Understanding the thought process of people with disabilities is something that neurotypical people often struggle greatly with. It makes disables people seem alien to them, and often ignorance causes intolerance, which leads to people with disabilities being isolated from society and shunned as though they are less than human. Autism is a disability that many people do not know about, as well as one that many do not care to know about due to the nature of it, and how different autistic people act compared to the norm. People write them off as less intelligent or strange simply because it is something they cannot understand, nor do they often take the time to try. Because people with autism have such a different way of processing the world around them, it is easy to assume that there is no chance of understanding them, which can lead people to not even try, but the more time people spend with someone, the easier it is to figure them out and work with them. Selene dePackh’s novel, Troubleshooting throws the reader into the mind of an autistic character, Dax, with an auditory processing lag, and the writing style, use of context, and dialogue mimics the way that she must synchronize with people in order to be able to understand them.
The writing style that dePackh uses in Troubleshooting has an interesting way of jumping around timeframes in a way that causes a reader to be confused about where and when the scenes of the book take place, which mimics the confusion Dax must feel before she has processed what someone has said. It almost gives the reader a literary whiplash, switching back and forth from past to present, scene to scene, so quickly that the reader is only able to process what has happened about halfway through the page. Immediately upon opening the book with chapter one, the reader is put into the middle of a conversation between Dax and Chill, Angela Dark’s brother. They are playing some sort of game that the reader is given no context to. Before anything is fully explained, the narrator, Dax, then continues on to say that the conversation happened “a couple of decades ago” (dePackh 1). Dax implies that she is somewhere different in present, but instead of giving the reader any information about that, she starts to tell the reader about the past again, and how she came to meet Chill Dark instead. Then, from chapter two to chapter three, the narration skips from Dax telling Angela her background and how she got to Thunderbird to an explicit sex scene in chapter three, which shocks the reader, and seemingly comes forth with little warning to it happening. Just as the reader is starting to somewhat understand Dax and be solid in a scene with her and Angela talking, they are immediately thrown into something else with these same characters, but a completely different scene with a very different done. This sort of mimics the way that someone with an auditory processing lag may experience conversation—just as they process something that was said to them and tune back in, the conversation has gone completely elsewhere, and the process starts again.
Similar to the way the novel’s jumping around causes confusion, dePackh introduces information without context, which makes it impossible for the reader to understand, but as the novel progresses, more insight is provided as though the reader is getting synchronized with the book and can more easily understand things that are happening. On page two, we are given a few proper nouns with no context or backstory, as though these bits of information are important to the worldbuilding of the futuristic world this takes place in, but the reader is not clued into the significance of them. The “Dark family” is mentioned, but the reader does not yet know why they are important, as only two members of the Dark family have been mentioned. They are spoken about like they are infamous, but at this point in time, the reader does not know why. The nations “Haudenosaunee” and “Anishinaabe” are mentioned, but the reader is given no information as to what they are or told that they are nations of indigenous people, aside from them being near the Canadian border. The reader is left to their own devices, with the choice of either remaining in the dark or looking up the information themselves, which helps the reader to understand how it may feel like for Dax since she is unable to make sense of words upon first hearing them (dePackh 7). At the beginning of chapter two, the reader is introduced to Chill’s Uncle Gabriel, who is fixing Angela’s hair, but the reader is not given any information to why or how he is there, nor are they given any information about the setting they are in until halfway through the paragraph when the fence is mentioned to show that they’re in the yard, and then on the next page, the reader is informed that Uncle Gabriel is allowed regular visits. This creates a lag in understanding because the information is presented, and then explained with a sort of delay, creating a small window of confusion similar to what Dax may experience. However, as the novel progresses, we are given explanations of information sooner. One example of this is at the beginning of chapter eleven, with the phrases: “I was supposed to meet her at nine, and it was still a couple of minutes to, but it appeared she’d been there a while. I was learning Petra was a heavy drinker. She didn’t drink hard every day, but when she did, she meant business” (dePackh 93). Here, Dax is forthright with information and explaining the characters, even giving information that the reader may not necessarily need. The mention of Petra being a heavy drinker as well as Dax’s love interest at the time is even foreshadowing to her relationship with “The Mistake”, an abusive alcoholic who takes over her life for a while. Up until this point, the reader is thrown around through Dax’s life with little context or explanation to what’s happening, but here, there is a very noticeable change in the writing. Not only is the reader given a full explanation of the setting and characters in the scene, but there is also a hint to what is coming next, which had not happened, at least not noticeably, before this point, as though after reading the book for this long and struggling to process it, they are finally getting “synchronized” (dePackh 5).
Literary devices can be a powerful tool in writing. They can create all different tones and moods and bring the reader on a specific journey that is unique to each and every book. The way that dePackh uses these literary devices is important because it gives the narrator a voice that is specific to how she processes as a person with autism, and it helps the reader to understand that voice and gives them insight into her brain. Books like this show people that autism is not something that makes someone alien, but only something that makes them process a little differently, and it shows them that if enough time is spent with someone, then they are not so difficult to understand after all.
Word Count: 1223
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WORKS CITED:
dePackh, Selene. Troubleshooting: Book One, Glitch in the System. Reclamation
Press, 2018.
