Keiko Furukura from ‘Convenience Store Woman’

[MerCsDs]

Has anyone happen to have read ‘Convenience Store Woman’ by Sayaka Murata and related to the main character Keiko? As a person with autism?

I feel like the way she sees the world and the interconnections she observes in people’s personality is something have had the chance to perceive to but I’m not sure if it has to do with autism or maybe it’s simply because another trait or experience of mine.

 

[tree]

Convenience Store Woman - Wikipedia

"Keiko Furukura is a 36-year-old woman who has been working part-time at a convenience store, or konbini, for the last 18 years. She has known since childhood that she is "different" and that expressing her own views and actions is inexplicable and distressing to others, and causes problems.

The highly regulated world of the konbini, where each action is prescribed by the corporate manual, allows her to maintain an identity acceptable to those around her and a sense of purpose. She models her behaviour, dress style, and even speech patterns on those of her coworkers. Keiko maintains some friendships and a relationship with her sister, but finds it increasingly difficult to explain why, after 18 years, she is still single and working as a temp in a convenience store."

"In a profile for The New York Times, the author explained she "wanted to illustrate how odd the people who believe they are ordinary or normal are" and that she admires Keiko's character, who chooses and is fine with not having sex at all. She says that she wanted to write from the perspective of "someone who defied conventional thinking, particularly in a conformist society" "

 

[Judge]

Very interesting, particularly given just how "conformist" that particular society is.

 

[VictorR]

By far, Keiko is the fictional character whom I related to.

While the author suggests that Keiko is simply a nonconformist, in my opinion she is a very strongly autistic coded character.

Characteristics which I really connected to and which IMO are spectrum related include...

* Liking a job which has a detailed manual outling everything for you (no guesswork and subjectivity - hurray)!

* Not really having her own sense of style, and adopting that of those around her

* Doesn't generally care for what others want, is happy to be herself, just the way she is

* Doesn't particularly care for a partner or sex (aro and ace folks are disproportionately likely to be neurodiverse)

 

[MerCsDs]

By far, Keiko is the fictional character whom I related to.

While the author suggests that Keiko is simply a nonconformist, in my opinion she is a very strongly autistic coded character.

Characteristics which I really connected to and which IMO are spectrum related include...

* Liking a job which has a detailed manual outling everything for you (no guesswork and subjectivity - hurray)!

* Not really having her own sense of style, and adopting that of those around her

* Doesn't generally care for what others want, is happy to be herself, just the way she is

* Doesn't particularly care for a partner or sex (aro and ace folks are disproportionately likely to be neurodiverse)

Yeah and I feel like her unconventional way of thinking where she doesn’t understand why people are upset when she tries to help the crying teacher or the fellow child also shows how she is autistic coded. I had similar violent outbursts as a child not out of malice, I just didn’t know any other way that was going to help. I was such a conflicted child for it, my primary school had a good ticket and bad ticket system you would get for doing good or bad things and I had a high amount of both which was such a strange experience to not understand things but still get scolded as if that will make me improve yet also be rewarded for certain behaviour but I didn’t get why either.

 

[MerCsDs]

By far, Keiko is the fictional character whom I related to.

While the author suggests that Keiko is simply a nonconformist, in my opinion she is a very strongly autistic coded character.

Characteristics which I really connected to and which IMO are spectrum related include...

* Liking a job which has a detailed manual outling everything for you (no guesswork and subjectivity - hurray)!

* Not really having her own sense of style, and adopting that of those around her

* Doesn't generally care for what others want, is happy to be herself, just the way she is

* Doesn't particularly care for a partner or sex (aro and ace folks are disproportionately likely to be neurodiverse)

Also I watched interviews with Sayaka Murata, when she talked about her childhood, her story god and the routine she has to write story I related a lot to being in your universe so it’s always possible that she is also autistic since the book is semi-autobiographical as shown by the letter she wrote at the end of the novel, that she based her own experience working in a konbini and the fact that she is openly nonconformist so that’s just how she seems to view herself too.

 

[VictorR]

Yeah and I feel like her unconventional way of thinking where she doesn’t understand why people are upset when she tries to help the crying teacher or the fellow child also shows how she is autistic coded. I had similar violent outbursts as a child not out of malice, I just didn’t know any other way that was going to help. I was such a conflicted child for it, my primary school had a good ticket and bad ticket system you would get for doing good or bad things and I had a high amount of both which was such a strange experience to not understand things but still get scolded as if that will make me improve yet also be rewarded for certain behaviour but I didn’t get why either.

Ah yes, I forgot about that part (it's been several years since I read it), but yes, the looking back at childhood parts were full of social faux pas which.

At the surface level, like many cultural phenomon, don't really make sense, and some autistic folks have reported fitting in better after moving to a new place because folks would attribute their quirkiness to being an outsider rather than to them being "weird".

 

[MerCsDs]

Ah yes, I forgot about that part (it's been several years since I read it), but yes, the looking back at childhood parts were full of social faux pas which.

At the surface level, like many cultural phenomon, don't really make sense, and some autistic folks have reported fitting in better after moving to a new place because folks would attribute their quirkiness to being an outsider rather than to them being "weird".

I love that for them. It’s just makes me think about how people really make a both deal out of others difference for no real natural reason like they’ve just been conditioned to and in those cases they simply choose to not mind that much. I can’t imagine how much ease one feels when people don’t mind that much your neurodivergent traits and you must be treated and looked after as anyone else, because they have no discriminatory misconceptions stopping them from being empathetic towards you.

 

[VictorR]

Also I watched interviews with Sayaka Murata, when she talked about her childhood, her story god and the routine she has to write story I related a lot to being in your universe so it’s always possible that she is also autistic since the book is semi-autobiographical as shown by the letter she wrote at the end of the novel, that she based her own experience working in a konbini and the fact that she is openly nonconformist so that’s just how she seems to view herself too.

My first impression when I read the novel was for her to be able to write such an realistic autistic coded character without using common troupes (like making them nerdy and/or a savant) meant that she likely had an intimate familiarity with autism, either herself, or someone very close to her.

Autism, like many neurological conditions, is something that is highly stigmatised and misunderstood in Asia, so I can understand why the author, even if she is familiar/aware, may choose not to reference it.

 

[MerCsDs]

My first impression when I read the novel was for her to be able to write such an realistic autistic coded character without using common troupes (like making them nerdy and/or a savant) meant that she likely had an intimate familiarity with autism, either herself, or someone very close to her.

Autism, like many neurological conditions, is something that is highly stigmatised and misunderstood in Asia, so I can understand why the author, even if she is familiar/aware, may choose not to reference it.

It was very striking for me too, though I don’t think she’s that much familiar with the disorder. She seems to like her bubble and have learned to accept herself regardless of the stigma around her. Thus, I don’t see her encountering and learning about the disorder beyond surface level since ‘she is who she is’ and appears to have made an enjoyable life for herself which I admire about her.

I feel like that has enabled her to become so intimate with autism that she doesn’t need external vocabulary to express it.

Also writing an autistic coded character as savant or nerdy most likely is more common with neurotypical writers and/or neurodivergent writers who still struggle to unmask and be comfortable with their divergence, which of course is projected on the characters they create.