Literal Thinking - Who has it?

[Clueless in Canada]

I used to be annoyed at what a literal thinker my Mum is before I realised how literal I am. I am still a bit confused but my literal thinking seems to be different from hers. Neither of my parents are diagnosed autistic but they both definitely have many traits. Together they make one autistic person. Ha ha-I amuse myself.

I am quite capable of understanding fantasy, enjoying fiction and once I learned what idioms, metaphors and analogies are I not only get them but use them. I love analogies because I think best in pictures and they help to make a picture in my mind. However, while able to use sarcasm myself I often don't realise when someone else is being sarcastic although I am aware enough that I have doubts. Often I end up asking if the person is serious or being sarcastic. I've also noticed that if I am caught off guard with a joke or a funny meme online I take it literally or believe it is true. It's only when I am prepared for humour or given good context clues that I get jokes, for example if I am watching a comedy I know there will be funny bits as that is the point.

I write poetry myself but I admit to no liking poetry that is too obscure. Or at least I don't like trying to figure out what it means. I might enjoy it for the sound of it, as Fino says.

I recall that around age seven I found a picture book on idioms in my school library, I was entranced and cannot remember a time when I didn't understand idioms but I do get a literal picture in my head when idioms are used and often in cartoon style because that is how that book was illustrated.

 

[Fino]

The more I read your comments here, the more I think that I really want to hang out with you because you make sense to me AND you make me laugh.

And I've consistently identified with you since your first post!

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

And I've consistently identified with you since your first post!

Get a room

 

[Fino]

Get a room

That's my second "get a room"!

Am I a whore?

 

[Gracey]

I was sat with others yesterday in a waiting room, waiting for my turn to be seen,
(Not just because I had a couple of hours to kill)

The practitioner walked into the waiting area to ask the waiting wife of the man in her consultation room,
For a list of his current medications.

The wife replied “ I always keep a list in my bag but my daughter had to take her dog to the vets. I’ve not had five minutes”

In terms of sometimes not having a clue what people mean,
I thought this was perfect

The long way around to say ‘No’ (no list) I guess.

If I’m trying every which way to understand how that information fits together and imagining amusing, nonsensical possibilities,

I’m not focused on the receptionist tapping her pen, the tumultuous mix outside the store, the fluorescents buzzing, the overwhelming perfumes and various other smells,
the heat, the dread of being asked a question, the waiting area getting claustrophobic...

It was all there, the ingredients to prompt my exit,
Finding the funny in not understanding what’s just been said is like pressing a reset button.
It’s difficult to feel fear when amused.

 

[Fino]

I was sat with others yesterday in a waiting room, waiting for my turn to be seen,
(Not just because I had a couple of hours to kill)

The practitioner walked into the waiting area to ask the waiting wife of the man in her consultation room,
For a list of his current medications.

The wife replied “ I always keep a list in my bag but my daughter had to take her dog to the vets. I’ve not had five minutes”

In terms of sometimes not having a clue what people mean,
I thought this was perfect

The long way around to say ‘No’ (no list) I guess.

If I’m trying every which way to understand how that information fits together and imagining amusing, nonsensical possibilities,

I’m not focused on the receptionist tapping her pen, the tumultuous mix outside the store, the fluorescents buzzing, the overwhelming perfumes and various other smells,
the heat, the dread of being asked a question, the waiting area getting claustrophobic...

It was all there, the ingredients to prompt my exit,
Finding the funny in not understanding what’s just been said is like pressing a reset button.
It’s difficult to feel fear when amused.

I thought the next part of the story was going to be about going to go get the list, hence the explanation, so she's not just suddenly walking away...

 

[Gracey]

I thought the next part of the story was going to be about going to go get the list, hence the explanation, so she's not just suddenly walking away...

Ooo, sorry.
Would you like me to write it out again

 

[Fino]

I demand the TRUTH!

 

[Gracey]

I demand the TRUTH!

There was no bag, no list, she has a daughter with a dog at the vets and hasn’t had five minutes.

“No” would have been simpler.

Finding her explanations funny (in my imagination) interrupted my habitual escape plan in a potentially overwhelming environment.

That the God’s honest your honour.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

There was no bag, no list, she has a daughter with a dog at the vets and hasn’t had five minutes.

“No” would have been simpler.

Finding her explanations funny (in my imagination) interrupted my habitual escape plan in a potentially overwhelming environment.

That the God’s honest your honour.

There's many a chop....

Victoria wood did a skit, a remake of brief encounter. The train station kind of thing .
Every sentence was just that alternative world where different things make sense.

Like your doctor's.. like the broth, or the many a slip between the butter and the fish.
Only watched it recently.
Must do again.

A prize if the words ''womans weekly' came into your head

 

[Fino]

There was no bag, no list, she has a daughter with a dog at the vets and hasn’t had five minutes.

“No” would have been simpler.

Finding her explanations funny (in my imagination) interrupted my habitual escape plan in a potentially overwhelming environment.

That the God’s honest your honour.

Wow!
I thought I had understood most of it but that's not what I had at all!
It's like when you get back a test you thought you did well on and it's covered in red!

 

[Anarkitty]

Wow!
I thought I had understood most of it but that's not what I had at all!
It's like when you get back a test you thought you did well on and it's covered in red!

Same here. It's kinda scary because when I hear odd comments, I often come up with a translation in my head and assume I understood perfectly.

I'll tell my husband what I thought some cryptic line in a movie meant, and he looks like me like I'm insane. Well, that's how I read it. He says I don't always translate his looks correctly, either.

 

[Fino]

Same here. It's kinda scary because when I hear odd comments, I often come up with a translation in my head and assume I understood perfectly.

I'll tell my husband what I thought some criptic line in a movie meant, and he looks like me like I'm insane. Well, that's how I read it. He says I don't always translate his looks correctly, either.

Yet it feels so right!!!

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

The wife replied “ I always keep a list in my bag but my daughter had to take her dog to the vets. I’ve not had five minutes”

A a rhyme to the bolded idiom, I often say this -

"I've only just this second sat down."

If someone asks me to do something or the door goes. I say this only if it's obvious to the other person if I've been sat down for a long time.

Really it has nothing to do with sitting down but just means 'I'm really busy, not really lazy as you can see as you caught me sitting down and I could have been sitting down all day long as far as you know,as there is no proof, so I have to say this phrase now to save face.'

 

[Fino]

A a rhyme to the bolded idiom, I often say this -

"I've only just this second sat down."

If someone asks me to do something or the door goes. I say this only if it's obvious to the other person if I've been sat down for a long time.

Really it has nothing to do with sitting down but just means 'I'm really busy, not really lazy as you can see as you caught me sitting down and I could have been sitting down all day long as far as you know,as there is no proof, so I have to say this phrase now to save face.'

You're so much fun!

 

[Gracey]

There's many a chop....

Victoria wood did a skit, a remake of brief encounter. The train station kind of thing .

I watched it last night.
Loved it

In her Dinner Ladies Series there’s some of the same going on.


In your bolded idiom example,

You’re busy but don’t say “I’m busy” when asked to do something or there’s someone at the door that wants your attention and interrupts your concentration,

Are you jokingly stating that you’ve “only just this second sat down” knowing full well it isn’t true but don’t want to stop what you’re doing?

Or by saying “I’ve only just this second sat down”

You know that the other person also knows it isn’t true but will understand it as a way of jokingly indicating you’d rather not stop what you’re doing,

Pretending to having been rushed off your feet with other chores or matters when the other person likely knows this hasn’t been the case at all and finds that funny ?

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I watched it last night.
Loved it

In her Dinner Ladies Series there’s some of the same going on.


In your bolded idiom example,

You’re busy but don’t say “I’m busy” when asked to do something or there’s someone at the door that wants your attention and interrupts your concentration,

Are you jokingly stating that you’ve “only just this second sat down” knowing full well it isn’t true but don’t want to stop what you’re doing?

Or by saying “I’ve only just this second sat down”

You know that the other person also knows it isn’t true but will understand it as a way of jokingly indicating you’d rather not stop what you’re doing,

Pretending to having been rushed off your feet with other chores or matters when the other person likely knows this hasn’t been the case at all and finds that funny ?

I am open to any ambiguous interpretation of what I say - in real time.

it's usually an indication that I'm in a good mood. As I am open for responses to my statement.
and can respond back with a made up scenario, to see where it leads.

more likely the second one but the joke can also be that I am doing nothing and stopping it is also the joke.

But also a joke that I usually 'mind' being interrupted, so it's about joke about me as well.

So several things at once.

Of course,most of the meanings and understandings of the joke are usually just in my head..

If someone 'joins in' it doesn't always mean they understand it.

They don't have to, to join in, but I am more used to NOT assuming they do understand it !

Another way, I am learning the limits of my solipsism.

(another word for you )

 

[Anarkitty]

Another way, I am learning the limits of my solipsism.

(another word for you )

Isn't it asinine (and why doesn't that word have two s's?) that when NTs discuss this idea, they're philosophers and get to make up a new word, but when autistic people do it, we lack theory of mind and have a disorder? Or maybe the philosophers who came up with it were also autistic.

I may not have expressed that well. It's still relatively early where I am.

 

[Judge]

Isn't it asinine (and why doesn't that word have two s's?) that when NTs discuss this idea, they're philosophers and get to make up a new word, but when autistic people do it, we lack theory of mind and have a disorder? Or maybe the philosophers who came up with it were also autistic.

I may not have expressed that well. It's still relatively early where I am.

I think you expressed such sentiments just fine.

Personally I think it's downright preposterous to think that the Neurotypical world controls so much of what is defined as within the realm of the Neurodiverse. If they can't truly experience our thought processes, how reliable can their assessments of them really be?

What I find encouraging are more autistic medical doctors and scientists to weigh in on this equation.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Isn't it asinine (and why doesn't that word have two s's?) that when NTs discuss this idea, they're philosophers and get to make up a new word, but when autistic people do it, we lack theory of mind and have a disorder? Or maybe the philosophers who came up with it were also autistic.

I may not have expressed that well. It's still relatively early where I am.

Tyranny of the majority.

But often it's not about the merits of an idea it's our position in a group hierarchy.

People can often nit-pick all day long,trying to win points off each other.

It's an illusion that NTs are discussing '''the ideas' they can just be trying to dominate or hurt to bolster themselves.
(But not always )