Do you have trouble following film or book narratives?

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I've had this my whole life and I never realized until now that it may be linked with my ASD. When I watch movies I can never really grasp what is going on, and I tend to forget the major details. I can remember watching Harry Potter as a kid, and constantly asking my dad (who always used to watch them with me) what the names of the characters where, and to describe the plot to me, which probably got annoying needless to say.

What is the exact reason for this? If I had to guess I would say executive dysfunction, but then again I blame every cognitive slip on my part on my executive dysfunction...

Actually I do have this yes. It comes and goes and isn't always a problem, but I have to stay on top of it.

What happens when I'm watching a movie or TV show is that I can tend to disconnect things that another viewer is putting together to build their awareness of what's happening in the story. I will see scenes and hear dialog in isolation, almost. It comes to me as seemingly separate, unrelated pieces of action or conversation, until I force myself to "wake up" and connect things together. I seem to drift away from the ability to connect one thing I'm being shown to another thing.

If a movie uses a non-linear narrative, then yes.

^ Donnie Darko must be particular hard to follow for us on this forum then!

Do you have prosopagnosia? The inability to distinguish faces can make it really difficult to tell characters apart and keep track of the dramatis personae.

Yes, I am more or less like this. I don't think it's executive dysfunction or prosopagnosia. My sense is that I tend to think structurally, with a lot of focus on detail, so in any scene I'll be paying attention to the setting and what's happening in that scene, but when the scene shifts, I often miss how scene 2 is supposed to be related to scene 1.

It took me five or six viewings of The Lord of the Rings before I could understand how the different groups were supposed to be connected and how they fit into some kind of overall story. And still, even though I can describe a number of the scenes, if you gave them to me on index cards, I'd be hard pressed to tell you what order they occur in.

doesn't every child have this prosopagnosia? I don't mean to be racist but to me when I was a child all Chinese looks the same all white people look the same and you know the rest...

Hmmm.... I never heard of this, but that's exactly one of my major issues. Not only in movies and tv series, but IRL as well. Recently I asked a sales girl in a clothing store to recommend some clothes (I hate shopping for clothes and I have no interest or desire to follow fashion so I rely on sales people). After I tried some on and came out of a dressing room I didn't recognize who helped me -- it was awkward when I asked a girl if she was the one who helped me and she looked confused and said "yes..."

Bingo -- that is my problem precisely. I'm so focused on the details of the immediate scene at hand that I miss how it holds meaning, implication and connection to a previous scene or the next scene -- which I'm then also, once again, focusing on narrowly.

It's basically a "can't see the forest for the trees" thing my brain is doing. I focus on details at hand and lose sight of the over-arching picture I'm supposed to be getting.

I do it in everything in life. I believe it's also part of why even a conversation can prove to be confusing to me, because I'm failing to connect one thing the person said to something I just said or another thing they said before or are about to say later.

I frequently don't understand why someone said something they just said, until I review my recollection later and realize it was in fact a response to something I myself had just said.

Or sometimes the person clarifies. It produces ridiculously problematic results in life, and makes watching a movie a very odd experience too at times.

I've never been diagnosed, but I suspect I have this condition - at least on a mild to moderate level. If it's someone I just met, I may remember them based on general physical characteristics. But if, for example, I remember they were wearing a certain coat, I may not recognize them when they remove the coat. Occasionally, I'll even fail to recognize people I know somewhat from work or church or elsewhere if I meet them in an unexpected context.

The same holds true in movies (I usually do OK with books). In the LOTR movies, I had a really hard time during my initial viewing distinguishing the characters of Aragorn and Boromir. Both had long hair and scraggly facial hair, and for some reason I couldn't tell them apart very well. I'd read all the books multiple times as a kid (and again as an adult), so it wasn't a matter of not following the plot.

I'm similar regarding prosopagnosia - I don't have it and it's not one of my diagnoses but I can have difficulty telling people apart if they look similar, sometimes. If two women in a movie both have shoulder length dark hair with a middle part, and both have brown eyes and similar faces, I will have no hope of keeping track of which woman is which.

I also have this with bald or head-shaved men. I have terrible difficulty telling them apart even if their facial features are not similar.

The weird thing is, despite these similarity issues, I pass the "super recognizer" test"! I can't figure that out.

I create a thread about this a while ago..or was it a reply. Can't remember :0D I have difficulties understanding a film and the same with books. I tend not to read books though. I enjoy films especially marvel/DC but when I'm watching a film it's a bit like watching a firework demonstration/show rather than understanding the intricacies of the plot development and the more nuanced sub plots etc. I must have watched many films I enjoy dozens of times and still I find I pick things up that I never knew previously. If I understand a film plot then the film plot must be too thin. Deadpool for example I understood that. Avengers took me many watches till it clicked what it was about,but to this day I'm still picking things up. Edit found it viewtopic.php?t=308688

I can follow innumerable narratives suspended in various points of time, I regularly read multiple books at once and always have done, and watch visual media as if I am at a buffet with lots of delicious things on my table, if anything I have difficulty following a single narrative consistently and need to rotate, I'm like that with computer games too, that's why I prefer open worlds or alternating games every hour to dip in and out of. I do re-read, replay and rewatch things constantly and certain things that rivet and invigorate me I am endlessly analyzing so I suppose I have trouble absorbing the whole picture whenever I do take a piece in, but I counteract that by slotting it into my internal jukebox if I find it exciting enough to think about beyond a surface appreciation.

I do okay with books and have no trouble reading multiple books at once (taking in turns), even when they are more than one fictional story (though I don't read a lot of fiction).

Following a novel's story doesn't bother me, but I do have the problem when it comes to movies. I'm too focused on the minutiae of what I'm seeing to connect it right away to something else.

I have always been a voracious reader (Male, 47, formal Asperger diagnosis at 41). I read all sorts of books, fiction and non fiction, normally have 2 or 3 on the go at any one time. I reread a lot of books I feel connected to (mostly Cormac McCarthy) every other year. I can remember huge chunks of the text word for word. No trouble following the plot and my reading speed is very fast.

I really love film as well but with non linear storylines or deeply complex plots I sometimes struggle. I also struggle to remember who the characters are or what their names are when watching box sets or tv series, but I have this problem in real life as well, I can be introduced to someone and have no idea what their name is 30 seconds later

I have this problem too. I read spoilers, forum discussions etc. in order to get a better understanding of the book, movie or TV show.

It takes repeated readings or viewing to full understand.