Famous People with Asperger Syndrome or Similar Autistic Traits

Martian Tom said:

The conclusion that the superfluous man is 'a homeless man' seems quite apt to me.  In a psychological and social sense, I've often felt 'homeless'.  National identity, local pride, a sense of belonging... none of those things have ever meant anything to me.  I've only ever felt 'at home' with fellow outsiders or nonconformists (or freaks and oddballs as we were called at school).

My country is Academia: any old university town feels like home to me. My people, my tribe, are the scholars and geeks and passionate enthusiasts.

I discovered Lermontov (and Wilson) after doing an Existentialism course at university. Lermontov's Pechorin and Camus' Meursault both strike me as Aspie. Lermontov was killed in a duel after annoying an old friend, Nikolai Martynov, by persistently teasing him about his flamboyant clothes. When they turned up for the duel, he had to have the last word: as he aimed his pistol at the sky, he said: "I'm not going to fire at that idiot." It's not a good idea to call someone an idiot if he has a loaded gun in his hand... He also had a history of strange, obsessive and unsuccessful relationships with women, and some odd quirks. Once, another budding poet brought some poems to read to him, and a jar of preserved cucumbers. As he began to read, Lermontov munched some cucumbers, stuffed a few more into his pockets for later, and walked off while the other lad was still reading... His drawings are also interesting: sometimes he crams every space with sketches of people, horses, & c – as if he has hypergraphia and can't leave any blank areas.

My ultimate Aspie literary hero, though, is one I've 'known' since I was in my mid-teens, courtesy of Victor Hugo: Claude Frollo, the young priest who is the tragic hero/anti-hero of Notre Dame de Paris. I've written about him here. Yes, he screws up horribly and destroys himself and everyone he loves, but... Who couldn't fall in love with a brilliant scholar and alchemist who has lots of incunabula and his own laboratory? And he is so patently on the spectrum, it is extraordinary to think he was created by a novelist in the early 1830s. An unauthorised translation re-titled the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but Quasimodo is just a sidekick: if they want a disability-awareness title it should be after the main character: The Aspie Archdeacon of Notre Dame.

Martian Tom said:

The conclusion that the superfluous man is 'a homeless man' seems quite apt to me.  In a psychological and social sense, I've often felt 'homeless'.  National identity, local pride, a sense of belonging... none of those things have ever meant anything to me.  I've only ever felt 'at home' with fellow outsiders or nonconformists (or freaks and oddballs as we were called at school).

My country is Academia: any old university town feels like home to me. My people, my tribe, are the scholars and geeks and passionate enthusiasts.

I discovered Lermontov (and Wilson) after doing an Existentialism course at university. Lermontov's Pechorin and Camus' Meursault both strike me as Aspie. Lermontov was killed in a duel after annoying an old friend, Nikolai Martynov, by persistently teasing him about his flamboyant clothes. When they turned up for the duel, he had to have the last word: as he aimed his pistol at the sky, he said: "I'm not going to fire at that idiot." It's not a good idea to call someone an idiot if he has a loaded gun in his hand... He also had a history of strange, obsessive and unsuccessful relationships with women, and some odd quirks. Once, another budding poet brought some poems to read to him, and a jar of preserved cucumbers. As he began to read, Lermontov munched some cucumbers, stuffed a few more into his pockets for later, and walked off while the other lad was still reading... His drawings are also interesting: sometimes he crams every space with sketches of people, horses, & c – as if he has hypergraphia and can't leave any blank areas.

My ultimate Aspie literary hero, though, is one I've 'known' since I was in my mid-teens, courtesy of Victor Hugo: Claude Frollo, the young priest who is the tragic hero/anti-hero of Notre Dame de Paris. I've written about him here. Yes, he screws up horribly and destroys himself and everyone he loves, but... Who couldn't fall in love with a brilliant scholar and alchemist who has lots of incunabula and his own laboratory? And he is so patently on the spectrum, it is extraordinary to think he was created by a novelist in the early 1830s. An unauthorised translation re-titled the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but Quasimodo is just a sidekick: if they want a disability-awareness title it should be after the main character: The Aspie Archdeacon of Notre Dame.