Big New World Chapter 17

[umlerian49]

Story withdrawn.

[Reeza]

Hmmmmm. You always manage to end your chapters with something that makes me wonder what's next. That's good.

The strength demonstrations were nice. I wouldn't have complained if you had lingered a bit longer on Alex's pumped and steaming body at the railroad crossing. Alex always notices how amazed people are by his size, but there must be a few people (other than Sammy) whose reactions betray their sexual attraction to such an overwhelming physique. At least one of those railroad men must have been appreciating the way his sweaty tee shirt was clinging to his pecs and abs, maybe revealing a strip of skin above his waistband. (I'm picturing it in my head right now.) Is Alex oblivious to this?

[JP71]

Originally Posted by Reeza

Hmmmmm. You always manage to end your chapters with something that makes me wonder what's next. That's good.

The strength demonstrations were nice. I wouldn't have complained if you had lingered a bit longer on Alex's pumped and steaming body at the railroad crossing. Alex always notices how amazed people are by his size, but there must be a few people (other than Sammy) whose reactions betray their sexual attraction to such an overwhelming physique. At least one of those railroad men must have been appreciating the way his sweaty tee shirt was clinging to his pecs and abs, maybe revealing a strip of skin above his waistband. (I'm picturing it in my head right now.) Is Alex oblivious to this?

Having had autism (Alex, not me), I doubt if he has the ability to be self-adoring of his incredible physique. Sure, there are those scant scenes of intimacy between him and Ryan, as well as the occasional shows of incredible strength, that leaves us all drooling and wishing for more. But to be honest, if ulmerian49 were to shower us in too many of these scenes, Alex would simply become another cocky muscle-stud, and not the person we've grown to love simply for being who he is.

But the chapter regarding the Miami trip is coming, and I have a feeling we will be reaching for the kleenex not to blow our noses or dry our eyes.

[Reeza]

Originally Posted by JP71

Having had autism (Alex, not me), I doubt if he has the ability to be self-adoring of his incredible physique. Sure, there are those scant scenes of intimacy between him and Ryan, as well as the occasional shows of incredible strength, that leaves us all drooling and wishing for more. But to be honest, if ulmerian49 were to shower us in too many of these scenes, Alex would simply become another cocky muscle-stud, and not the person we've grown to love simply for being who he is.

I completely agree that he wouldn't be Alex if he were self-adoring, but he might, for example, notice that someone is staring intently at his nipples or the gap between the hem of his shirt and the front of his pants. Even if he misinterpreted such a reaction from an adoring bystander, it would, in my opinion, add another level of sexiness to a scene. An incredibly beautiful man who doesn't get why people look at him that way can be even more sexy than a cocky muscle-stud. That's the way I think of Alex when I'm reading this wonderful story.

[JP71]

Originally Posted by Reeza

I completely agree that he wouldn't be Alex if he were self-adoring, but he might, for example, notice that someone is staring intently at his nipples or the gap between the hem of his shirt and the front of his pants. Even if he misinterpreted such a reaction from an adoring bystander, it would, in my opinion, add another level of sexiness to a scene. An incredibly beautiful man who doesn't get why people look at him that way can be even more sexy than a cocky muscle-stud. That's the way I think of Alex when I'm reading this wonderful story.

Yeah, now that you put it that way, I totally see your point. Like with my recent story "The Garage", I got such a thrill out of Damien playing down his muscularity, even though he got bigger with each passing day. I found myself struggling against the desire to get him out of his overalls as soon as possible, and making him grow to insane proportions, but in the end, I think my decision NOT to show too much too soon created just enough sexual tension for the reader in order to make the story fun and attractive. Maybe umlerian49 follows the same "less is more" maxim. Although, Alex's Gram just bought him that huge mirror, so maybe we have quite the muscle show coming up.

[philat99]

Yet another great episode! Thanks!

[nnnrg]

Actually I think that not-noticing that they're staring at any particular body-part would be consistent with some kinds of autism. Faces, expressions, emotions, generally have been shown to be recognized by specific brain "wiring" -- neural nets, basically -- and the connection between emotion and meaning and body posture and expressions and tone of voice, all result from the post-processed and filtered signals from those nets, into simple meaning for neurotypical people, but the autistic spectrum disorders seem to weaken or even block the 'wiring' that makes these connections meaningful, often leaving behind simply intense stimulus that cannot be categorized and is distressing for that reason.
Adding to that is the presence of a separate set of neural nets that do other things, which without the balancing factor of the meaningful social interaction, simply go off in their own directions. A lot of the things you see in classical autistics - especially the slight rhythmic rocking - is the brain self-regulating by stimulating signals to suppress the severity of other signals.

There's a lot more than that going on, of course, but the gist of this is, even though his growth stimulated neural net upgrades, Alex hasn't had specific training WHILE growing, which might actually completely remove the autistic traits. (But since they're actually a useful part of everyday life, when not overwhelmed and unbalanced, that might not be a good thing to do. Alex seems like a great guy without needing to 'fix' anything that he doesn't consider a problem anyway )

[Ender]

If any of you are interested in what the world of someone with Asperger syndrome is like I would recommend Mark Haddon's 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Haddon like umlerian49 deny any expertise on Autism Spectrum Disorders but they both tap in to the 'hyper rational disordered world' in which an Aspie is trapped. Christopher Boone, the 15 year old protagonist of the novel, is much more severely affected than Alex in umlerian49's stories but based on comments about the way Alex acted a couple of years earlier (One of Alex's friends remarked to the affect that the old Alex 'lived under a rock') he was on a par with Christopher.

Asperger syndrome has also been described as "Wrong Planet Syndrome" based on the observation that being an Aspie is like being the only human in a population of martians. We're not stupid, but we don't understand the reasoning that makes everyone else act the way they do. Given time and a bit of support we can eventually crack the code and learn how to 'fake' being a martian. And after many years of faking it the act becomes second nature... But the rest of the world is still weird from our point of view.

Mean while back in Alliance, Nebraska...

Hmmm... Frank and the college scouts??? I have been concerned about Frank hanging out with Jason and we haven't heard much about what Frank has been up to lately. I wonder if there are rumors about the existence of the grow juice circulating among the college scouts. Frank via Jason are the obvious leaks... almost too obvious... Maybe Frank is just chatting up Jason because with his newly minted muscleboy body he wants to become a jock in college... And because out of the blue, he was approached about an athletic scholarship just like Alex...

In thinking about it, running out and trying to get everyone setup with athletic scholarships without asking sounds like something Sammy would pull... That Sammy is looking out for his 'do-it-yourself muscle boy' by trying to get him an athletic scholarship sort of sweet but if he's trying to sweeten the deal with Alex and hints about the grow juice he has gone way too far. But it's just the sort of hair brained thing Sammy would do... If Sammy is responsible the presence of the sport scouts he is likely to have leaked Courtney's and the rest of the former geek squad's secret too.

At 5'9", Courtney is now officially tall. The CDC growth chart puts him at about the 70 percentile mark and taller than 7 of ten of his peers. So, he's going to stand out among the freshman now. That is probably not a good thing right now.

The original guesses were that Courtney might get to 6ft total... He's going to be that big by summer at his current rate... If/when he hit's 6'5" he will be over the 97th percentile, taller than 97 out of 100 males of any age... If he stays on the grow juice through senior year and his growth plates don't close soon (some guys don't stop growing until their mid twenties), he could get to be as big or bigger than Alex... That might sound cool but I think Alex would tell Court it's not something he should want if he can avoid it... Neither of the two resident giants chose to be as big as they are. Frank is lucky the grow juice made him sick when it did and Sammy didn't get the chance to dose him with the rest of the bottle he lifted from Courtney's locker or he'd be over 7ft now too.

I just had a really bad thought... What if Courtney had taped the formula for the grow juice to the bottle he stored it in... the bottle Sammy lifted from his locker... Sammy might have made a copy of the formula... The grow juice formula in the hands of a proven flake like Sammy is scary... I wouldn't be at all surprised if Dr. Bob doesn't end up seriously considering vivisecting Sammy before this story is over.

[Reeza]

Originally Posted by nnnrg

Actually I think that not-noticing that they're staring at any particular body-part would be consistent with some kinds of autism.

Very good info, nnnrg, and relevant to a dilemma I have been turning over in my head ever since umlerian49 expressed his concern that he's not getting enough sexy bits into his sexy story. It seems that the highly-esteemed author of this story has put himself into a very challenging position: he has to decide how to balance the realities of autism with the demands of erotic fiction plus the added difficulty of making the autistic character the narrator! (Are you a glutton for punishment, umlerian49?)

Here's what I'm talking about: if the scene at the railroad crossing had been narrated by anyone but Alex, there could have been long, detailed descriptions of his muscles, the way his body looked and moved, and the way the bystanders were reacting to this glorious display. Because Alex was narrating, we could only see things from a perspective limited by his autism. (Of course this was supplemented by our overheated imaginations.) I thought to myself, if Alex could notice some drooling facial expressions or glaring eyes it would at least give us a hint of the perspective we wish we had if we were lucky enough to be at that railroad crossing that day. So, how realistically should his autism be portrayed?

Now, I imagine myself facing this same dilemma while writing a much anticipated chapter about Alex on Miami Beach! How much will we see through Alex's eyes? How different would it be to see it from Ryan's perspective? Perhaps it would be interesting to see it from one perspective and then the other. But I'm not the the author; I'm just an armchair quarterback blathering on about how I would approach things.

I hope you realize, umlerian49, that all these thoughts and comments are a sign of my admiration for this story and your writing. You have been doing a great job on this challenging project. Truly impressive.

[umlerian49]

Originally Posted by JP71

Yeah, now that you put it that way, I totally see your point. Like with my recent story "The Garage", I got such a thrill out of Damien playing down his muscularity, even though he got bigger with each passing day. I found myself struggling against the desire to get him out of his overalls as soon as possible, and making him grow to insane proportions, but in the end, I think my decision NOT to show too much too soon created just enough sexual tension for the reader in order to make the story fun and attractive. Maybe umlerian49 follows the same "less is more" maxim. Although, Alex's Gram just bought him that huge mirror, so maybe we have quite the muscle show coming up.

Originally Posted by nnnrg

Actually I think that not-noticing that they're staring at any particular body-part would be consistent with some kinds of autism. Faces, expressions, emotions, generally have been shown to be recognized by specific brain "wiring" -- neural nets, basically -- and the connection between emotion and meaning and body posture and expressions and tone of voice, all result from the post-processed and filtered signals from those nets, into simple meaning for neurotypical people, but the autistic spectrum disorders seem to weaken or even block the 'wiring' that makes these connections meaningful, often leaving behind simply intense stimulus that cannot be categorized and is distressing for that reason.
Adding to that is the presence of a separate set of neural nets that do other things, which without the balancing factor of the meaningful social interaction, simply go off in their own directions. A lot of the things you see in classical autistics - especially the slight rhythmic rocking - is the brain self-regulating by stimulating signals to suppress the severity of other signals.

There's a lot more than that going on, of course, but the gist of this is, even though his growth stimulated neural net upgrades, Alex hasn't had specific training WHILE growing, which might actually completely remove the autistic traits. (But since they're actually a useful part of everyday life, when not overwhelmed and unbalanced, that might not be a good thing to do. Alex seems like a great guy without needing to 'fix' anything that he doesn't consider a problem anyway )

Originally Posted by Ender

If any of you are interested in what the world of someone with Asperger syndrome is like I would recommend Mark Haddon's 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Haddon like umlerian49 deny any expertise on Autism Spectrum Disorders but they both tap in to the 'hyper rational disordered world' in which an Aspie is trapped. Christopher Boone, the 15 year old protagonist of the novel, is much more severely affected than Alex in umlerian49's stories but based on comments about the way Alex acted a couple of years earlier (One of Alex's friends remarked to the affect that the old Alex 'lived under a rock') he was on a par with Christopher.

Asperger syndrome has also been described as "Wrong Planet Syndrome" based on the observation that being an Aspie is like being the only human in a population of martians. We're not stupid, but we don't understand the reasoning that makes everyone else act the way they do. Given time and a bit of support we can eventually crack the code and learn how to 'fake' being a martian. And after many years of faking it the act becomes second nature... But the rest of the world is still weird from our point of view.

Originally Posted by Reeza

Very good info, nnnrg, and relevant to a dilemma I have been turning over in my head ever since umlerian49 expressed his concern that he's not getting enough sexy bits into his sexy story. It seems that the highly-esteemed author of this story has put himself into a very challenging position: he has to decide how to balance the realities of autism with the demands of erotic fiction plus the added difficulty of making the autistic character the narrator! (Are you a glutton for punishment, umlerian49?)

Here's what I'm talking about: if the scene at the railroad crossing had been narrated by anyone but Alex, there could have been long, detailed descriptions of his muscles, the way his body looked and moved, and the way the bystanders were reacting to this glorious display. Because Alex was narrating, we could only see things from a perspective limited by his autism. (Of course this was supplemented by our overheated imaginations.) I thought to myself, if Alex could notice some drooling facial expressions or glaring eyes it would at least give us a hint of the perspective we wish we had if we were lucky enough to be at that railroad crossing that day. So, how realistically should his autism be portrayed?

Now, I imagine myself facing this same dilemma while writing a much anticipated chapter about Alex on Miami Beach! How much will we see through Alex's eyes? How different would it be to see it from Ryan's perspective? Perhaps it would be interesting to see it from one perspective and then the other. But I'm not the the author; I'm just an armchair quarterback blathering on about how I would approach things.

I hope you realize, umlerian49, that all these thoughts and comments are a sign of my admiration for this story and your writing. You have been doing a great job on this challenging project. Truly impressive.

Wow! These are really great, thoughtful comments. They give me a lot of ideas. I'm very pleased that I can trigger such a knowledgeable and in-depth discussion form people who obviously know what they're talking about. I especially love being introduced to the word "neurotypical."

But remember-- Alex is unique. That means he doesn't always conform to the typical aspie profile, which of course is what makes him interesting. So be warned! There are surprises ahead-- some good, some not so good.

[Maverick0095875]

by surprises meaning alex will grow some more >? :P

[Ender]

Personally I think for Alex to get bigger would be tragic. He already just barely fits into the world, requiring custom made clothes, re-enforced furniture and a customized car and bed. All of which are just barely handling Alex as it is. Ryan taking Alex to Miami is going to be a logistical nightmare as it is. And frankly I don't know how umlerian49 is going to pull it off other than letting the airplane ride and hotel bedroom all happen "off stage."

At this point I hope that Alex, Ryan and Courtney have established better security controls around the Grow Juice and it's formula than were present when Sammy lifted 2 liters of grow juice from Courtney's school (?gym?) locker. So with the possible exception of an unauthorized copy of the formula in Sammy's possession, it shouldn't be possible for anyone to grow unexpectedly... but if Sammy does have the formula all bets are off.

Alliance High School winning the Football and passably Basketball Championships would attract some college scouts but with the shadow of a steroid scandal hanging over the school the number seems a bit excessive unless there are rumors about something that makes steroid obsolete being available in Alliance.

That at least one of the scout approached never played any sport, four years of remedial PE class, suddenly every coaches wet dream, Alex Johnson about an athletic scholarship suggests that someone with inside knowledge, that doesn't understand Alex's wishes, is talking to the wrong people...

Ender...