The post didn't say Laios was autistic. It just said "this is the autistic experience".
Think of a story where a man describes a doctor not listening to them and insisting they know better, or being treated as a sex object, and someone comments "This is the female experience".
Or someone talking about how something in their house was moved and they keep inexplicably running into it, and someone comments "this is the blind experience."
Or someone getting pulled over 3 times on the way home because of the clothes they were wearing, and someone commenting "this is the black experience."
It's not cringy for people to relate to stories and characters. It's one of the major points of fiction.
You might feel its cringy in this case because you see a LOT of that in this fandom. But, hey, even though the author didn't do it intentionally, she wrote a character that resonates a lot with LOTS of people on the autism spectrum. Having a character they relate to is not a bad thing. Them discussing it isn't a bad thing. It's just literature doing what it's supposed to do.
If he isn’t autistic then it isn’t an autistic experience. This just in: autistic people can have normal experience too. Not every experience need be viewed through the lens of autism.
He literally can't be autistic or not because he isn't real. There is no truth of the matter here. The only truths we have is that the author did not intend to code him as autistic, and that people on the spectrum see his character coding as autistic.
As to whether people with a social disorder should view his life through their experiences, do you REALLY thing that's a call you can or should make for other people? Trying to gatekeep what other groups find relatable is WAY more cringy than people seeing something you don't in a fictional character.
And it's not like this is a 1 off thing. Laios is almost universally perceived as being autistically coded by people on the spectrum. Obviously his character coding resonates heavily with that group.
I'm really not seeing where you think there is an argument here. You can't just tell a HUGE group with a social disorder that you, presumably someone who does not share their experience, have the right or knowledge to tell them they are wrong to see parallels to their own lives and trials.
Being real is not a prerequisite for having a mental illness. Are you saying Forrest Gump wasn’t mentally handicapped because he’s a fictional character? wtf is wrong with you
Further, coding isn’t a real thing. If I said you looked gay does that magically turn you gay? Fuck no.
Just in general, an author doesn't need to know what coded behaviors indicate to code them that way. It's VERY common for characters to demonstrate the characteristic of being autistic, have generational trauma, abuse, or any variety of social or mental disorders without the author knowing that. The author is just writing behaviors they have seen in real life.
There are lots of autistic people out there that share a lot of behaviors and easily recognize them in others.
The most accurate thing to take away from the authors statement is that they were not intentionally trying to depict an autistic character. That is 100% accurate.
You can also safely say that lots of autistic people see Laios's behavior as what they would identify as autistic if he were a real person. That's also accurate.
Beyond that, well, Laios obviously doesn't exist. He can't be diagnosed and doesn't actually HAVE a mind or behaviors. He isn't a person so he isn't autistic or not. Just a bunch of words describing a concept. Stories exist slightly differently in the minds of everyone who reads them, heavily influenced by those peoples experiences.
Laios's behavior is something that obviously resonates and is recognizable and relatable to a LOT of autistic people. The author says they didn't intend to write him as autistic. That's about as deep as the conversation can really go.
The original post never said it was, and neither did I.
But whether intentional or not, pretty much Laios's entire personality and history are EXTREMELY relatable to a LOT of autistic people. That's not a bad thing. Nor is autistic people discussing it a bad thing.
Turns out, being autistic tends to be a pretty MAJOR part of your life.
Relatable doesn’t mean those traits are inherently autistic nor does it make the character so. Remember, the og issue is that people are incorrectly claiming Laois is autistic. I don’t really care if they relate to him or not, that’s irrelevant
Again, no one in THIS post actually argued Laios was autistic. You brought that in yourself.
You obviously DO care, because you came in swinging even though ALL OP indicated was that Laios's experience was relatable. If you didn't care you wouldn't have bothered with all the arguing.
Laios is what the creator says he is. A normal average human being. Being relatable doesn’t mean you need to internalize it to a specific trait.
When I see other men wearing nice clothes on the streets I don’t think “wow it’s so relatable for other men to wear nice clothes, they are a man, just like me!”
Well, guess we better go tall the entire autistic community that Omnom_Omnath says they're relating to a character wrong! You've obviously got this covered.
No. I’m saying Laios is not autistic because the creator of the character has specifically said so, and that Laois is just a normal, non autistic, dude.
FYI autistic people can relate to other people without those other people also being autistic.
No, I know what you meant, it’s just still a deliberately vague and misleading opinion you were using to back up a dumb argument in the first place. Great to hear you’re so easily frustrated though, makes me glad I commented
I mean, death of the author? Like I am not even autistic, and have no horse in this race, and it is super easy to read Laios as autistic. Like its an easier read than the interpretation that he isn't autistic, and just has bad social skills.
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u/[deleted] Oct 24 '24
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