![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jul. 16th, 2009 17:09These Exotic Creatures Don't Think Like Real People: Writing the Neurological Other
A speculative fiction writer wants strange characters. In the real world, there are people with minds very different from those of normal people like him. Why not use them as characters?
In constructing such characters, he may rely on what he knows; for example, that multiple personality and schizophrenia are the same thing. ("It ain't what you don't know that hurts you. It's what you know that ain't so.")
He may do library research, though this can produce disappointing results. For example, multiple personality is now officially Dissociative Personality Disorder; and many -- perhaps most -- experts don't consider alters to be separate personalities. (Multiples may disagree; but their opinions don't count. They lack expert credentials.)
Or he might ask questions. But he won't ask these people.
Of course, the assumption that "people whose minds work like mine" equals "normal people" is often wrong.
It's possible to be synesthetic without realizing it. How? By not realizing that some of your mental machinery is a form of synesthesia. Or being oblivious to your synesthesias.
Your sexual preferences might be much less common than you're certain they are.
You might be an addict without knowing it. ("I haven't had a drink in two weeks. That proves I'm not an alcoholic.")
Traits which you think make you saner than most people might be on the checklist for one or another mental illness.
But even if you're really part of the majority, believing that persons whose minds are different from yours aren't real people will hurt your writing. At least, if you're going to write about such people.
Many readers have the quirk of wanting characters they read about to seem real.
***
Kinds of mind/brain unusualness which exist in the real world and have been used in spec-fic include:
Abnormally high sanity. For example, one character in Philip K. Dick's novel _Clans of the Alphane Moon_.
Mental illness, as defined by the writer's time and place.
Unusual mental abilities such as eidetic memory.
Brain miswiring, including autism (and Asperger's Syndrome) and Attention Deficit Disorder.
Synesthesia and other unusual perceptions.
Other things which a particular writer might consider at least as strange:
Inability to realize that popular music reached its peak during the writer's high school years.
Being in denial about sharing the writer's sexual preferences. (Persons who really don't find, for example, male domination and female submission best being nonexistent.)
A speculative fiction writer wants strange characters. In the real world, there are people with minds very different from those of normal people like him. Why not use them as characters?
In constructing such characters, he may rely on what he knows; for example, that multiple personality and schizophrenia are the same thing. ("It ain't what you don't know that hurts you. It's what you know that ain't so.")
He may do library research, though this can produce disappointing results. For example, multiple personality is now officially Dissociative Personality Disorder; and many -- perhaps most -- experts don't consider alters to be separate personalities. (Multiples may disagree; but their opinions don't count. They lack expert credentials.)
Or he might ask questions. But he won't ask these people.
Of course, the assumption that "people whose minds work like mine" equals "normal people" is often wrong.
It's possible to be synesthetic without realizing it. How? By not realizing that some of your mental machinery is a form of synesthesia. Or being oblivious to your synesthesias.
Your sexual preferences might be much less common than you're certain they are.
You might be an addict without knowing it. ("I haven't had a drink in two weeks. That proves I'm not an alcoholic.")
Traits which you think make you saner than most people might be on the checklist for one or another mental illness.
But even if you're really part of the majority, believing that persons whose minds are different from yours aren't real people will hurt your writing. At least, if you're going to write about such people.
Many readers have the quirk of wanting characters they read about to seem real.
***
Kinds of mind/brain unusualness which exist in the real world and have been used in spec-fic include:
Abnormally high sanity. For example, one character in Philip K. Dick's novel _Clans of the Alphane Moon_.
Mental illness, as defined by the writer's time and place.
Unusual mental abilities such as eidetic memory.
Brain miswiring, including autism (and Asperger's Syndrome) and Attention Deficit Disorder.
Synesthesia and other unusual perceptions.
Other things which a particular writer might consider at least as strange:
Inability to realize that popular music reached its peak during the writer's high school years.
Being in denial about sharing the writer's sexual preferences. (Persons who really don't find, for example, male domination and female submission best being nonexistent.)