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Jory
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06 Dec 2011, 1:25 am

Just found this article on the Huffington Post website. It was posted on 11/18/11. The author has a son with AS, and he's not very enthused with some of the portrayls of AS in fiction – particularly Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Haddon's way of dealing with the topic when talking about the book.

Quote:
But the fact remains: Haddon did write an Asperger's character, he did take advantage of the words "Asperger's Syndrome" in his marketing campaign, and knowingly or not, he did create a negative stereotype.


Here you go:

When Popular Novels Perpetuate Negative Stereotypes: Mark Haddon, Asperger's and Irresponsible Fiction



MrXxx
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06 Dec 2011, 2:05 am

What

a

jack-ass.


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Jory
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06 Dec 2011, 2:07 am

The author of the article or the author of the book?

Or me? :P



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06 Dec 2011, 3:26 am

what exactly is so objectable about the book and or article or both.i did not see any offensive material in the book or article.im a bit confused


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DreamSofa
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06 Dec 2011, 4:12 am

I read the book in question (it was suggested to me by several people because the main character has AS) but did not like it for two reasons. First, I felt that that the character did not rang 'true' as someone having AS - somehow, the inner life of the narrator just didn't sound like someone on the spectrum. Also, there was little I could identify with - the main character was a teen-aged schoolboy and I am a just-middle aged female professional.



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06 Dec 2011, 4:51 am

Jory wrote:
Just found this article on the Huffington Post website. It was posted on 11/18/11. The author has a son with AS, and he's not very enthused with some of the portrayls of AS in fiction – particularly Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Haddon's way of dealing with the topic when talking about the book.

Quote:
But the fact remains: Haddon did write an Asperger's character, he did take advantage of the words "Asperger's Syndrome" in his marketing campaign, and knowingly or not, he did create a negative stereotype.


Here you go:

When Popular Novels Perpetuate Negative Stereotypes: Mark Haddon, Asperger's and Irresponsible Fiction


I have not read the book, however I generally agree that most portrayals of people with AS are greatly embellished and in many instances, purely fictional and completely inaccurate. The same is true for many portrayals of OCD and, in fictional literature, I can usually tell when the author does not have OCD.



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06 Dec 2011, 1:27 pm

Want a good one??

Check out House Rules, by Jodi Picoult. Generally I hate her work-- I just don't go in for legal thrillers.

While the lead character is much less functional than a lot of us-- and that in itself raises some interesting questions as to why-- there were quite a number of things in the book that rang true.

Just don't expect to feel good when you put the book down.


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MrXxx
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06 Dec 2011, 3:46 pm

Jory wrote:
The author of the article or the author of the book?

Or me? :P


:roll: <- That's directed at me, not you. The book, of course! 8)


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MrXxx
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06 Dec 2011, 3:52 pm

vermontsavant wrote:
what exactly is so objectable about the book and or article or both.i did not see any offensive material in the book or article.im a bit confused


The fact that the main character was written as having Asperger's, yet the author admittedly knew little to nothing about AS, and never even bothered to researched it.

Quote:
Haddon, by his own admission, is clueless about Asperger's. "I know very little about the subject," he confessed on his website, in an blog posted on July 16, 2009. "I did no research for Curious Incident... I'd read Oliver Sacks's essay about Temple Grandin and a handful of newspaper and magazine articles about, or by, people with Asperger's and autism. I deliberately didn't add to this list."


This, from the author of the article:

Quote:
Indeed, if Christopher John Francis Boone has Asperger's, as we've been led to believe, he has one of the most extreme forms of the disorder ever recorded.


What on earth has happened to the gold standard that used to be promoted by all authors, and writing instructors?

Quote:
Write what you know!


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06 Dec 2011, 8:24 pm

vermontsavant wrote:
what exactly is so objectable about the book and or article or both.i did not see any offensive material in the book or article.im a bit confused
its not offensive its misinformation.



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06 Dec 2011, 9:31 pm

MrXxx wrote:
vermontsavant wrote:
what exactly is so objectable about the book and or article or both.i did not see any offensive material in the book or article.im a bit confused


The fact that the main character was written as having Asperger's, yet the author admittedly knew little to nothing about AS, and never even bothered to researched it.

Quote:
Haddon, by his own admission, is clueless about Asperger's. "I know very little about the subject," he confessed on his website, in an blog posted on July 16, 2009. "I did no research for Curious Incident... I'd read Oliver Sacks's essay about Temple Grandin and a handful of newspaper and magazine articles about, or by, people with Asperger's and autism. I deliberately didn't add to this list."


This, from the author of the article:

Quote:
Indeed, if Christopher John Francis Boone has Asperger's, as we've been led to believe, he has one of the most extreme forms of the disorder ever recorded.


What on earth has happened to the gold standard that used to be promoted by all authors, and writing instructors?

Quote:
Write what you know!
Oh, that standard? It got thrown out a good while ago. Nah, most books are nothing but huge opinion columns these days.



MrXxx
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06 Dec 2011, 10:56 pm

SyphonFilter wrote:
Oh, that standard? It got thrown out a good while ago. Nah, most books are nothing but huge opinion columns these days.


I know. :roll: It's why I never buy any new books anymore. I look for good old classics. Most books these days are about as well researched and truthful as 90% of the info on the Web. Useless except for starting fires. And there was a time I never thought I would hear myself say that.

Fahrenheit 451 anyone?


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shrox
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06 Dec 2011, 11:13 pm

MrXxx wrote:
SyphonFilter wrote:
Oh, that standard? It got thrown out a good while ago. Nah, most books are nothing but huge opinion columns these days.


I know. :roll: It's why I never buy any new books anymore. I look for good old classics. Most books these days are about as well researched and truthful as 90% of the info on the Web. Useless except for starting fires. And there was a time I never thought I would hear myself say that.

Fahrenheit 451 anyone?


A book about not reading books!



aspie48
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07 Dec 2011, 8:20 am

what i would be worried about would be sounding whiny if i tried to argue against it. i have to pick my battles.



MrXxx
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07 Dec 2011, 12:10 pm

shrox wrote:
MrXxx wrote:
SyphonFilter wrote:
Oh, that standard? It got thrown out a good while ago. Nah, most books are nothing but huge opinion columns these days.


I know. :roll: It's why I never buy any new books anymore. I look for good old classics. Most books these days are about as well researched and truthful as 90% of the info on the Web. Useless except for starting fires. And there was a time I never thought I would hear myself say that.

Fahrenheit 451 anyone?


A book about not reading books!


Why am I not surprised you would know that one? :lol:


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07 Dec 2011, 12:12 pm

The thing about fiction is it's fictional, so I honestly don't give a crap how they're portraying AS, just as long they're not claiming it to be a factual portrayal, which the author of this book is not.