Published on 12, July, 2020
Please feel free to list your experiences with literal thinking or related behaviours whenever you feel like it, and whether these are important or as typically ridiculous as my recent example:
* I ordered a 'personalised' t-shirt from Ebay, graced with the word 'AUTISTIC' in gigantic, glowing capital letters. Wearing this shirt, I thought, would save me the tedium of explaining my more unusual words or deeds to others whenever it might be necessary. Hooray! Alas, after receiving the shirt I realised that it's Winter & resultingly bloomin' freezing so it's likely that the shirt is now as useless as I habitually am. If I wear the neon monstrosity that is the shirt under an opened jacket, its essential message - which ludicrously dwarfs the famous HOLLYWOOD sign, such are my design-skills - will either be lost on the NT crowd, or else appear as some kind of short, ironic and post-sexist anagram. Doh.
When I played football, I had an advantage over opponents. I would run into open space - something which took them by surprise because they were surely expecting a more considered, artful or sophisticated play by me. But my thinking was so limited & literal that I just did what was obvious (to me); I had no awareness at that moment whether this move might leave opponents flat-footed or not. I was no great footballing talent, for sure, but there were definite advantages to my unusual thinking. However, having too narrow a focus is certainly not the exclusive province of the autist.