The Way Most Autism Literature Describes "literal Interpretation" Is Often Not At All Similar To How

The way most autism literature describes "literal interpretation" is often not at all similar to how I experience it. Teenage me even thought I couldn't be autistic because I've always been able to learn metaphors easily.

In fact, I love wordplay of all kinds. Teenage me was fascinated to learn all the types of figurative language there are in poetry and literature.

But paperwork and questionnaires are hard, because there's so much they don't state clearly. Or they don't leave room for enough nuance.

"List all the jobs you've had, with start and end dates." What if I don't remember the exact day or month? Is the year enough?

"Have you been suffering from blurred vision?" Well, if I take off my glasses the whole world is blurred, but I'm fairly sure that's not what the intake form at the optometrist is asking.

Or the infamous (and infuriatingly stereotypical) "Would you rather go to a library or a party?" What sort of party? Where? Who's there? I work at a library. Am I currently at the library for work or pleasure? Does it have a good collection?

It's not common figures of speech that confound me. It's ambiguity, in situations that aren't supposed to be ambiguous.

Not my usual content, but I made something I wanted to share...

'i should draw' 'i should paint' 'i should write fic' 'i should read' 'i should embroider' 'i shou-

*stares at a wall for 8 hours*

hi um my liege y-you asked me to um. report back to you when the prisoner you sent into the labyrinth had been, um, dealt with by th-the minotaur. well y-your highness t-there seems to be a bit of an, ahem, issue. no, no the prisoner is still in the labyrinth, y-yes the minotaur found them. i-it just ah, um, it appears that the. it appears that the prisoner and the minotaur are, um, they're-

The term ‘art brut’ or, in English, naive/outsider art, is a little patronizing. There’s no difference between Van Gogh and the art brut people besides good publicity/the presence of a dedicated art dealer brother and his wife. But oh shit did I love the art brut museum. These artists made art even when they were forbidden to do so. Children from occupied Algeria forced to work as maids in French soldiers’ homes made unspeakably gorgeous paintings. Inmates in psychiatric hospitals, denied paint, literally scratched sculptures into walls with broken spoons. Autistic soldiers drew on military surplus fabric. Women experienced erotic mania and devoted their lives to their loves— opera, spiritualism, the prince of Austria, and painting. Bedridden people churned out exquisite technical drawings without any kind of ‘art education.’ Men who could not read instead used letters and paragraphs as abstract designs, with no symbolic value except as a gestalt whole. People will make art literally no matter what.