today’s canon autistic character is Paulien from the Belgian novel Een lege brug (An empty bridge)
https://autisticcharacters.miraheze.org/wiki/Paulien_(An_Empty_Bridge)
this is a heavy one. Flemish/Dutch fiction tends to not shy away from heavy topics and can be described as dirty or raw, even in books aimed at young adults, but jesus. this is a whole other level. content warnings for: statutory rape, animal abuse, bullying, self-injurious behaviour, sadism, explicit descriptions of sexÂ
a lot of reviews of this book (which is a common mandatory reading in flemish/dutch secondary schools) praise the book for its raw honesty but I have some serious doubts about its accuracy, and i've never seen any #ActuallyAutistic people review it. I'm pretty sure that she also has an intellectual disability in addition to being autistic, but that is never explicated. it does make it hard for me to review because I don't know a lot about ID.Â
on the one hand, she clearly states that she enjoys when people are hurt and engages in sadistic behaviour like setting the fucking cat on fire for no reason other than wanting to see what it was like. on the other hand, she does not seem to understand that setting the cat on fire or cutting off the canary's wings is inappropriate. like she genuinely says that she didn't know she wasn't allowed to do thatÂ
and like. the book was written in 1997, and autism advocacy was barely a thing in the anglo-saxon world, let alone in Belgium. on the other hand, this seems egregious even considering that, and especially considering the fact that the author (Dirk Bracke) is known for doing thorough research
