The Curious Incident...

[MichiganJFrog]

...of the Dog in the Night Time

Anybody else read this? I don't know why it made such a huge impression on me.

[DetachedRetina]

Written by whom?

[Hadoblado]

I've read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I do not remember the author's name, only that afterwards he was continuously invited to give speeches on autism despite not having the condition nor having studied it to any great degree. I'm guessing they have a gift for perspective.

The high-functioning autistic mind in some ways exemplifies INTP values, I would not be surprised if this book made an impression.

[Darby]

A lot of my friends read it my senior year in high school, I heard it was really good. I went for Left Hand of Darkness instead. Perhaps I should backtrack and read this one instead. My best friend is high functioning with mild autism, so I was interested in it when I heard about it, but when it came time to choose I simply took a different route.

[MichiganJFrog]

Originally Posted by DetachedRetina

Written by whom?

Mark Haddon. You can ask him a question on GoodReads today, but I can't think of anything.

[MichiganJFrog]

Originally Posted by Hadoblado

The high-functioning autistic mind in some ways exemplifies INTP values, I would not be surprised if this book made an impression.

It's weird. I took the MBTI at work about 10 years ago, came back INTP, then completely forgot about it. I read the book and it really registered with me, but I couldn't figure out why. Then I forgot about the book.

Somehow, at about the same time recently, I remembered having taken the test and having read the book. I feel close enough to "normal" to pass for it most days, but I really felt for the MC in this book. I can't believe no one's turned it into a movie.

[MichiganJFrog]

Originally Posted by Darby

I heard it was really good. I went for Left Hand of Darkness instead.

Good on you for not going with the flow, and you can't go wrong with LeGuin. I just liked The Curious Incident because it just all went along like a perfectly designed machine. Except for this one part where the MC talks about this math problem and gives an answer that didn't sound right to me. It bugs me in particular because it makes me wonder whether I could really be an INTP if I suck at math, but that's probably a stereotype.

[Hadoblado]

Not all INTPs are good at maths, thought we are predisposed to use of logic.

I think I heard something about it being turned into a movie soon actually. Can you remember the math problem? I seem to remember there being one or two in the book that were fun, but cannot remember the details.

[DetachedRetina]

The questionnaire for adult diagnosis of high functioning autism is eerily similar to a hypothetical "are you an INTP" questionnaire. I doubt that made sense.

[MichiganJFrog]

Originally Posted by Hadoblado

Can you remember the math problem?

I'll look it up. I want to read the book again anyway.

[Wolf18]

Yes. My school made me read it, and I don't like people telling me what to read, so my first impression was that I didn't like it. Looking back though, I did enjoy it.
The main character frustrated me in that he noticed all sorts of important things but didn't connect it to the big picture. He was wasting his talents.

SW

[MichiganJFrog]

Originally Posted by Wolf18

he noticed all sorts of important things but didn't connect it to the big picture. He was wasting his talents.

I could be wrong, but I thought people with autism had trouble connecting the dots. I didn't think he was doing it on purpose. So, y'know, the irony is that the detective in a mystery novel has autism. He doesn't add things up, but he pushes other people to reveal themselves because he keeps finding stuff out, or something.

<Still gotta re-read it, as promised. Putting it on hold now..>

[Wolf18]

Originally Posted by MichiganJFrog

I could be wrong, but I thought people with autism had trouble connecting the dots. I didn't think he was doing it on purpose. So, y'know, the irony is that the detective in a mystery novel has autism. He doesn't add things up, but he pushes other people to reveal themselves because he keeps finding stuff out, or something.

<Still gotta re-read it, as promised. Putting it on hold now..>

I believe you're right about people with autism. Sherlock Holmes said that you need three things to be a good detective: intuition, knowledge, and logic/deduction (I believe). Christopher had knowledge and logic/deduction, but not intuition. It frustrated me that he tried so hard but his mind was simply lacking in intuition. I liked the fact that he only solved the case through his father's impatience with him. It seemed more realistic than his connecting all the dots.

[Puffy]

Oh wow - just looked it up and its set in my home town. Will have to read at some point.

Swindon literally translates to Swine hill. Terrible place.

[MichiganJFrog]

Originally Posted by Wolf18

I liked the fact that he only solved the case through his father's impatience with him. It seemed more realistic than his connecting all the dots.

Back in my journalism days, I used to get a lot of good quotes by people being irritated at how thick I was and just losing their shit with me. That took its toll, though. They'd see their quote in print and then lose their shit with me all over again. My editor liked me because she said I gave people "diarrhea of the mouth." I told her the technical term for that was "logorrhea," and she looked like she wanted to hit me.

It could be that people with autism develop something that passes for intuition as they get older, by virtue of the fact that they recognize familiar patterns in people's behavior and in the unfolding of events, and they can say, "Ah, yes, this reminds me of..."

Anyway, just started reading the book again. Not finding it quite as addictive as I did the first time, perhaps because I'm not so desperate for some kind of mirroring as I used to be. There are still some passages that still ring very true to me, though, especially all the ones where the protag imagines himself as the only person in the world.

Here's a link to the math problem that drove me crazy*: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem.

* Actually, most of the math problems drove me crazy, which drives me crazy in and of itself, because how could I connect to someone in so many ways and then not be able to relate to them in any way whatsoever on just this one point? Plus, if I'm not good at math, it means I'm an illogical person, or something.

Swindon literally translates to Swine hill. Terrible place.

Never had the pleasure. Worse than Baltimore in the early 70s? Or Elizabeth, N.J., at any point in history?