[The Curious Incident...]

apocryphal:
snooker:
invigilator:
Dune
Blake's 7
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
roisterer: 
The Masqueraders
plaster
The Strand

Occam's razor

Chaos How the Mind Works
saccades 
planisphere
The 11th Hour
skip
tesselate


"The word metaphor...is when you describe something by using a word for something that it isn't. This means that the word metaphor is a metaphor" (15).


What is life but a repetition, a recycled existence?
These footsteps in the sand I leave behind quickly disappear with the tide;
How quickly was yesterday's evidence washed away?

"Mrs. Alexander was doing what is called chatting, where people say things to each other which aren't questions and answers aren't connected" (40).


"People think that alien spaceships would be solid and made of metal and have lights all over them and move slowly through the sky because that is how we would build a spaceship if we were able to build one that big. But aliens, if they exist, would probably be very different from us. They might look like big slugs, or be flat like reflections. Or they might be bigger than planets. Or they might not have bodies at all. They might just be information, like in a computer. And their spaceships might look like clouds, or be made up of unconnected objects like dust or leaves" (69).


"But I don't feel sad about it. Becuase Mother is dead....So I would be feeling sad about something that isn't real and doesn't exist. And that would be stupid" (75).


CONSIDER HOW CHRISTOPHER'S VARIANT OF IMAGINATION RELATES THE THE "NORMAL" FACULTY (COMPARE WORDS IN C. 113 VS C. 127)
"Other people have pictures in their heads, too. But they are different because the pictures in my head are all pictures of things which really happened. But other people have pictures in their heads of things which aren't real and didn't happen" (78).

"I like imagining that I am there sometimes, in a spherical metal submersible with windows that are 30 cm thick to stop them from imploding under the pressure. And I imagine that I am the only person inside it, and that it is not connected to a ship at all but can operate under its own power and I can control the motors and move anywhere I want to on the seabed and I can never be found" (80).

[ALSO THE WORDS ABOUT THE "COMPUTER VIRUS" WIPING OUT PEOPLE]



"Loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth" (87).


CHRISTOPHER IS VERY CASUAL WITH THE WORD "STUPID" - WHY?

"White noise...is like silence but not empty" (103).

[policeman's] Uniform = purpose, order  

CONSIDER CHRISTOPHER'S LOVE OF THE SUBLIME (OUTER SPACE, DEEP OCEAN, SKY) DESPITE HIS INABILITY TO EXPRESS THE WONDER

TELEPATHY WOULD LEAD TO AUTISM IF NO COPING MECHANISM WAS CREATED TO SORT/DISREGARD/IGNORE SOME STIMULI. (ALSO CONSIDER NPR PROGRAM RE: INFANTS' PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD)

"Take time out to regret your career choice" (an advertisement in the Tube, mentioned on 175)