Autistic Artist

Single Attention!

I had an excellent conversation yesterday with Branson, my honorary brother. Branson knows about autism and has worked with disabled adults.

So when describing a recent perseveration of mine, Branson said "Have you ever noticed that when a neurotypical does it it's called "persevering," but when a autistic person does it, it's called "perseveration?"

Rory Hoy talks a little about autistic perserverations in his short award winning film, Autism and Me.

I just loved it.

And here's a newspaper article about Rory and his film.

Strange Perserverations

Much has been made of our perserverations. Those with Asperger Syndrome get very involved with certain "special interests." Some of these interests can appear to be similar to the intense collecting hobbies of neurotypical children and adults, such as those of Pokimon cards and Star Trek memorabilia.

But some of our special interests are highly unusual. For example, I've heard of intense interests in bleach bottles or even excrement.

And Now for Something Fun

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I am Gregory Benford,

a master literary stylist who is also a working scientist.

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Many writings about asperger syndrome point out that, as children, we read little fiction.

Well, when I was a kid I read tons of fiction. My grandmother said I always had my nose in a book. I also read lots of nonfiction. But fiction was definitely my favorite as a child.

Of course, there's one kind of fiction some asperger kids are known to like immensely. Can you guess?