Curious Antecedents
Neurodiversity in Theatre
(Read from the first post at the bottom first and work up)
(Read from the first post at the bottom first and work up)
Finally, for Curious Incident the play to have been produced Curious Incident the book must first be written so the book itself is an antecedent. The book was highly successful winning multiple awards including best novel as well as book of the year from the Whitbread Book Awards, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize (“The Guardian”, 2003, “2004 Commonwealth”, 2004 & "Ethan Frome", 2007). Oddly, the book was released with an adult and children’s version. Arguably, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime couldn’t have done as well if Spoonface Steinberg hadn’t done well first. But also, Curious Incident has a slightly different slant, which has upsides and downsides. There’s a bit of a step back in that the book doesn’t explicitly state that Christopher is autistic although an introduction at the beginning makes reference to Asbergers syndrome (that is an outdated term). A statement from the author Mark Haddon at the time also appears to have good intentions but ends up sounding more like ableist disability erasure. Mark explains, “The Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger's...if anything it's a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder” (Haddon, 2009). Writing a heavily autistic coded character then insisting the book is not about autism but a story for everyone about “difference” indirectly states that a good story should be palatable to neurotypicals and inaccurately invalidates neurodivergent struggles as something to which everyone experiences and relates. Neurotypicals can and should certainly be educated and sympathetic to neurodivergent struggles, but they will never know what it’s like and insisting they do is not only untrue but also patronizing. While a story may be mindfully consumed by everyone it does always need to be ‘for’ everyone. Additionally, many depictions of neurodivergent individuals tend to portray neurodivergents with a type of savant syndrome which can also create the false narrative that all neurodivergent individuals either have some form of genius or that only stories of exceptional neurodivergents deserve telling. Secondly, the author, Mark Haddon, does not have any particular expertise in autism or neurodiversity and is neurotypical. Haddon claims to have “a handful of newspaper and magazine articles about, or by, people with Asperger's and autism” and based the protagonist Christopher on two different people ("Asperger's & Autism," 2018). While representations of neurodivergent individuals as the protagonist and the hero are important and better than none, these characters should ideally be written by a neurodivergent individual or an educated psychologist. This has also led to the author Mark Haddon being strangely worshiped and admired as an autism expert and has even expressed annoyance at “getting phone calls asking him to appear at lectures'' on the subject ("Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Novelist Turned Playwright," 2010). The release of this play and book has meant a neurotypical man has benefitted and profited from an experience he may be able to sympathize with but never truly understand. Mark Haddon also never has to deal with the struggles and ableism autistic people experience. However, this was also twenty years ago when understanding and representation of neurodiversity was far scarcer than it is now. So one must also consider this book and play within its historical context. This play does attempt to sympathetically display autism and the experience of such. In the end, Christopher defends his own innocence against his ablest neighbors who assume he killed the dog and ends up bringing his parents back together so they can somewhat reconcile the past. Additionally, this book was translated into 36 different languages and encouraged masses of people to sympathize with something at least similar to the autistic experience which was a step forward in the right direction. So while it certainly has its flaws it was necessary for progress in a certain time period.
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