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

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.