blog Writing Neurodivergent Characters in Fantasy

[Finchbearer]

I think fantasy as a genre attracts many of those who are neurodivergent. It satisfies a lot of schemas that divergent brains simply like.

I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I think many fantasy authors are probably ND, Tolkien likely being one. Going one further I think *most* people are ND rather than the fabled NT.

But, one problem with ‘we want more representation’ specifically in literature becomes a question of who is willing to go there. Some people don’t want that stigma attached to their ND and some people will want to shout it from the rooftops.

And the issue of a genre further marginalising those with various ND conditions might end up alienating those who were attracted to it in the first place. That shouldn’t be a reason to not write about a character with autism or ADHD, (whether that’s explicit in the text or not) but it could be.

 

[Queshire]

But, one problem with ‘we want more representation’ specifically in literature becomes a question of who is willing to go there. Some people don’t want that stigma attached to their ND and some people will want to shout it from the rooftops.

Huh? Stigma attached to it?

EDIT: That was a legitimate question. =<

 

[LittleOwlbear]

Huh? Stigma attached to it?

EDIT: That was a legitimate question. =<

I really understand it. If people learn you are writing nd characters because you are relating to them, you are automatically "outing" yourself.
I already experienced it that someone talked to me like they would talk to a 5 yo autistic child, although we had a normal conversation before, as soon as they learned I'm nd. Uhm, never doing that again in real aside from my close environment.

 

[Finchbearer]

Oh, sorry Queshire.

Maybe it’s just a personal thing where some who are ND feel that there is a stigma attached to it and others do not.

As above, perhaps a writer with dyslexia or a writer with autism wants to keep that part of their lives private because they feel they might be stigmatised further for it, or it might affect their careers. Maybe someone with ND does not want that to be the thing they are defined by. Others want their ND to define their career and talk about it, as a call to action or to get others more aware of it.

 

[Queshire]

Ah, I see.

Hmmm.... I suppose I can see how talk about representation might cause some ND peeps to feel pressured to specifically write ND characters, but there's nothing saying they have to if they don't want to.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think it’s generally a good thing that more people are talking about neurodivergence and normalising it, but with anything like that there is always going to be a problematic side to it as well.

 

[K.Hudson]

I write sci-fi rather than fantasy, but I can't help but write more neurodivergent characters.
My MC in my current project has so many ADHD: sensory obliviousness, high levels of divergent thinking, pays little attention to mundane things, and is always preoccupied with novelty.
The primary female character has quite a few aspie traits. She actually has quite good social skills, but major blind spots, and has an excellent and very accurate memory, particularly a high verbal memory.
Other characters likely have neurodiverse traits that bleed into them.
Then again, being people from other planets, for all we know, these people could be considered the normal ones.

 

[Karlin]

I've done the Wrong Thing, and put in a character who only afterwards I realized is likely autistic. He never told me, and t took a while before I realized it.

 

[Saigonnus]

As a person who is neurodivergent (ADHD), I feel that so long as it's well-written, and established as a trait for the character(s): it is fine. I don't think authors should include them just for the sake of inclusion; a token character. The characters should be treated with resepct and should be portrayed accurately: which is hard for some authors to manage, especially if they are not neurodivergent themselves.

 

[Devor]

I want to talk about the character Drax, from the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy.

In the first GotG movie, Drax is explicitly stated to be unable to process metaphors, and he interprets them literally. "Nothing goes over my head. I'm too fast. I would catch it." This is something of an autistic trait, and I remember at the time the director, James Gunn, talking about the letters he received from autistic children who were so happy to feel represented on the screen.

The problem is, the connection was probably an accident. Drax isn't "autistic." He's an alien. His brain works differently, and it's used for comedic effect. So in all of his future appearances, the autistic trait of being bad with metaphors doesn't come up again. He's silly-dumb in a different way.

What should we make of that? Was it too close to autism? Was playing an autistic trait for laughs inherently a bad thing? If so, was there a way for Drax to course-correct without quietly dropping it all together?

I ask because it's relevant to spec fic writers, but also because I'm a little unsure if I might run into similar cases in my own story. I have a variety of fairy races with odd mental quirks, each in their own way that's not intended to represent any real-world group. I'm not that worried, but looking at this thread it seemed like a good discussion question to ask.

 

[Prince of Spires]

It's hard to know for sure exactly why they made the change. I see two likely reasons.

The first is indeed that they never intended to make him autistic and didn't want to go down that route.

The second is that the joke simply had run its course. Like I keep telling my children, the first time you make a joke it's great. The second time it's fine. However, by the tenth or eleventh time, it just gets old and annoying. It could very well be that they just felt they'd gotten all the laughs out of the not understanding metaphors joke, and decided to move on with the character.

Personally, I would bet it's a combination of the two.

 

[Oldgnome]

I would say it would depend on the intention of the author as to why a particular neurological group should be identified. Although not historical, one of the characters in one of my stories is on the autistic spectrum, but this is because the story is about secret worlds and the young man who has a private world in poetry and drawing (just as I once had) seemed perfectly placed to win the game.

However the past has always been modified under the influence of the present, for instance Christ in art and popular iconography becomes gradually more white and even nearly blond as new cultures interpret his legacy. The past is always being changed and even processed. One commentator on autism for instance, which may have been Lorna Wing, suggested that changelings might have their root in Classically Autistic children who might have once been regarded as otherworldly.

I would say, if I had to take the plunge on this question, that it is better to invent a character according to how they develop in the writing and to let the character be who they become in the drafting. If that character, such as Sherlock Holmes, is considered to have Asperger's Syndrome by future generations then so be it.