The Curious Conclusions of a reader of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time".

Allow me to express the mental anguish caused to me by this book.

(For those who don't know, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time" deals with the death murder of a dog, and the investigation of the crime by part of an autistic teen, who along the way unravels many things before unknown to him about his life, all this viewed through the eyes of an autistic individual.)

As enthralling as this book may be, it sends a reader's, or at least this reader's head plunging into inner turmoil, bombarding it with a series of uncomfortable thoughts, such as:

a) Fact number one: the intolerance towards the severely, minimally, physically, or neurologically handicapped is disturbingly common.

b) Fact number two: the instinctive feeling of pity we feel towards these individuals is equally as disturbing. I shall expand on this later.

c) Doubt number one: is the inability to have feelings and the tendency to evade the real world (a) a gift or (b) a curse?

d) Doubt number two: if the answer to (c) is (a) in many cases, why do the people who love Christopher insist on pulling him out of his safe world?

e) my analysis on the interpretation of the book by part of its readers.

f)Are the autistic incapable of feeling?

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Though Christopher himself finds it hard to interpret human emotion, he is completely capable of provoking it. For example, when I read this book I find myself prone to headaches and overthinking. This in turn is caused not by the fact that his neurological capability is hard to comprehend, but by how he views the world, how his world is viewed by others, his lack of consciousness of how his world is viewed by others, how others do not understand how he views his world, and so on and so forth. All these thoughts spiral in your head and develop into more and more complex thoughts that make way for new thoughts which in turn provoke more thoughts.

And all i want to do is cover my ears, tune the radio to some loud white noise, drop on the floor and groan, like Christopher.

The first thought that crosses my mind (see (a)) which also links indirectly to (d), I see constantly in the book and in real life. Having a brother with down's syndrome, I can relate with the blank stares you get from people whilst walking down the street, or (having lived in even more closed-minded places such as Syria) the fact that behind my back my friends would talk about my brother "looking retarded." I applaud your observational skills, friends, and I also wonder at your idioticy.
In the book, When the special needs children are walking down the street and are passed by a schoolbus in the book, they are not even called "spazzes" or "tards", but even the phrase 'special needs' is used as an insult. I am amazed by the primitivity of the civilized peoples.
This thought can also be connected to (e), which I shall do later on.

Here too I have the feeling of myself in agony, on the floor.

This leads me to point (c), or the questionability of the negativity of the quality of being incomprehensive of human feelings and the ability and tendency to shut yourself off in your little world. Let me set this up rationally, like they would: the world is messy and cruel. Humans in general are ignorant and intolerant. They hurt, so we avoid. I have taken this policy myself many times.
Now why would it be a curse? (option (b), point (c)) Some may state that though the kids feel safe, and won't feel negative feelings, they also won't enjoy life. But if calculating their every step and avoiding unusual patterns make them happy, then aren't they therefore enjoying life?
Of course, with down's syndrome it's different. Children and adults with down's syndrome tend to