Is Howie Neurodivergent?
Howie shows signs of being autistic, such as sensory stims, sometimes having an inability to judge appropriate conversation topics, and an unwillingness for change. On page 12, Howie’s foot “slipped from the untied shoe and sought out the texture of the carpeting[,] … enjoying the slippage of the inner surface of the sock against the underside”. Howie is rubbing his socked foot against the carpet, which is causing his foot to rub against the sock. Rubbing against unique textures is a kind of stimming, or sensory seeking, that autistic people experience. In Howie’s case, he is seeking the sensation of the woven texture of the sock sliding against his skin. In the footnote on page 61, Howie talks about his first conversation with Bob Leary. This conversation has an interesting subject, being “the decreasing margins in the now mature copying-machine business, and the use of air suction as an element of the paper-feed mechanism that nobody could have foretold”. This is an odd topic o...