Noises In A Quiet World

  As someone on the Autistic Spectrum, portrayals of people with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) in film and television have always been important to me, particularly those characters with Asperger’s. Like many groups I always want to see my community represented in a fair and accurate way. However, there is a long history of autistic or implicitly autistic characters being under used or misrepresented in the media. Today I will be exploring these types of characters, both those that I consider harmful and those that I consider positive representations, to show how they have evolved over time. By doing this I hope to be able to suggest what can be done to continue to create interesting and accurate autistic characters into the future.   For many people the 1988 film ‘Rain Man’ is likely to have been their first exposure to an autistic character.  In this film Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) learns of the existence of his brother Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman) who has inhe...

  For what is to be the first in my series of film reviews, I have decided to start with the film I watched most recently. This film was Stanley Kubrick’s controversial 1971 crime film ‘A Clockwork Orange’.  As a fan of films and TV with psychotic characters that focus on delving into their twisted mind (American Psycho, The Talented Mr Ripley, and the Hannibal Lecter franchise to name a few) I went into the film with high expectations and when it finished, I felt that for the most part these expectations were met.     To briefly summarise the film without spoiling it, the narrative focuses on Alex  DeLarge  (Malcom McDowell), a young sociopath who enjoys nothing more than assaulting innocents (except maybe classical music). After being apprehended for a particularly heinous crime, Alex is made to watch violent and horrific imagery in hopes of scaring him away from future acts. Whilst the film is most associated with its earlier scenes where we get to see A...

 If you were to have told me a few years ago that I'd be starting a blog, I'd probably just look at you in confusion. Now, I'm  more excited than ever to start one and share my ideas with the world (or at least the people that happen to find this). I felt it would be a good idea to start this blog with a brief overview of who I am and what this blog will contain. To start with myself; I am an 18 year old with a diagnosis of Asperger's. As such, I am a quiet individual (hence the blog's name) who tends to avoid people outside my own small social circle. However, I've always wanted to be able to share my interests with a larger group of people, which is why I've started writing this. As for what I plan to discuss, my main focus will be on media, particularly films, TV and occassionaly music videos, where I will be analysing and reviewing them in order to increase awareness of the products I enjoy (or dislike). I also plan to talk about living with Asperger...