I started reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, which has had a lot of positive buzz, but I'm having trouble getting into it because of the "humorless, robotic Aspie" stereotype. It's not that it's never true: I know people on the net who definitely identify that way. The clueless narrator also reminds me of someone I met in real life, who had two autistic children and was desperately searching for a cause/cure, while apparently not noticing that he himself was an Aspie stereotype come to life. I didn't get a chance to discuss it with his wife, but I suspect she laughs and sighs to herself a lot.
I think Don, the narrator of The Rosie Project, is intended to be Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory" in a possibly romantically viable way. (He wears shirts with the periodic table on them, despite not seeming at all otherwise like the sort of person who would.) I actually love Sheldon... he's not my son or me, but he has aspects of us or we have aspects of him. We gave son an easel/chalkboard/whiteboard when he was two and he used it for almost ten years, but only the whiteboard section. Sheldon is also believably anxious and prone to meltdowns, two aspects which often get left out of portrayals of Aspies.
Anyway, I don't think Don is necessarily a bad or implausible portrayal, but it's not one that resonates with me and I'm kind of tired of always seeing it. Why does nobody ever write about autistics who love hugging and puns?
My son's friend who is on the autism spectrum is one of the funniest people I have ever met. He was a great joke teller with a wry wit even back in kindergarten.
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