Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Tea_4_thee t1_ixvb6jo wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Convenient Store Woman by Sayaka Murata by NotBorris

A lot of the people I’ve seen speculate that that Keiko is autistic are autistic themselves so I don’t know if saying people see her that way because of harmful stereotypes is a fair assessment. For whatever reason a lot of autistic people see themselves in the character.

Keiko definitely doesn’t strike me as a sociopath, one of the main symptoms of ASPD is a disregard for rules and Keiko’s main comfort in life is following rules she cares about rules deeply. So deeply she structures her whole life around rules, that would be incredibly out of character for a sociopath.

36

communityneedle t1_ixw9b44 wrote

Autistic person here. She's the single most relatable character I've ever encountered in all of literature so far. (Except the part where she considers killing the baby.)

21

SonofBeckett t1_ixw44zk wrote

The only sociopathic part to me was her casual willingness to violently silence a child. It’s a quick moment, and she doesn’t act on the impulse, but I had to rewind the audiobook to make sure I caught it right. She definitely sees violence as a viable solution to everyday problems. I read her as having tendencies towards and antisocial personality disorder rather than being a true sociopath.

5

[deleted] t1_ixvel8q wrote

[deleted]

−3

Tea_4_thee t1_ixvhnoc wrote

No, I wouldn’t consider traditional gender norms (oppression) to be the type of ‘rules’ (I don’t think that can even be considered a rule) that ASPD diagnostic criteria is referring to. If that was the case the entire feminist movement would check that box.

Even if those were the types of rules that the diagnostic criteria was referring to Keiko does not disregard those rules. She doesn’t understand them but she doesn’t disregard them either. she tries very hard to follow those rules. So hard she lets a random man take over her apartment in an attempt to follow those rules.

5

[deleted] t1_ixvj07g wrote

[deleted]

0

Tea_4_thee t1_ixvp2cl wrote

Yes that is mostly what I was responding to, you included it in your interpretation so I don’t think it should be surprising that somebody may have thoughts about that part of your interpretation.

>she also never cares about social norms, she only does those things to get people off her back so she can live quietly

That wasn’t my interpretation, if that was the case I don’t think Keiko would frequently seek out her sisters counsel which results in attracting more attention to her ‘weird’ habits. Regardless I don’t think social norms and rules can be considered the same thing. Of course everybody will look at things differently that’s just the nature of discussing books. I just don’t think she could be considered a sociopath, she doesn’t present the key symptoms (irritability, manipulation, risk taking behavior, arrogance, hostility, etc.) and that was my main point.

2