Challenging Anecdotal Associations Between Autism and Violence through Elizabeth Moon’s The Speed of Dark

Around the millennium, disability scholars began to comment on the circulation of a stigmatising characterisation of people on the autistic spectrum in the news media. These reports, emerging after acts of mass violence, drew unsubstantiated connections between individuals seen or diagnosed as autistic and an aura of dangerousness. I first explore how ideas of volatility have been associated with autistic identity largely through narratives around shootings. I then turn to literature to analyse how Elizabeth Moon’s 2003 novel The Speed of Dark explores the impact of this troubling pairing and resists the association of autistic identity and violence.

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