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Home Planet?

JustJuno

Hi all.

I'm writing a novel at the moment. Being neurodivergent myself, I feel like the world needs more neurodiverse literature, and this is something I want to explore. 

Autism is a label for dysfunctionality. It means there are challenges. It means you suck at stuff which other people can do just fine. Just look around at the posts on this site. It can be heart-breaking at times. There are a lot of lonely, broken, struggling people here. It means a life of masking, hiding, feeling insecure, feeling precarious. Other people can read you but you can't read them. Everything is too loud, too intense, too overwhelming. It means a bunch of mental health issues. It means a life of isolation and one long struggle to connect with people. At best, it's a get-outta-jail-free card in institutions like school and workplaces.

AND I AM SICK OF THAT.

More than anything, it feels like being an alien.

But if we're all aliens, what would our home planet be like?

I am FED UP with autism being a disability. I believe most of our struggles originate from being 'divergent', square pegs trying to fit into round holes. So my question is this: who would we be if those struggles were taken away? What would our society look like?............ Permanent social distancing? Dark glasses to prohibit eye contact? Silence in social places? A world where small-talk doesn't exist? No gratuitous social interaction?............. Or would our lives just naturally run more smoothly because we're living with people who understand us? Would it be a better society, or just as selfish and capitalistic? Would it suffer through lack of empathy, or thrive through stronger principles and higher intelligence?.............. Would 'neurotypical' people struggle just as much psychologically if they were the minority, the misfits?

Or would we be a society of geniuses? The people who have made the biggest impact on the world have been the neurodivergent..... Einstein, Newton, Darwin, Mozart, Michelangelo, Lewis Caroll, Bobby Fischer, James Joyce, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Greta Thunberg... and the list goes on. Not everybody on the spectrum is a savant. Not everyone has a special interest. But I am yet to meet a boring neurodivergent person.

If you have any thoughts or ideas for a better world, please share!

  • in reply to Iain

    Thank you. It's not exactly a book about autism, though. It's a book where one character is autistic.

  • in reply to Luftmentsch
    Luftmentsch said:
    I have tried writing autistic literature too, but I couldn't find a publisher. Good luck!

    Have a look on this site:

    https://autismbooksbyautisticauthors.com/

    You may be able to tell if there is a publisher in common with the books in the category you are planning on writing in (eg Fiction has 125 books by autistic authors).

  • in reply to James

    It wasn't just autistic literature, though. There was a lot more going on in it.

  • in reply to Luftmentsch
    Luftmentsch said:
    but I couldn't find a publisher

    (I wonder if there is a publisher specifically designed for autistic literature)

  • I have also thought about a world of autistics. The problem is that not all autistics are the same. When discussions of this kind come up here, people say, "Oh, an autistic world would have no bright lights!" But I am coming to the conclusion that I am hypo-sensitive (under-sensitive) to light. A world of dim lights would be awful for me. Temperature sensitivities also seem to vary widely and in opposite directions (hyper/hypo) with different autistic people. You said "No gratuitous social interaction?" I think the key word there is "gratuitous". Different autistic people set that boundary at different places. Some would not like any interactions at all. I like work and practical conversations to be to the point, but I like having social conversations sometimes, not to mention talking with my wife all the time.

    Geniuses: maybe. I'm wary of diagnosing people who are dead. But, again, it's a spectrum: some geniuses, some who feel they are barely coping with "normal" live (raises hand), some who really do need constant care. Are the genuises worth the others? I can't say.

    I have to say that I feel that I do experience autism as a disability. I'm pleased for people who don't, but some of us do, and we need to have that recognised. I'm more functional than some, but less functional than the average allistic. And some of that is societal and could potentially be changed (although, as I said, it's hard to see how to change things to suit everyone), but some of it isn't. I have alexithymia (difficulty recognising and understanding my own emotions). It's hard for me to recognise happiness, even when I'm happy and often I feel blank about the people I logically know I care most about. I find it hard to label this as anything other than a disability, and it's not socially caused.

    I have tried writing autistic literature too, but I couldn't find a publisher. Good luck!

  • in reply to Touay

    We're Bankrupt Utopians. I was the same, whenever I was younger; only to have my aspirations trampled on by Political chicanery. The Dream of Dr King became the Nightmare of Malcolm X.

    The only person we can change is ourself. I found change through Jesus Christ.

  • Just let people be themselves and associate with whomever they choose ... people who think they are trying to 'top-down' improve society is where tyranny comes from.

    The world is far to complex and ever changing for top-down solutions to ever be effective for individual problems.

    Let people be themselves, find and prosecute those who use their freedom to hurt others and just let people be...

  • JustJuno said:
    I am FED UP with autism being a disability.

    Without the disability label then loads of us would not get the help we need to function in a society where we are a small minority.

    For me I see it as a necessary evil while autism becomes more well known in society in general, and even after understanding is widespread there will always be a need for it to help those who are not able to work effectively in conventional ways and lack the ability to be independent.

    JustJuno said:
    So my question is this: who would we be if those struggles were taken away? What would our society look like?

    For us (the small minority) it would be OK. Remember that autism is a spectrum so many people can interact socially and enjoy chatting, so shutting down conversations in public would punish them. You see where I am going with this.

    As much as it sucks, I think that allowing any minority to dictate bahaviour to the majority would be oppression - the very thing you are railing against to a degree.

    I think we live in a very imperfect world and need to learn to make the most of it while fighting for the system to make accomodations for those of us who are not able to advocate for themselves as well.

    We need to create understanding to avoid the odd looks we get, we need to create spaces and support systems so we can be authentic and need to deepen our research to understand the condition more so we can look at ways to manage the most oppressive traits for us.

    In summary - we cannot expect the autistic tail to wag the neurotypical dog, but we can at least make the dog stop from biting its tail and accept it as a part of the body.