Comments on: Not So Curious in a Long Time

By: bookcrazy

bookcrazy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:21:18 +0000

Hmm… after this one, am not quite convinced about picking his next. Though, maybe someday I shall…in distant future.

By: wordjunkie

wordjunkie — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:50:07 +0000

Hi, just saw this old post of yours. I never enjoyed this book much either, and yes, I do believe it was over rated too. However, Haddon’s ‘A Spot of Bother’ had me in splits.

By: bookdiva

bookdiva — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:47:17 +0000

Your review is well-written, and leaves me to understand why I haven’t read the book. The jacket and it’s blurb turned me off, for some reason.

By: chartroose

chartroose — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:31:55 +0000

Finally, someone else who didn’t enjoy the book all that much. I found it to be vapid and overly simplistic as well.

I like your blog! You’re going on my blogroll and bloglines feeds, so you’ll be hearing a lot more from me in the future. Woot!

By: arulba

arulba — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:22:28 +0000

Haven’t read this book but recently watched a film from Filmmovement.com called BenX about a teenage boy suffering from Asperger’s syndrome. Seems to have a similar theme although your interpretation of the Idiot doesn’t match my understanding of Aspergers. Haven’t read The Idiot, yet – but have watched Kurosawa’s interpretation several times (just watched it tonight, in fact). Based on Kurosawa’s film, people aren’t ruled by logic at all – they are ruled by their passions. The idiot wasn’t more logical, just more passionate than all of them so able to see beyond the logical trappings of passion. This fits with the theme of Ben X, too.

By: bermudaonion

bermudaonion — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:43:00 +0000

I guess I’m the last one to hear about that book, but it sounds like one I need to pass up anyway.

By: Bill Ectric

Bill Ectric — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:49:56 +0000

I like your comparisons to Dostoevsky’s Idiot, how the world calls certain people “idiots” because they are different, but in some ways, they are more “normal” than most of us.

By: Catana

Catana — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:03:03 +0000

A few remarks from a person with Asperger’s, which I hope will correct the impression you apparently got from the book. First, not everyone with Asperger’s is suffering from it. In fact, many of us are quite happy with ourselves, just as we are.

Second, the experiences of one person don’t really tell you much about Asperger’s because it varies widely in many ways, and everyone’s experience is different.

Third, the human race has never been ruled by logic. In fact, the construction and use of a formal logic is a very late development in human history. Most people with Asperger’s are as capable of appreciating emotions and relationships as anyone else — they may have to come to it from a different angle, and may express it differently, but they are not coldly logical beings.Many of them are no more capable of logical thought than anyone you meet on the street. Spend a day browsing an Aspie forum and you’ll see the same range of interests and emotions as anywhere else.

Fourth, books written from one’s own experience often assume that their experience is typical, which it may not be. And it may also repeat information which is completely wrong, such as official diagnostic guidelines. For instance,the guidelines in the DSM are responsible for many of the stereotypes about people with Asperger’s because they are out of date, and are narrowly focused on pathology and cure.

Please do us the favor of not passing along, any further than this blog post, what you have read in one book as if it is the truth.