
AS. The influence of Asperger on the family can be different. In Seb‘s case the diagnosis made things change for the better. But in many other instances, when the child had been diagnosed early, this led to family discords, depression problems or eventual break-up of the family. This is the case of Christopher and he realized it: ―I used to think that Mother and Father might get divorced. That was because they had lots of arguments and sometimes they hated each other. This was because of the stress of looking after someone who has Behavioral Problems like I have‖ (Haddon 21).
Christopher‘s mother solves her stress problems by leaving the family for another man.
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In Mockingbird, Caitlin‘s father, has to face not only Caitlin‘s Asperger, but worse the blow of his wife‘s and son‘s death. School shooting, neurological disorder, and cancer meet in this 130-pages-long children‘s book
The motive of family dealing with Asperger is expanded on in Marcelo in the
Real World and House Rules as well. Whereas Marcelo‘s mother, a nurse, acknowledges completely Marcelo‘s conditions with all of his strengths and weaknesses, Marcelo‘s father is unwilling to consider his son disabled: ―There is nothing wrong with you. You just move at a different speed than other kids your age‖
(Stork 20). Jacob‘s father seems to take the opposite view of things: ―That’s what my father used to call me. Stupid” (Picoult, 53, emphasis original). He leaves Jacob, Theo and their mother and starts a new family.
3. 13. The Asperger Narrative
The above analysis revealed significant similarities between the discussed examples of contemporary fiction on Asperger, such as distinctive type of character, similar use of language, or recurring themes. With respect to the aim of this work – to examine the possibility of treating the analyzed texts as belonging to a separate genre, the identified points of connection between these texts can now be used to describe
Asperger narrative as a generic category.
The strongest and most distinguishing trait of the Asperger narrative is ―the
Asperger hero‖. The presence of the Asperger hero defines a text as an Asperger narrative. The Asperger hero is the central character of the novel who suffers Asperger syndrome. The hero‘s language reflects the impairments caused by AS such as lack of empathy, literalism or weak central coherence. It is characterized by restricted use of figurative meanings, digressions in the form of dictionary entries or lecture-like
56
passages, or lengthy lists and descriptions of the hero‘s perceptions. The structure of dialogues in Asperger narratives is influenced by the Asperger hero‘s inability to interpret body language, tone, intonation and hedges. Conversation often results in misunderstanding.
As for the Asperger hero‘s personality: The typical Asperger hero is intelligent, logical, pedantic, reserved, but capable of feelings, and also courageous, has a specific sense of humour not understood by others, and has a positive relationship toward animals.
An Asperger narrative is usually set in the family, school or work. These social units present different environments with different claims on the Asperger hero‘s adaptation. The notion of the hero‘s need to somehow ―deal‖ with the outside world is an underlying presence in all Asperger narratives.
The theme of mystery, which helps to emphasize the Asperger hero‘s strengths and weaknesses; the story of the hero‘s self discovery or coming of age; or the motive of a family dealing with Asperger syndrome, can be considered additional traits which mark a text as an Asperger narrative.
57
Conclusion
This text focuses on the Asperger syndrome, contemporary theory of genre, and present-day literary fiction on Asperger in order to consider the possibility and advantages of defining a particular group of Asperger-related texts as an independent genre – ―the Asperger narrative‖.
In the first chapter dedicated to the Asperger syndrome the readers are acquainted with the symptoms of AS such as difficulties in social interaction, literalism, non-typical expression, impaired empathy, restricted patterns of interest, or avoidance of eye contact. In addition to the basic facts about AS, the chapter also discusses the role of AS concerned literature in the public discussion of AS. It is suggested that texts marked in this work as Asperger narratives contribute greatly to the growing awareness of the Asperger syndrome among the public.
The second chapter maps the differences of opinions that exist in the contemporary theory of genre. The question whether to consider the Asperger narrative an independent generic category depends on the adopted theoretical approach toward genre. The theory of John Frow emphasizing the different uses or functions of generic categorization is chosen as a starting point for the constitution of Asperger narrative as a genre. The next section enumerates the benefits of employing the functions of genre: effective classification of literature, better writer-reader communication and contextual interpretation of texts in question. These benefits justify the use of Asperger narrative as a generic label.
The main parts of this work consists of an analysis of the texts chosen as examples of Asperger narrative, namely: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-
Time by Mark Haddon, House Rules by Jodi Picoult, Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine,
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X.
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Stork and Haze by Kathy Hoopmann. A Synopsis of each of these texts is followed by a discussion of a particular textual feature suggested as a trait of Asperger narrative. The analysis includes subchapters focusing on the narrative construction of ―the Asperger hero‖, the setting, and the themes and motives of Asperger narrative. The chapter concludes by defining the Asperger narrative according to the results of the analysis.
The presence of the Asperger hero characterized by specific language use is marked as the strongest trait of Asperger narrative. The individual features of the hero‘s language include restricted use of figurative meanings, digressions in the form of dictionary entries or lecture-like passages, lengthy lists and descriptions of the hero‘s perceptions, and altered structure of dialogues. The typical Asperger hero is intelligent, logical, pedantic, reserved, but capable of feelings, and also courageous, has a specific sense of humour not understood by others, and has positive relationship toward animals. An
Asperger narrative is usually set in the family, school or work. These social units present different environments with different claims on the Asperger hero‘s adaptation.
The notion of the hero‘s need to somehow ―deal‖ with the outside world is an underlying presence in all Asperger narratives. The theme of mystery, the story of the hero‘s self discovery or coming of age, or the motive of a family dealing with Asperger syndrome, can be considered additional traits which mark a text as an Asperger narrative.
This work contributes to the wide discussion of the role of generic analysis in today‘s literary thinking; through close examination of selected AS concerned texts it establishes Asperger narrative as an independent genre, and likewise, it draws attention to the problem of Asperger syndrome and its representation in literary fiction.
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Print. 62 Suellen, Alfred. ―A Mind with a View.‖ Rev. of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. English journal. 95.4 (2006): 105-107. JSTOR. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. Suz ―treadingwater‖. ―Asperger Syndrome: Fiction Books.‖ Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. Syndrome-Fiction- Books/lm/R378MVK9V0OIQQ/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt_3>. Tammet, Daniel. Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006. Print. Woodbury-Smith, Marc R., and Fred R. Volkmar. ―Asperger Syndrome.‖ European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 18.1 (2009): 2-11. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. 63 Summary This work focuses on the Asperger syndrome (AS), contemporary theory of genre, and present-day literary fiction on Asperger in order to consider the possibility and advantages of defining a particular group of Asperger-related texts as an independent genre – ―the Asperger narrative‖. In the first chapter of this work the reader is briefly acquainted with the symptoms of the Asperger syndrome, the methods of its diagnosis, and the possibilities of intervention. In addition to the basic facts about AS, the chapter also discusses the role of AS concerned literature in the public discussion of AS. The next part of the text deals with the study of genre, the definition of genre, its functions and the relevance of generic analysis in contemporary literary studies. The function-oriented approach toward genre inspired by theoretician John Frow is used to justify the use of Asperger narrative as a generic label. The main parts of this work consists of a generic analysis of the texts chosen as examples of Asperger narrative, namely: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, House Rules by Jodi Picoult, Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine, The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork and Haze by Kathy Hoopmann. The results of the analysis are used to describe Asperger narrative as an independent generic category. 64 Resumé Tato práce konfrontuje současnou beletrii zpracovávající téma Aspergerova syndromu s poznatky moderní teorie žánru a částečně také s poznatky lékařské vědy. Cílem práce je prozkoumat možnost vyčlenění určité skupiny textů pojednávajících o Aspergerově syndromu do nezávislé žánrové kategorie: ―Asperger narrative” (―příběh s Aspergerem‖). První kapitola práce seznamuje čtenáře s Aspergerovým syndromem, s jeho projevy, s metodami jeho diagnózy a s možnostmi lékařské péče. V další části kapitoly je naznačena úloha, kterou hrají texty zařazené touto prací mezi příběhy s Aspergerem při zvyšování informovanosti veřejnosti. Druhá kapitola mapuje hlavní myšlenkové proudy v současné teorii žánru a posuzuje relevanci žánrové analýzy v dnešní literární teorii. Účelnost žánrové kategorizace je zde odvozena od žánrové teorie Johna Frowa, která zdůrazňuje různorodé možnosti užití žánru. V textu jsou dále představeny konkrétní užitečné funkce žánrového označení příběh s Aspergerem. Hlavní částí práce je žánrová analýza šesti následujících příkladů beletrie zabývající se tématem Aspergerova syndromu: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time od Marka Haddona, House Rules spisovatelky Jodi Picoultové, Mockingbird od Kathryn Erskineové, The Speed of Dark od Elizabeth Moonové, Marcelo in the Real World od Francisca X. Storka a Haze od Kathy Hoopmannové. Výsledky žánrové analýzy jsou dále využity k definování žánru ―příběh s Aspergerem‖. 65