I agree with you about Jane Austen.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
It's like one of the posts in the Love & Dating forum. A neverending search for guidelines to life.
I liked reading the article you posted, and I agree with you. Yes, we can only speculate about which historical figures may have been autistic - but assuming that none of them were is also unrealistic. With people like Nikola Tesla, it's hard to find other explanations.
Also, there are people who have autistic traits without being impaired - wouldn't it seem reasonable that there are more of those among writers than in the general population?
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I sometimes leave conversations and return after a long time. I am sorry about it, but I need a lot of time to think about it when I am not sure how I feel.