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ASPERGER'S & NA'AMAH
for Noah's Wife, a novel by T.K. Thorne
www.tkthorne.com
In
Noah’s Wife, Na’amah is an Asperger savant. The term “Asperger
Syndrome” was, of course, unknown in ancient times, but there is no
reason to believe that the condition did not exist. Most experts put it
on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, although there is
some disagreement about it. Although every person on the spectrum is unique, persons with Asperger’s are usually highly
intelligent. Some have extraordinary recall and obsessive knowledge
about areas that capture their interest. Na’amah was obsessive about
sheep. While savant skills are not universally present in persons with
AS, they are not uncommon and generally include prodigious memory and/or
skills with numbers and math. Some have heightened sensory perceptions
and some experience synesthesia, a condition where one type of
stimulation evokes the sensation of another. For Na’amah, the hearing
of a sound produced color visualizations, and she had savant abilities
of memory recall.
I took literary license to extend Na’amah’s
sensitivity to sound to include the infrasound, low frequency vibrations
below the human audible range which precede earthquakes. Infrasound has been
known to cause symptoms of nausea, discomfort, and wavering in the
peripheral vision. It is theorized that infrasound is produced prior to
earthquake, and that this might be the explanation as to why some
animals seem to predict major quakes.
As
to why I gave the central character Asperger's, the answer is a matter
of "truths" and "truth." I have always been interested in brain
developmental disorders and particularly the phenomenon of savants. If
it is possible for some brains to perceive the world differently and to
have extraordinary skills, the potential must exist for all humans. In
fact, there have been experiments where scientists have used magnetic
pulses to temporally "shut off" portions of the brain in non-autistic
persons, resulting in temporarily producing savant abilities.
Fascinating stuff! Also, I believe my own family has been affected by
undiagnosed autism or Asperger's. Both of the above are true. As Na'amah would say, however, there are truths and there is "truth." The truth
is that as I wrote Noah's Wife, the character of Na'amah began
to take on a life of her own (which sometimes happens when writers are
"in the zone," at least it does for me, and it is one of the joys of
writing). She surprised me with her unique perspective and what she had
to say, and I realized she had Asperger's. Although I had done some
reading about the subject, I added the topic to my research, so Na'amah
could be who she wanted to be.
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