I grew up longing to be Joey Bettany from the Chalet School books. Her adult life is still exactly what I would like as my adult life - a writer of historical fiction, with long hair, lots of children, a lovely house, and efficient domestic help. Alas, my life is not like that.
When you’re neurodivergent you very often can’t find characters that you relate to, especially when you’re a teenager growing up, figuring out that you are different to a lot of the people around you. I remember when I was a teen I would escape into books because the real world wasn’t the nicest place for me, so books were safer, and I could also predict what was happening in books a lot better than I could predict what was happening in the real world, but it was very rare that I fully related to a character.
I received my entirely unsurprising official diagnosis of Autism last Tuesday.
Pretty sure they sound like something Child #1 would enjoy. I might give them a go, too.
I can't say I've ever particularly identified with a character in a book. Sympathized with, yes. Cried over - yes, although it's particular paragraphs that get me going, rather than the overall fate of a character. Seen myself in? Not so much. I suspect a novel written about me would be quite annoying, even if I ended up in wizard school, or some dystopian future, or whatever the setting du jour is.
Comments
I thought of this thread (and my comment that I didn't relate to any fictional characters) this morning when I was reading this interview with an author friend of mine: https://autisticuk.org/interview-with-chris-bonnello-author-of-the-underdogs-series-and-owner-of-autistic-not-weird/
I was particularly struck by the following:
When you’re neurodivergent you very often can’t find characters that you relate to, especially when you’re a teenager growing up, figuring out that you are different to a lot of the people around you. I remember when I was a teen I would escape into books because the real world wasn’t the nicest place for me, so books were safer, and I could also predict what was happening in books a lot better than I could predict what was happening in the real world, but it was very rare that I fully related to a character.
I received my entirely unsurprising official diagnosis of Autism last Tuesday.
I can recommend the books as well, btw.
Pretty sure they sound like something Child #1 would enjoy. I might give them a go, too.
I can't say I've ever particularly identified with a character in a book. Sympathized with, yes. Cried over - yes, although it's particular paragraphs that get me going, rather than the overall fate of a character. Seen myself in? Not so much. I suspect a novel written about me would be quite annoying, even if I ended up in wizard school, or some dystopian future, or whatever the setting du jour is.