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By Rome Jorge Lifestyle Editor
Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a whodunit that isn’t.
Using the conventions of a detective story, the book has Christopher
Boone, a mathematically gifted autistic 15-year-old child, as both
protagonist and narrator. While he’s busy solving who killed his
neighbor’s dog, he reveals insights into his own condition,
expounds on philosophy and logic and unwittingly unravels the reader
the tangled emotional web that his parents have woven for—its
nuances completely oblivious to him.
Completely endearing,
entertaining and yet free of melodrama or over-sentimentality,
Haddon has spun a good story with words well chosen. The book
utilizes dramatic irony—wherein readers deduce more knowledge from
the narrator’s own words than the narrator can himself comprehend.
But instead of an unreliable narrator, Haddon has one that is
pathologically honest, psychologically incapable of perceiving
emotions in others and too young to appreciate the intricacies of
dysfunctional adult relationships. Masterfully, Haddon has crafted
flawed characters such as Boone’s parents with whom we empathize
nonetheless.
He creates a unique literary
voice for his autistic protagonist with long run-on sentences where
the train of thought takes you for a ride through logic games,
philosophical discourses and even innocent confessions of very
macabre fantasies. And yet this book doesn’t come of as preachy or
contrived.
Autism—the brain development
disorder that impairs communication, emotional development and
social interaction characterized by repetitive behavior—is a very
effective device for dramatic irony. However, having a fictional
autistic boy as a narrator begs the question: Is that really how
autistic people think and feel?
Most Filipinos have experienced
something similar: Happily suspending one’s disbelief to enjoy
formulaic Hollywood movies and all their racial stereotypes, that
is, until a Filipino is portrayed and we realize that Westerners
have gotten it all wrong. Then the spell is broken and we wonder: If
they were totally inaccurate about their portrayal of us, perhaps
they got it wrong about everything else?
Fortunately, an autistic person
has reviewed Haddon’s book—Singaporean Eric Chen who blogs about
his thoughts at www.iautistic.com. His insights are priceless as
they are succinct:
While reading The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I noted that Christopher is
highly self-aware, and could articulate his thoughts so clearly.
This was very different from my own experience. At his age, I was
still mostly in a state of sleepwalking. I was unaware of my own
emotions, body and situational awareness.
I was a very high functioning
autistic who went through normal schooling without any help,
medication or trouble with the school authorities. The
lower-functioning autistics probably have even less self-awareness
than me. However, Mark Haddon could not have had a story if
Christopher could not able to convey to us what is happening within
him. Thus, his depictions of Christopher’s inner state are used to
advance his story and interest viewers. They are not meant to
represent autistic consciousness.
Chen also recounts his reaction
in first reading the book:
In 2003, a lady who works at a
special-needs school in Singapore showed it to me and asked for my
comment. I read two pages. The protagonist (Christopher Boone) was
describing his stream of consciousness. As I read, I felt my mind
spinning. I gave up trying to untangle my confusion, returned the
book and thanked the lady. When she asked for my comments again, I
mentioned politely that the book was not really about autism.
Years later, I figured out why.
The book was written by someone pretending to be autistic. No wonder
I was puzzled! It was usually autistics pretending to be
“normal,” not the other way around!
Inaccurate as its portrayal of
autism may be, Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in
the Night-Time is a brilliant read nonetheless. And this paradox
begs yet another question: Do outdated perceptions, stereotypes and
biases make a piece of literature any less worthy?
After all, a literary classic
such as Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is littered with racial and
gender stereotypes, no to mention passé colloquialisms. But perhaps
because of datedness, it makes the book an even more important
artifact of its time. With The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-Time, Mark Haddon has unwittingly become the not-so-reliable
writer of autism.
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