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Bonus 9 - Asperger's Syndrome & Lovecraft's Universe (Patreon)

Published:
2019-01-30 00:30:13
Edited:
2020-02-17 15:04:21
Imported:
2021-07

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Content

Join us as we interview independent scholar Lars G. Backstrom, who walks us through his own experiences with Asperger's syndrome and relates them to Lovecraft's characters and universe.

Learn more about Auticon, the firm that exclusively hires employees on the autistic spectrum.

Comments show coming this week!

Comments

Anonymous

Many thanks to Mr. Backstrom for providing his personal perspective on this topic. I would be interested to hear his opinion about Lovecraft’s intentionality with respect to creating characters that seem to be on the Asperger’s Syndrome spectrum. Without attempting posthumous diagnoses, does Mr. Backstrom believe that Lovecraft may have been drawing from life experience, either personal or through acquaintances with those with AS symptoms? Also, how does he feel about the fiction of Lovecraft’s imitators? Are (or were) there any other authors of cosmic horror that he feels are particularly relatable to those with AS?

Anonymous

Excellent show this week gang. Lars was a fascinating guest with such an interesting topic that gave me many new insights into Lovecrafts work. I would love you to explore this kind of avenue further in future shows.

Anonymous

This episode is amazeballs. Many, many thanks to Mr. Backstrom for this enlightening and interesting look into Asperger’s and all the vistas that the syndrome entails. There is such an extreme variety in the experiences for those who have Asperger’s, and their loved ones. I have twin nephews who share this condition. One is non-verbal and communicates with his brother better than with others. The other is clearly an extrovert, but still has his own way of relating to the world around him, that is so outside of the way most people experience life, that it may seem weird to some. It’s so inspiring to see how they convey their feelings and thoughts. I could write a 20k word essay on how extraordinary they are, but I will leave it at ‘thank you’

Jeff C. Carter

Great episode, you should have Lars on more often!

Anonymous

Gentlemen, bravo! While I've only started commenting recently, I've been listening to your podcast for about six years now. I can remember discovering it while remodeling a former apartment, and it made every hour of that labor a pleasure. Since then, I have enjoyed much of your body of work immensely (podcast episodes, music, graphic novels, even The Chosen - seriously, I did enjoy that one!). But this bonus episode struck me as both intriguing and uniquely moving. All credit in the world must go to Mr. Backstrom for sharing details on such a personal subject, and kudos to you for jumping into an unfamiliar subject and being willing to learn. As a public school teacher who has witnessed just a fraction of spectrum kids' struggles and triumphs, this one got me right in the feels (in the best kind of way!). Thank you so, so much!

Anonymous

This would be a great lecture at NecronomiCon!

Jason Thompson

I enjoyed Myers' book and recommend it! <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25711988-lovecraft-s-syndrome" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25711988-lovecraft-s-syndrome</a>

Anonymous

Great episode and good job creating awareness for autism.

Anonymous

I wish this was one of the free shows. Lars describes so well and concisely how it is. I hope you don't mind me sharing it with my family and friends whom I constantly feel weird around.

witchhousemedia
>>19397229

We feel the same way and have decided that we would ask these donors if we can make the episode free next month. So we'll be querying soon! But download and share at will - please:)

Anonymous

Agree with the others – great show, and your guest had some great insights. I’ll be sharing this one, too! Maybe a future show could explore more sides of HPL’s personality/bio and how he created his work?

Anonymous

Wonderful episode, Lars, Chris &amp; Chad. It takes a deft and thoughtful hand to navigate an informative discussion of an important topic in context of what can be seen as a goofy horror writer. I'd LOVE it if you guys made this episode public. I was going to send you a DM asking if it would be okay to share it with a friend who I know would find some pleasure in hearing the topic discussed in such an open, honest, &amp; accepting way. Well done, guys.

Wesley Vanroose

What a great topic! Myself have a form Asperger syndrome and Lovecraft helpt me through life because he let me feel like I was apart of a group of other awesome people how also like Lovecraft. Also, it helps me find a passion for art because of a lot of Lovecraft fans are also an artist or are creative people.

Anonymous

This was a great episode and very insightful. Lars did such a good job of explaining a somewhat personal topic. It was really interesting to look at Lovecraft's work through this lens.

Anonymous

Very good show, gents. I'm a parent of a child with ASD (including Asperger's). On one episode of MT I shared an excerpt from Martin Luther (the old protestant church leader, not MLK_Jr) talking about his experience with "A changeling." Prior to reading that, I'd presumed that changelings were just a fictional/folklore concept, not a *real situation*. But reading Luther's description it sounded so much like he was seeing a person with Autism. Sometimes autism causes a disruption of typical childhood developmental milestones, so that it can appear to a parent that something drastic has suddenly changed their child into something different. Long before the bogus Andrew Wakefield study that falsely associated vaccines with autism, the idea that fairies stole away your "normal" kid and replaced them with a fairy child or a fetch was a way of understanding this drastic change which left the outward appearance but a drastically altered interior from the parent's perspective. Fortunately we've come a long way towards better understanding and helping kids with ASD educationally, but when you're dealing with your child's brain, it's difficult to imagine what the ethical thing to do would be if someone invented a "cure" for the condition. After all, you've spent years understanding the identity of that loved-one through a condition that deeply affects their identity and way of thinking... And, as Lars mentioned, some Aspergers folk end up with some remarkable cognitive skills along with the complex challenges the condition brings. I can't help but suspect Isaac Newton might've had Asperger's. (Though there's little point in trying to diagnose the inner life of people from hundreds of years ago - it's hard to resist the temptation.). Anyway, it's a complex topic and I thank you for having Lars on and thank Lars for sharing his story. And, as is my habit, I wanted to mention Changelings and Fairies because as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would point out were he here, we're surrounded by them but most of us aren't cut out to see them.

Anonymous

Great show guys. Thank you and Lars for that. It really gives one a lot to think about regarding HPL's stories and characters and of course autism is something that needs to be addressed more. I commend everyone here for sharing their own stories. I too have some younger family members on the spectrum (and as we know more today I'm quite sure some family members long deceased also were). This really hit home and I hope you do make it publically available.

Anonymous

This was a great show. Lars is a wonderful and unique spirit. Thanks guys.

Anonymous

Thank you, Chad, Chris, and Lars! Fascinating discussion.

Anonymous

Thank you for doing this show. As someone who's on the Asperger's Spectrum myself I appreciated this insight into Lovecraft's characters.

Anonymous

This episode was particularly interesting to me, as it is relevant to my work. I am a professor, and my research focuses on how mental conditions, including autism spectrum disorders, affect sensory processing. People with ASD see the world a bit differently than others, and it was fascinating to hear Lars talk about perceiving things as disconnected from each other. The connections that he drew to Lovecraft were brilliant, and I applaud you all for a truly great show.

Anonymous

Fascinating listening - thanks Lars!

Anonymous

This is a great episode! Thanks to you and your guest.

Anonymous

Great episode. I really admire Lars for putting himself out there.

Neil de Carteret

I just caught up with this episode, and I have to say Lars was a fantastic cohost! Thanks to all of you for doing such a great job discussing this subject.

Anonymous
>>19364810

Hi Dan, please accept my apologies for my late response to your question. As you write, doing a posthumous diagnosis on HP Lovecraft is dicey at best. However, since I feel he captures the experiences of someone on the spectrum so spot on I suspect he was on the spectrum himslef. Autism was not recognised as such when he lived, so he was not intentionally writing about people on the spectrum. Most authors write about what they know, so I think his characters are based mainly on his own experiences: they do a lot of exploration of their physical surroundings – including architecture; they are solitary researchers; they read and write letters; have vivid visual imagination and they mainly mix with other eccentrics (very little with the opposite gender). As for the second of your questions. I do not think any of his imitators come close to his achievement. Partly I feel they are unable to capture the loneliness of the POV characters, and partly I feel they do not understand neither his complex writing style nor what he is actually trying to convey. That particular brand of cosmic horror seems to be unique to Lovecraft. Perhaps William Hope Hodgson comes closest. In both ‘The Night Land’ and ‘The House in the Borderland’ he weaves together a sense of wonder and hopelessness and captures the communal and individual isolation of humanity and the feeling that the entire creation has turned against us or see us as just playthings. Robert E Howard, Robert Chambers and Arthur Machen sometimes manage to get close the feeling that there are forces outside of our understanding that we are helpless against.

Anonymous

Ain't this just the way. I got very busy over the new year holiday and put the topics shows on the back burner until I could get my feet under me. And I frankly hesitated at this one because I feared it would veer into speculative diagnosis of HPL in a manner that I'd find frustrating. Boy was I wrong. Lars, I just want to thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and willingness to bring your personal experience and insights to the show. Chris and Chad, I am very grateful that you took this chance as well. The discussion was respectful and remarkably opened up really interesting new (for me) ways to consider the descriptions and behavior of literary characters that I had (foolishly) thought sorted. I greatly appreciate it all. So glad I'm subscribed and that I finally got round to this. Carry on.

Anonymous

Dropped this for everyone on World Autism Awareness Day ,I see what you did there.Interesting ,the slight difference between someone being simply introverted and being on the spectrum is coming though in this discussion.Especially the fact that Lars is Swedish and I have been there a couple of times and feel instantly at home (this is changing drastically however over the years) being introverted,but can easily pickup on social cues ands norms ,and Lars had difficulty there.I still believe some of the diagnosis comes not from an actual medical condition but the Freudian influences on psychology,his basic distrust of introverted people.So more of a disease of created by the Modernity perspective ,and here Lovecraft’s prophecy may be coming true as we are collapsing into The Prior Supreme Darker Age (points if you get the Grant/Therion-Sweden reference)