Wrote a few hundred pages for Cities That Eat Islands this morning. To flesh out a minor character and give the closing a bit of a pay off.

While walking around and doing errands I met Kiko who was panhandling at the drug store in front of the court house. Got to talking about movies and the theatres around Journal Square. Nice guy with some history.

Watched Cry Murder. Supposed to humorous, even funny. I didn’t find it very funny but some of the dialog was snappy. When it turned tense it caught my interest. At least the final act paid off.

Autistics have a problem with taking certain speech literally. Or slang.

For a lame example:

“Oh, it’s raining cats and dogs outside.”

We’ll go look out the window to see the cats and dogs.

Or maybe we need some direct instructions and not so vague.

“Now class. Take out the book and we’ll start the lesson.”

Teacher looks at kid with closed book on desk. “Thomas, I said open your book so we can start the lesson.”

Thomas “No you didn’t.”

“Thomas, don’t give me trouble today.”

But what I always noticed is that Neuro Typicals have a severe case of taking fantasy very literal to the case of insanity. Video games and horror movies influence violence in children. Song in lyrics are calls to violence or rape.

Always negative.

Really. I’m going to listen to The Ramones’ Beat on the Brat and go out and beat on the brat with a base ball bat. (I don’t need a song to do that) Or I’m going to watch a slasher film and kill people. Or I’m going to read the Bible and make people live life to my standards. Oh wait, scratch that last one. Bad example.

Granted, there are probably other psychological reasons going on for this. My diagnosis is stupidity.

Do autistics fall for such ridiculousness stated above? Not that I have ever seen. Yeah, we are into their favorite shows, movies, and cosplays. Some really want to be cops and firemen. We might dress up. But I don’t think we are so deep into that fantasy world were we lose touch with reality but we take the morals of that world and incorporate them into our reality.

Example: Do good. Help others. Fight evil, etc. Shit, even I have my own fantasy world and morals taken from books and television shows from when I was a kid. That’s the best part about being autistic.

Maybe because we don’t socialize well and the mediums of fantasy are the perfect companions. A movie is short and direct. We can start it over and stop it or rewind to a certain part. A book we can work on over time or read through in one sitting. A television show we can look forward to every week like a visiting friend. We can learn to talk through the mediums, learn about life, learn art, and magic. Learn to laugh and cry and feel. They are the perfect teacher and friend.

But many NTs see fantasy as a negative most of the time. Harmful to children or even people they consider mentally inferior. Like reality is so much fun. Is it? Is it really? Or does misery just love company?