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Literal Thinking - Who has it?

Anarkitty

Anarkitty

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
So when I first started reading about autism, I recognized myself in much of what I was reading, but there were a few things that I didn't think applied to me. Literal thinking was one of those things. I was pretty sure that I had never had that problem.

Then I started noticing some things. :rolleyes: I started noticing how often I have to ask my little sister, "Are you being serious or sarcastic?" I started noticing that even though I'll understand the meaning of a phrase, like "tongue in cheek," I often get a literal image of that in my head when I hear it; with that particular phrase, I often even poke my tongue into my cheek when I hear or use it. (This is a literal tongue-in-cheek message, no lie.)

But the one that I really noticed--that made me seriously reconsider whether or not I have a problem with literal thinking--is when I was reading an article about knitting needle sizes one day. The article said that knitting needles can be as fine as sewing needles or as big as tree trunks. And I immediately thought, "What could you possibly knit with needles that big, and how could you hold them, anyway?" And that's when I realized that yes, I think literally.

I once began a poetry curriculum with my oldest son, who is also autistic. We stopped after one of the first lessons, after we read a poem that talked about different kinds of animals. The poem was okay, but the discussion about how the poem was about riding the subway really confused us. :D

Who has fun literal thinking moments to report?
 
I had the same experience. I really didn't think I had a problem with it (perhaps because my mother is even MORE literal than me, so by contrast it seemed like I "got" things that she didn't, which gave me a sense that I wasn't a literal thinker... but that's like saying 500 lbs isn't heavy because 600 lbs is heavier).

When it started to sink in was my best friend and his jokes. Its gotten to a point where he'll follow it up - after I correct him or question him - by saying something like "Jesus! I keep forgetting everything I say to you needs to be exactly literal and accurate!"

At least I'm aware of it now, so I'll poke fun at myself. :grin:
 
JDShredds said:
At least I'm aware of it now, so I'll poke fun at myself. :grin:
Click to expand...

Exactly. It is often funny, now that I know it's happening. Most of it actually stays in my head--well, I think, though literal thinking may be part of the reason for the number of times I've been called ditzy and an airhead. :p

My son and I have begun telling each other, "You're way more autistic than me," when one of us does something particularly spectrumy. :) I think our level of uniqueness is probably pretty close, though.
 
I have this problem to the point where I believe everyone who uses non-literal language is just wrong. :cool:

Even when I learn the meaning of some of this nonsense, like "tongue in cheek," my brain won't retain the information and I keep learning it again and again! I have no clue what "tongue in cheek" means and I ain't googlin it again. :mad:

ERMAGERD I BROKEN :(

This is the part where I run in circles.
:eek:*does that* :eek:
 
Fino said:
I have this problem to the point where I believe everyone who uses non-literal language is just wrong. :cool:

Even when I learn the meaning of some of this nonsense, like "tongue in cheek," my brain won't retain the information and I keep learning it again and again! I have no clue what "tongue in cheek" means and I ain't googlin it again. :mad:

ERMAGERD I BROKEN :(

This is the part where I run in circles.
:eek:*does that* :eek:
Click to expand...

You should put a picture on your wall of a tongue literally in a cheek. Then you'll never be confused again.

Everyone else will.
 
JDShredds said:
You should put a picture on your wall of a tongue literally in a cheek. Then you'll never be confused again.

Everyone else will.
Click to expand...

Wait, I like the idea but how does that make me less confused? What do I say when people ask? "Because that's what 'tongue in cheek' SHOULD mean" ?:eek:
 
My thinking is verbal, not in pictures, so I remember them once I've heard them and been told what they mean. They're just definitions of weird phrases then. I mean, other than onomatopoeias, words usually don't have a literal link to the thing they're naming; table only means table because culturally, we've all agreed on the general meaning. I hadn't considered that for some autistic people, those weird definitions won't stick, but it makes sense since not all of us think in words.

On the other hand, I don't think NTs get metaphors as well as they think they do. They don't come naturally to them, either. The difference is that when they learn the meaning, the metaphorical meaning stays in their noggins while the literal meaning seems to fade into the background. But when you look at how many people interpret scriptures, they often ignore metaphors in favor of literal interpretations.

And I have an example from a less intense example than people's religious beliefs. :) My entire household (other than myself) plays the game Skyrim. They tell me that many NPCs in the game mention that they were adventurers until they "took an arrow to the knee." They tell me that at first, this just seemed rather odd to them, but then they eventually learned that fans think that the phrase means "got married" in this context. Now, most of them read that phrase as a fun way to say "got married," but my autistic son and I still see a knee with an arrow sticking out of it while, at the same time, understanding its metaphorical meaning.

It's bloody weird.
 
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I always get a brief mental image of the literal meaning and a split second later the "proper" meaning is usually clear to me.
 
Me, me, me, puts hand up¯\_(ツ)_/¯ literal thinking is my watchword. Although I do love poetry, yet I have to read it over and over, nothing it evident.

Unless it's the one I repeat to my husband who laughs every time, and thinks poetry is overrated because he refuses to understand it.
It must have been the 'Rhyme of the ancient mariner" that he memorized in school that forever destroyed poetry for him. The poem I repeat to him to make him laugh is:

The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
https://www.poets.org/node/45484
so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens
 
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I enjoy poetry and usually make no attempt to understand it's meaning. I just listen to the sound of the words in my head. :D
 
I'm really confused. :confused: Is the poem about the wheelbarrow supposed to be funny? Or is it just that your husband thinks it is? I like it, but I didn't find it funny. :) Which made me wonder if I missed the point.

I like some of Poe's poems because I like the way the words sound together, especially "The Bells." I also find it descriptive without being as confusing as the subway animals poem. I also like a lot of poetry for children because it's written to be a more clear--like Robert Louis Stevenson, Sara Teasdale, and Christina G. Rossetti.

Mostly, though, I'd rather read a thick book with dragons and magic or occasionally a space ship, just to mix things up a bit. :p
 
I like and write poetry but it does bring out obsessivy ways as I try to revise the poem until it's saying the idea or feeling as much as I can, which I never feel fully satisfied it is. A poem is never finished, it is only abandoned, as Paul Valéry said rather helpfully, this enables me to move on... eventually.

There is some literalising going on somewhere in my process around poetry and myth and the like. But I can usually let that go and just enjoy the pictures and ambiences the poems and myths offer
 
I coincidentally just read about the historical importance of wheelbarrows and how before them the work took an extra person to hold up the front. And the poem seems to be about the significance of wheelbarrows, so it must be written in the time period of its invention! :eek:
 
Literal thinking is one of my most prominent and obvious traits. I am unable to think of any funny moments, currently, but will return if I do.
 
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