The Autistic Writer: Autistic Coding
The term “Autistic Coding” generally refers to the act of giving a fictional character distinctive traits that are near-identical to obvious common traits of Autism, without referring to said character as Autistic. (They are only “coded” to appear so.)
Coding happens in fiction with various community. There is race-coding and queer-coding. The concept can be problematic, particularly if the coding is based on stereotypes instead of facts, or if an author from a privileged class codes a character into a minority community without enough research, or making use of sensitivity readers.
Probably the most cited example today of an obviously Autistic-coded character, (despite at times vehement denial from creators) is Sheldon Cooper, from both The Big Bang Theory and, in younger form, Young Sheldon.
Because I have never watched either show, I can’t provide fully informed opinions on the character. But I can take some exception to aspects of what I have learned from other Autistic authors and consumers of such entertainment. I won’t go so far as to say an author should only writer characters that are identical to their own race/orientation/sexuality, but I don’t consider it a stretch to conclude that if a character is to be coded, for whatever reason, the author should have something akin to first-hand knowledge of the experience.
That being said, I myself have not put any Autism-coded characters into my fiction as of this writing. I very much doubt I would ever feel the need to do so. Far more likely, a character somewhere on the Spectrum would show up in my stories in such a way that whether or not they were Autistic would not be spotlighted. As an Autistic writer myself, some characters are bound to exhibit traits of Autism by virtue of there being some aspect of myself in almost everything I write.
That still wouldn’t mean the characters were Autistic-coded, as this would lack a definitive intention to 1) portray Autism for it’s own sake, 2) avoid the actual term.
To date, only one of my characters is written as Autistic, and described directly as such in context of the story. Vanessa Martine, the first-person protagonist of my fantasy novel, The Beacons I See. Even then, she’s an Autistic woman and very much comfortable with that, as opposed to a woman with Autism, (a term preferred mostly by non-Autistic people who shy away from “labels.”
But other traits of Autism are present in more than one of my works, even without the coding or the outright identifier. For example, like most people with ASD, all of the main characters of my novels so far tend to be introspective. Introverted with a preference for order instead of chaos, quiet instead of static, aware of details most people around them miss. Are each of them Autistic? Believe it or not, even I, the author, don’t necessarily know; with the exception of the aforementioned Vanessa it’s not important to the story I am telling.
Do I want readers to conclude all of my characters are Autistic without saying so? Again, no, because when an actual diagnosis of Autism was important to the story, I mentioned it. (Again, Vanessa.)
That isn’t to say that a reader’s head canon couldn’t put one of these other characters on the Spectrum. (Unless within the pages I specifically preclude it.) It just means I will never have a need to hop around the issue. I believe in some cases of coding, the issue is being hopped around. to allow for characteristics to take the place of personality and story.
Make no mistake; character-coding has at times been necessary, particularly in oppressive regimes/times. History is rife with circumstances where characters had to be queer-coded in particular if the author wanted any chance to tell their story to the world, until such time as society mind opens further. Coded character fiction had in fact played a role in said mind-opening itself.
But at least for now, I am an Autistic writer free to write of Autistic people. So just know that if that’s the goal, I’ll let you know within the story. Otherwise, maybe or maybe not…but no intentional coding on my part.
Ty Unglebower 