Manny's Reviews > The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel
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My older son is autistic spectrum, so this was a must-read. But even if you don't know any autistic people, it's a great novel. The central character is engaging and totally credible. Funny how it's suddenly become cool to be autistic... Lisbeth Salander from Män som hatar kvinnor is the latest and most extreme example. What does that say about our society? Have we been too respectful of people whose main ability is to manipulate the emotions of others, and are we now thinking better of it?
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 2006
–
Finished Reading
November 20, 2008
– Shelved
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David
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Dec 22, 2014 03:50PM
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There is this great scene in 'Moonrise Kingdom', where the female lead says, "I always wished I was an orphan. Most of my favorite characters are. I think your lives are more special." And the male lead responds, "I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about."
That said, I agree it would be nice if more people took the nerd like attitude of treating competency as charisma, and charisma as just another thing you can be competent in. Not that 'nerd' actually spans the full range of autism spectrum or that all nerds are autistic, but that is one area of nerddom I rather like.
But I don't actually think we are changing anything. We've just got a new sort of romanticized stock character, to hang alongside kickbutt female warrior, goofy Asian sidekick, and wisecracking black guy. 'The Big Bang Theory' remains less a show for nerds, than a show about nerds. It's nice that the portrayal is somewhat more sympathetic than before, but I don't think we are there yet.
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EDIT: Yep. The quote on the back is:
"Mark Haddon shows great insight into the autistic mind." Photo HERE. That's from 2003.