Views from Medina Road

Where is the letters page? I can't seem to find a link to it on the main page.
 

I read Westfahl's essay... with mixed feelings.

OK, he's right about the connection between Asperger's Syndrome and SF fans. Elizabeth Moon held a lecture on the subject at a convention last year.
My detailed account of Moon's lecture can be read here:
http://aryngve.blogspot.com/2005/08/elizabeth-moon-on-autism-science.html

But... why the "Fans Are Slans" evangelism? The whole "superiority of Aspergers" argument gives me a bad feeling.
That people -- say, SF fans -- can find ways to work around their shortcomings is great and noble. (See Moon's lecture for more on that.)

BUT to call one's shortcomings a great gift -- or even an evolutionary advantage -- smacks of self-justification. It sounds like the deaf couple that wanted to remove the hearing ability of their own child: resentment masquerading as virtue.

I will not support discrimination of people with Asperger's -- neither will I support holding them up as a superior breed. There's quite enough elitism in the world already, thank you very much.
 

Now wait a minute -- does Westfahl really have Asperger's, or was this just a hoax? (I never met the man, so I can't tell...)
:-S