Taking things literally!

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To the very rude poster earlier - you've got to be kidding? It's a very widespread, common Aspie trait to take things literally.

I've experienced similar situations to what everyone has posted here - I regularly have people explain to me that it was a joke (doh) or that it's not meant to be literal.

It's very common. If that rude person does not have that trait, well that sort of makes you the odd one in this particular situation. For this discussion, the rest of us are suddenly "normal"

(that thought just made me laugh)

lol. i had a similar issue with "do not stand" signs. as a child i didnt realize that they were meant for cars (after all they are on the sidewalk) and couldnt figure out why there were signs lining the streets telling me that i couldnt stand there. of course i still obeyed...

My first memory of taking something literally is when I was about 4 years old and my mom said she had a frog in her throat.

I've gotten to the point now where I am starting to tell people that I don't get jokes and sarcasm. I usually get a stunned reaction. They can't comprehend me not being able to comprehend what they are saying. I've often found myself using those words and phrases which I don't get the meaning of but will use in the right context. I'm trying to stop using them because I think by using them I'm leading people to believe I know what they really mean. I like the phrase, "say what you mean and mean what you say."

I often fall for this....occasionally when talking with friends some nuance of sarcasm is lost on me and, depending on the person, I may not even pick up on it at all. When I'm with a group who's tolerant and understanding then we usually get a laugh out of it but it has caused problems at work. I can't recall the number of times a problem has come up because I was assigned a project or task and the person wasn't explicit in their instructions. It's something that most NTs would have likely reasoned out but I can only operate based on what I'm told. If a supervisor asks me "Scan this document into the computer for me", then I'll scan it into the system but I have no idea what to do with it from there....do I take the original back to the supervisor, do I email the scanned copy to him, do I put it on our network? By leaving off the tail end of his instructions I'm clueless as to how I should handle it.

In my graduate program I was constantly the butt of similar situations. The other students operated a lot based on inferences and assumptions so I was constantly lost when following class discussions. There were specific points that everyone else seemed to get but I was struggling to figure out. The worst part, these were philosophy students and were serious about being logical and explicit with their arguments, but most of what they did wasn't explicit at all. It's like there was a secret language being used, embedded in every word of the discussion, that everyone else understood but I did not. Even now I can recall a multitude of philosophical theories and views, but I can barely hold down a philosophical discussion with an NT, because two seconds into the discussion I'm completely lost. I can't follow their reasoning so I have no basis for forming a response or an opinion. Now, if they laid out every tiny step of their logic process, that would make a huge difference, but I can hardly ask someone to do that without them trying to dumb things down, which is the last thing I want. Typically, I want a person to phrase something a different way and to be clearer about it, but not patronize me. Unfortunately, this is a delicate balance that very few NTs have reached, while dealing with me. *sigh*

unfortunately when you don't understand something, even if it's because it's been explained horribly or is illogical, people will assume you are the one to blame.

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!

My husband (who thinks he's NT but he's not) talks in circles. He rambles, he loses what he was talking about, and when I cannot follow he laughs and blames it on my AS.

I've watched him talk with NTs on a regular basis tho and none of them can follow anything he says. That makes me feel better, it validates that it's absolutely NOT me. But I hate that he can blame everything on me and he pats me and says "You can't do any better, I understand" in a horribly pitying manner.

honestly, sometimes i think misunderstandings are over-understandings.

say you're taking one of those asperger's quizzes, and there's a question that says "people often tell me that i've said something impolite," and while no one has ever said this to you before, you have figured out that in fact sometimes you do say something absolutely wrong and it comes across as impolite. you don't know this because anyone has told you; you just eventually have figured it out, by seeing someone else do the same thing, or by realizing you've alienated someone, etc.

it takes you a minute to answer the question, since you want to be clear on the intent of the question (which is not to discover whether your friends tell you you're rude, but to discover whether you seem rude) and are inclined to take it literally when it obviously isn't meant so.

i guess what i mean is i sometimes find myself internally arguing with the way something has been presented before i can respond to it.

Darn, I'm in a big predicament that relates to the subject. I'm reading Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) for school, and understanding its metaphoric content is crucial to fully understanding the text. I'm doing well in English, it's almost the end of the year, but I have never struggled so hard with an assignment in the entire year.

Hperez88,

try cliff notes

The first time I went karting I was told to do a slow lap to familiarise myself. So I did.

I later discovered that the track owner's idea of slow was "take a little care, don't drive too erratically and don't fall off the track or spin".

My idea of slow was "don't do the lap any faster than you have to". So that lap was the slowest I've ever done - to the point where I could probably have jogged round the place quicker than I drove it.

When I came in, the track owner was struggling to contain his amusement...

My dad does this too! He likes to pretend he's autistic, so when I ask him, "Could you turn on the lights?", he says, "Yes" and does nothing until I say, "Please turn them on."

When I was reading the seventh Harry Potter book, the first chapter ended with Voldemort killing someone and telling his snake, "Dinner, Nagini." I was like, "Nagini brings dinner?"

A belated "Thank you" for the explanation, and I do the same with visual interpretations as well. The only problem here is that I can't, or usually won't, explain it to them.

Black_tea .... yay, my dad's not the only one. But boo, it's no fun anymore.

As for Kaymat, katzefrau and earthmom, that happens to me too. Some people put me down for it, and luckily a few are very nice and understanding, but it still happens. I don't think it's a general "NT" thing; I think it varies from person to person, and some people are really OK with explaining themselves for you.

This is an easy question to answer normally neurotypical people will rely on sensory experiences in order to answer a question or say a joke from their memory (a collecton of stored sensory experiences) wheras a autistic person will do the opposite they will attempt to answer a question or say a joke straight from intellect that has either been unaffected or has been affected a little by sensory experienced.(memories)

At baseball the coach told me to hit the ball with my top hand, so I swung the bat so that my top hand came in contact with the ball. It kind of hurt.

I take things literally 95% of the time. It gets me into some pretty interesting situations.