Jump to content

Is Steris Neuroatypical?


Quiver

Recommended Posts

First of all... I really, really hope I'm not offending anyone with this. I ask, not out of ignorance, but because of ignorance, and asking questions about things helps me understand them better. Plus, this community has one of the most open and friendly fandoms, so I figure it's probably the safest place to have said ignorance curbed by friendly discourse.

Second, and to the topic at hand: I like Steris. I've (finally) gotten started on Bands of Mourning, and I've enjoyed the larger role she's been playing so far. As I was reading it though, one of her lines really struck me, a line to the effect of "I don't see or think about things the way other people do."

...Which, leads me to the topic title; would Steris be regarded as neurologically atypical? In Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self, Steris penchant for making lists of things that could go wrong seemed like a small character quirk to me, rather than being indicative of anything in particular...

But that line has me wondering if it's meant to be anything more than that? Does Steris' behaviour match up with neuroatypical behaviour? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

She has aspergers, so yes, she is on the spectrum. Good catch, it's something I didn't notice. 

Quote

QUESTION

[paraphrased] I have Aspergers, and when I read Bands of Mourning, for the first time I could really identify with a character [Steris]. What kind of research did you do when writing her?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I have several people in my life who have Aspergers, specifically, and they were a huge resource, as you might imagine. One of the things I like to do in my fiction is to try and get people who are heroic who have different types of psychology than what you normally see in heroes. The more I’ve lived in life, the more I realize that we all are really distinctive in our own way and our psychology all works differently. And yet we see a lot of heroes who have the same brain chemistry, it seems, and that’s always felt really weird to me. So one of my mandates has been to do that [vary characters’ psychology.]
So what kind of research did I do? When I was in college, one of my favorite things to do was sneak into classes I wasn’t signed up for. And the psychology classes were my favorite. And this friend—this is coincidental—who wanted to be a chef actually got a psychology major. His parents were like “You should do something useful with your life,” so he got a psychology major. He ended up going to med school; he didn’t become a chef. He went to med school and he likes that too. [Note: Brandon talked about this friend during the first part of the signing.] I would sneak into his classes, and they were so useful as a writer. Just to look at the different [neuro]types and to start to see personality not as… We like to look at a lot of things as normal or abnormal, and that’s not the way it is. Everyone’s personality is on a spectrum, and what is normal and what is abnormal is completely a matter of perspective. Where you stand on this line. It’s trying to make a value judgment that shouldn’t really exist. So it’s coming to see personality as these swaths of interesting color is what the psychology classes taught me.
I did do some specific research for Steris, and then I looked and I interviewed people as well.
I’m glad that you picked up on it without me ever having to say who she was and things like that. That’s when I really feel like I’ve nailed something, when you can look at in and say, “Yeah, this is who this person is,” instead of someone pointing from the outside and saying who this person is or what they are.

[Source]

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Spoolofwhool said:

She has aspergers, so yes, she is on the spectrum. Good catch, it's something I didn't notice. 

Cool, thanks!

That quote reenforces one of my favorite things abut Brandon's writing, the fact he does write such a varied cast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You aren't offending anyone. Neuroatypical behavior is just what it sounds like, a different way of thinking, and thus acting, involving different thought processes and logic than other people. Nothing more. Things like Aspergers, to me, are like having a different eye or hair color than most people. While it may seem strange to other people, it is normal for the person who has it, and really isn't a big deal at all.

Yet people think it is, for some extremely strange reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎11‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 8:18 AM, Spoolofwhool said:

When I was in college, one of my favorite things to do was sneak into classes I wasn’t signed up for.

 

How very "Hoidish".   Sneaking into other classes (worlds) he wouldn't normally be... to learn and observe?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...
  • Chaos locked this topic
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...