A promised TABERNER update and some pondering on Asperger’s Syndrome. Specifically books about it.
As mentioned to several people and announced on here in previous diaries, I’ve been doing some work on my TABERNER data. The information I currently hold indicates that my Ancestral line springs from the Ralph line, so the page has been changed accordingly. I’ve also sorted out a few tangles and added some more people to both my ancestral line and the Alternative line. I’m only part way through checking everything I have on these Wigan area tribes but I don’t know how soon I’ll get back to the genealogy as other interests are raising their heads yet again. Either way, these files are soon going to be of monstrous proportions!
One of those interests I’m getting back into is reading. I picked up Elizabeth Moon’s [External Link] Speed of Dark [External Link] from my to-be-read pile recently and very much enjoyed it. I’m now part way through another book, The Language of Others by Clare Morrall. What does this have to do with you? Not a lot. But the main protagonist of Ms Moon’s book is autistic and Morrall’s is an aspie. They’re otherwise very different books but it got me thinking about understanding autism. I have, after all, only recently been diagnosed with Asperger’s and my knowledge is confined to what it’s like living in my head. Most web-sites to do with Autism will give a list of resources such as books. Ms Moon’s Speed of Dark pages are no exception and her advice in that way is very good. But most referenced resources on most sites will be relatively dry textbooks about what we think we know about why it happens. There are a few autobiographies (Temple Grandin’s books [External Link] are on my to-buy list and I’ll do so at some point) and books written by the families of those with autism. But what about getting inside the head of a fictional autistic person? Fiction generally gives a better way of being in another person in another situation. These situations are not real but a good book is set up in such a way that the reader identifies with the point of view character. So, anyone know of any good books where the point of view character is autistic to some degree? Were they well written? Could you identify?