The Purpose of the Visual -- Curious Incident-- Lindsey Dawkins

By -


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time gives readers such insight into the world of Asperger’s, and it’s truly enlightening. Christopher’s narration provides the reader with example after example of how his brain works and processes information, and I think that fact alone gives the book immeasurable value. However, I think one of the most interesting aspects of the novel is Haddon’s use of text features like diagrams, mathematical equations, and pictures, to further emphasize the inner-workings of Christopher’s mind. Sure, Christopher’s narration allows us to see that he is logical, in that he gives us a stream of consciousness explaining his every step. But the text features really hammer that point home. At one point, Christopher describes what he did after lunch. He tells us that he “painted some pictures of aliens which looked like this” and the line is immediately followed by a picture of an alien (76). I find myself questioning why Haddon felt it necessary to put in pictures of what Christopher is thinking, when the novel is already chock full of descriptions. Although it does provide the obvious, a visual, through which the reader can understand what Christopher means by “alien” it also gives the reader another glimpse into how his brain operates. Right after this drawing appears, Christopher says “My memory is like a film” (76). Suddenly, these text features make sense. They are another avenue through which Haddon is illustrating the characteristics of Christopher’s exceptionality. The novel is a real example of the thoroughness of Christopher’s mind. Without those text features, I think we lose the authenticity of the depiction of Asperger’s. I also believe they show visually the issues that arise when Christopher begins to have a breakdown. During his trip to London, he gets overwhelmed and all the signs begin to look like a hodgepodge of words and letters. On page 169 we have a full visual of what all the signs look like, and they are legible. On page 170, the signs are illegible, and Christopher tells us that “there were too many and [his] brain wasn’t working properly.” Again, without those text features, I think we would certainly lose part of what makes the novel so important; the ability to see the world the way Christopher, and those like Christopher, see the world. It isn’t about just being able to read the way Christopher thinks, or observe through the text the way Christopher responds in situations, but being able to see the way Christopher sees. It’s interesting to me, this concept of viewing the world as Christopher does, because it’s almost as if Haddon is including all the possible different ways to interpret and understand Christopher’s world (i.e visual aids, words, text) in order to celebrate the different ways in which everyone consumes information. I would go so far to say that these text features operate in a different way than those in Diary, and that these aim to really enhance the feeling of seeing the world as Christopher does, more so than the comics enhanced the way we saw the world as Arnold did.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 25, 2017 at 7:08 PM

    I also agree that although the author was super detailed and it gave us a better view on how really difficult it must be to live life with ASD. Christopher had meltdowns for things we look at being an everyday thing. This book helped me understand ASD a little better and not be so "scared" of it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 26, 2017 at 7:11 AM

    Yes, I agree. From the beginning I developed a whole new respect for ASD. When Christopher is talking about having trouble reading facial expressions, I thought to myself, goodness, there IS alot that goes into it. I don't know how the human brain manages to compute all that information, and so it's totally understandable that in some cases, the brain just doesn't do it. I think it gave me a new outlook, and reinforced the idea that differences are to be respected.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 26, 2017 at 9:03 AM

    I agree with your analysis on how the visuals function in the novel. They definitely help make the depiction of ASD more authentic and they definitely help us better understand Christopher. As far as the math problems go, I would never be able to understand them and how they related to Christopher's life if they weren't there on the page for me to see as he explained them. Overall, I just think the visuals really helped to reinforce Christopher's thought processes and how he views the world. I agree that the visuals were perhaps more helpful and necessary in Curious than in Diary, they definitely functioned in two different ways.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more