I’m thrilled to be welcoming Mark Everglade, author of the upcoming novel Hemispheres, to my blog. I believe there are not nearly enough books featuring neurodiversity, so I’m really excited about this one.
Neurodiversity in Science Fiction
by Mark Everglade
Science fiction’s prophecies and inventions have often been somewhat far-fetched, from alien invasions to time machines. There’s one thing its authors may have gotten right, however – prophesying a time when basic human rights would be granted to all citizens regardless of race, gender, orientation, creed, or disability. Although nations still have substantial work to do in each of these areas, the conversations that need to happen are occurring daily, and science fiction is speeding them along.
How little does it take to be labeled as “other?” One psychology study found that just by flipping a coin in a classroom, and putting those who got heads on one side of the room and those who got tails on the other, that the body language of each group unconsciously changed to display antagonism against one another.
Science fiction has remarked on this as well. In the Star Trek episode Let that be your last battlefield, the Enterpriseencounters two humanoids at war with one another, each representing their race. One of the man’s faces is white on the left side, and black on the right. The other man’s face is also two colors, except his is black on the left side, and white on the right – the opposite. This alone was enough to create the “us versus them” mentality that is the blackened heart of all war. In the real world, this echoes the Rwanda genocide in 1994, where one tribesman stated, “We are warring against a tribe who is nothing like us.” When asked how they are different, the solider said, “They are five centimeters taller on average and have longer noses.”
If such little distinctions can warrant hatred, imagine how altered perceptions can be when one has a neurological phenomenon such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD is characterized by a difficulty interacting with other people, obsessive interests, repetitive behaviors, and social pragmatic linguistic challenges. The I.Q. of someone “on the spectrum” may be ingenious, as it was for Einstein, or may classify as a mental retardation. Some, like Dan Aykroyd, Anthony Hopkins, and Yoon Ha Lee (all autistic), communicate better than others. ASD is a physical differentiation in the brain – it is not a personality disorder, and while symptoms can be managed it cannot be cured. The brain becomes more systematic, allegedly at the expense of empathy, often providing great talents (1/3 of engineers are on the spectrum). Sympathy is still experienced as normal.
Look up any definition of autism and you will find words such as disability, disorder, cure, treat, and even disease. Yet many people on the spectrum only find themselves to be different, or to have a disorder, when they are around neurotypical (“normal”) people. French philosopher Michel Foucault, author of Madness and Civilization and master of queer theory, believed that how we define abnormal and disorder is merely a way to keep people in check by reinforcing the status quo.
So how does science fiction treat the subject of autism? Let’s examine three recent popular books:
In Kim Stanley Robinson’s Nebula Award-winning novel, 2312, Fitz Wahram is a secondary character who is autistic and androgynous. His symptoms are so carefully understated that he appears 99% neurotypical with no problem at all. Some critics have celebrated this as meaning the world accepts Fitz, despite the protagonist calling him “slow, rude…and boring.” I simply believe his portrayal of Fitz is unconvincing. Although I respect Robinson as a man whose political views lean heavily towards equality, his knowledge of autism isn’t portrayed in the characterization of Fitz. People on the spectrum may appear normal to onlookers, but their inner experiences can be substantially different, and at times tormented, especially when triggered with specific stressors. This does not undermine the beauty of the book’s imagery, or originality of its premise, as illustrated below. It does, however, caution writers who are not autistic when trying to create convincing autistic characters.
The sun is always just about to rise. Mercury rotates so slowly that you can walk fast enough over its rocky surface to stay ahead of the dawn; and so many people do. Many have made this a way of life. They walk roughly westward, staying always ahead of the stupendous day…Mercury’s ancient face is so battered and irregular that the planet’s terminator, the zone of the breaking dawn, is a broad chiaroscuro of black and white— charcoal hollows pricked here and there by brilliant white high points, which grow and grow until all the land is as bright as molten glass, and the long day begun.
Our second book is The Outside¸ by Ada Hoffman. It was released in 2019 to great acclaim. In the future, sentient A.I.s are worshipped as gods. Yasira, an autistic mathematician, creates a new energy drive with a self-contained computer system that the A.I.s cannot penetrate. When her space station is destroyed, she has no protection when the A.I.s want answers. She is taken on a journey that will take her across space to find a long-lost mentor who holds the key to the universe.
Ada is excellent at conveying what it’s like to have autism, as she herself is on the spectrum. Yasira notices things such as how lights are not flickering in a room that show the author understands sensory issues. Yasira anxiously taps her fingers against stress balls when anxious. But most telling is the following scene when she is question by a director named Apek:
“Have you gone over the testing and QA reports?…Can you think of any testing methods that haven’t been tried?”
Yasira shook her head, frustration building. She couldn’t explain in words why these questions felt wrong. “It’s all fine,” she said, “I went over the original math for the reaction myself.”
“The original math?…Goodness you’ve got it bad.” This time he did laugh. “It’s to be expected, you’ve climbed the career ladder so quickly.”
That did it; her frustration overflowed. “Shut up!” Yasira shouted, throwing the stress ball on the ground. Then she stopped and checked herself over. No, this wasn’t a reasonable reaction.
The scene is convincing because Yasira has to consciously voice to herself whether or not her reaction was reasonable and appropriate, and she does it a lot. Most people would have stomped out of the room, but she calculates the appropriateness of her action and instead apologizes. People on the spectrum consciously calculate this every time they are expected to be neurotypical. In these situations they cannot just act, they have to watch themselves acting from “normal” people’s points of view, but the limited ability to accomplish this renders it stressful and difficult. Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois called this having a double consciousness, while sociologist Erving Goffman elaborates further in his book Stigma.
For our final book, Dr. Dora Raymaker, herself on the spectrum, wrote Hoshi and the Red City Circuit in 2018. In the 26th century, an enslaved group of people on the spectrum run a supercomputer to direct the Red City’s processes, until three of them are murdered. Hoshi Archer, having escaped slavery, must investigate what happened. Dr. Raymaker’s writing accurately conveys the autistic experience as exemplified in the following scene. When Hoshi opens her door to a visitor, Sorreno, she realizes something is wrong.
“I brought you some solid food,” Sorreno said.
I wasn’t supposed to interact with Sorreno in my underwear. But I also wasn’t supposed to tell her bluntly that I needed to put on clothes. And I also wasn’t supposed to walk away without saying anything. So I swayed uncertainly, trying to dredge up some lesson I’d learned in Socialization and coming up null.
The scene is convincing, as it shows the complete calculation that Hoshi performs which produces contradictory results that end in her just swaying and saying nothing. The calculation is enhanced by the word “null,” a property of an empty cell in a dataset, not the way one would normally describe being at a loss for words. This is not to say that her emotions are calculated, as she is remarkably human. The character is well conveyed throughout the book.
Science fiction lets us explore new worlds, not only in space, but in the cavities we have left empty and ignored in society, where people with slight differences sit isolated and misunderstood within the vastness of their minds. Three books are promoting understanding of neurodiversity in their own ways while offering entertaining and original insights, and people are reading them and loving every word!
Finally, please note there is an entire publisher, Autonomous Press, who has three imprints, with one being devoted to autistic and neuroqueer authors. Their website is http://autpress.com/. Author Ada Hoffman also maintains a list of books written by people on the spectrum and/or about autistic characters http://www.ada-hoffmann.com/autistic-book-list/
Hemispheres releases August 1, 2020.
