#14

The panther-riding wizard was real.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/moomin/images/a/a4/Trollkarlenshatt12.png/revision/latest?cb=20140105025017

The author was an unreligious lesbian from Finland, so no religious bits, but def some weird philosophy bits.

#15

Second try because the picture didn’t work, and I can’t edit.

#16

When everyone turns up at their house and they aren’t there? I saw a documentary about Tove Jansson, and she wrote that book shortly after her mother died, so def death vibes going on there.

#17

Snufkin?

He was the best!

#18

Interesting. This does not work for me… I’m one of those on the spectrum who looks at people’s mouths rather than their eyes when they are talking. Find myself doing this even in things like video game cut-scenes.

#19

This is really interesting- I guess it ties in in some way with some of the language issues people can also face?

If you go to say, 3:30 in, does the fact that the mouths don’t move really ruin the illusion for you?

#21

They’ve got the original artwork in the exhbition (normally at Tampere Museum in Finland) - it’s especially nice to look at because you normally draw book artwork several times larger than the printed size.

#22

It’s possible that it was that story, it sounds plausible enough, but it’s also possible that I just didn’t really know what was happening and assumed I’d never them again. I really don’t remember much about it other than it was the moomins, it was over and I cried. It might’ve been a sunny day.

Assuming that the same doc that was on iplayer a few months back, I really liked her, having known nothing of her before that. I didn’t even know that she was Finnish.

#24

haha Moomins, brilliant :slight_smile:

#25

I have been told I look like him on many occasions. I don’t know whether that’s meant to be a compliment or an insult.

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#26

excellent!!! do you know when the Funny Bones one is?!

#27

Y’know what, I think I’d find that particular one less disturbing if the mouth didn’t move at all. It’s the occasional movements which are jarring.

The eye contact thing is fascinating (IMO). Most non-autistic people will spend most of their time looking at the right eye (left as you look at it) of the person talking, then do a quick triangle from mouth to left eye then back to right. Autistic people will focus on the mouth and occasionally do a triangle round the eyes.

Aware that I’m really not very far along the spectrum, but when I was told about the mouth thing it became so obvious that was what I do. For me I think it’s probably about focusing on the speaker - I get really distracted by noise (struggle massively in even slightly noisy bars and restaurants) so focusing on people’s mouths keeps me focused on that sound.

#28

In a dark dark town, on a dark dark street, in a dark dark museum.

#29

ah thanks, I’ll get myself down

#30

Do you smoke a pipe, play harmonica or wear a green cloak…?

Either way way he was cool as fuck. Bang into his nature, didn’t need much in life etc.

#31

Yeah I had an occasion when I thought a nice person with Asperger’s was being deliberately horrible, because I didn’t know.

Basically was out with a friend in London, and we unexpectedly bump into an old friend of hers who doesn’t live in the UK. We were on our way to have some dinner, so we invite this friend too, who was really friendly to me. In the restaurant though, this person acts like I don’t exist, talks over me, keeps taking the conversation back to places and people I didn’t know, the sort of thing people do to really make it clear they don’t want you there. I thought “wow, why do they suddenly hate me so much?”.

Brought it up with my friend later and she said “oh, sorry, they’re on the spectrum and really bad at group conversations, I should have said”. So what was coming out as the standard behaviour for showing you hate someone and wish they would leave, was actually “food + noise of other customers + old friend + new person = too much all at once, better concentrate on one or two things at a time”

#32

Like I didn’t know this person was autistic.

#33

I’ve got a green coat. Never played a harmonica, and gave up smoking a while back. I think it’s the hair and similar eyes mostly.

#34

That’s such a tricky one, eh? Like, you don’t want to define someone in by it in advance, but also very helpful context. I’ve no doubt come across weird at times - actually had a bartender call me out on my lack of eye contact once and say to my face that I was weird. Who does that??
That said, I consider myself pretty fortunate all told. Worst symptom used to be a big aversion to personal touch but I’ve improved massively on that in the last 10 years (co-extensive with meeting my now-wife which is probably not a coincidence). Anyway, we’ve digressed somewhat from those disturbing little creatures… Maybe I’ll re-watch some!

#35

Yeah like you don’t want to be assuming people have issues they don’t or assuming they can’t do things they can do, but you also don’t want to be assuming someone with good intentions is an arsehole because they struggle with certain social interactions or environments. Tricky balance to strike. Prob best if you get it from the person themself.

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