Episode description

In this episode of The Autistic Culture Podcast:

What do the Baudelaire children featured in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) have in common? They capture the essence of Autistic Culture! The Baudelaire children have delightful Autistic traits including hyperfocusing on their special interests like research and invention. This monotropic focus helps them overcome challenges.

The podcast hosts discuss the importance of libraries as safe refuges for learning and knowledge-seeking as a major theme. This desire for information acquisition and sharing is a major Autistic activity for children and adults. The safeguarding against unfortunate events is another key feature of Autistic culture.

“We are by default intense people. When we are stimulated with our libraries, we are good. We are able to dive into these worlds. But otherwise, we are constantly calculating and trying to overcome the unknown.” –Matt

Making deep connections with fictional worlds and fictional characters is an Autistic tendency resulting from a hyper-connected brain—characters can feel real. The hosts share how their hyper-empathy can cause Autistics to avoid upsetting stories.

Count Olaf uses masking to disguise himself. The hosts discuss masking: it can be protective but it also leads to Autistic burnout, shame, and other harmful outcomes for Autistics.

Communication differences lead to the "double empathy problem." Allistics tend to assume their communication and social styles are superior and want Autistic people to mask and pretend to be more like them instead of respecting a mutual difference.

“And so and then, you know, a lot of the people I work with are like, you can overcome it. And that's like, really interesting to me too. I don't want to overcome it…But I'd like you to understand it.” —Angela

Sonny as a nonspeaking character shows how speech ≠ intelligence. Speech differences don't indicate lack of awareness.

Finding community is crucial for Autistics who can feel alone in an allistic-centric world. Identifying culture provides belonging.

Lemony Snicket's Autistic characters highlights Autistic perspectives and values like monotropic focus, knowledge-seeking, and direct communication. On this virtual culture trip, the hosts emphasize the importance of embracing authentic identity.

Do you love to read and invent things? Tell us about it in the comments!

Look for another Autistic book series? Episode 11: Sherlock is AutisticWhat’s another Autistic series loved by children? Episode 20: Sesame Street is AutisticHaven’t read it yet? We love this gorgeous Lemony Snicket Box Set from AmazonWatch the Neil Patrick Harris Lemony Snicket series on Netflix

Ready for a paradigm shift that empowers Autistics? Help spread the news!

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Find us on Apple podcast and Spotify

Learn more about Matt at Matt Lowry, LPP

Matt’s social media: Autistic Connections Facebook Group

Learn more about Angela at AngelaLauria.com and Difference Press

Angela’s social media: Twitter and TikTok

TACP’s Autism-affirming TeePublic merch shop