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Science fiction

Deleted User

Something I’ve been thinking about for  while but was just reminded by Pixiefox: why do so many of we autists like science fiction?

It just seems to come up again and again and, perhaps unusually, it’s not just us blokes (sci fi is usually stereotyped as a male interest).

I’ve been an avid sci fi fan almost since I could read. I started with classics like Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein and moved on to make a pretty good stab at reading the entire sci fi section of my local library and book store, all while avidly watching Doctor Who, Star Trek and Blake’s 7.

So why do autists connect so strongly with it?

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  • I just did a bit of a dive into the internet and found a Guardian article about why men like science fiction:

    '..men are mostly dragged kicking and screaming into grown-upness. They never give up the secret hope that complexity will go away and leave them alone. They take refuge in trivia because facts, nice orderly facts, are psychological balm to the friction burns inflicted by contact with real life. This might take the form of obsessive devotion to a football club, a desire to possess a copy every Velvet Underground recording ever released or the ability to watch the Empire Strikes Back 57 times. It is the phenomenon known as geekiness, and it emerges at the point where the Venn diagrams of maleness and Autistic Spectrum Disorder intersect. Science fiction appeals to geeks because it effaces all remnants of the grown-up world. It is a parallel universe conducted entirely within the confines of childhood.'

    To me, this reads like all sci-fi fans are autistic men, but we know that some autistic women (like me) also enjoy science fiction.I did read somewhere that autistic women have "male brains".  Maybe Autistic women's minds are not hard-wired to be purely (or mostly) interested in what their society deems are "usual" interests for their gender, which gives us more freedom to like different things.

    Science Fiction encompasses order and facts (real scientific facts built into a story, or created facts like Asimov's laws of robotics) coupled with the opportunity to escape the mundane and the stresses of everyday life, in a highly creative format.

  • in reply to Lotus

    I wonder if it’s simply that we don’t like the neurotypical world that we inhabit and seek escape in alternative worlds.

    Theres a book I read in childhood that’s always stuck with me, called The Keeper of the Isis Light. It’s about a little girl who lives all alone on a remote planet looked after by a robot that her sadly deceased parents tasked with caring for her. I won’t spoilerise it in case any of you read it, but even decades later as a middle aged man the book affects me deeply. I suppose I always identified with the girl but didn’t realise it.

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  • in reply to Lotus

    I wonder if it’s simply that we don’t like the neurotypical world that we inhabit and seek escape in alternative worlds.

    Theres a book I read in childhood that’s always stuck with me, called The Keeper of the Isis Light. It’s about a little girl who lives all alone on a remote planet looked after by a robot that her sadly deceased parents tasked with caring for her. I won’t spoilerise it in case any of you read it, but even decades later as a middle aged man the book affects me deeply. I suppose I always identified with the girl but didn’t realise it.

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