Manipulation
Everything Is True
Ada Hoffmann's author newsletter
Something I've been thinking about lately is the role of manipulation in autistic fiction - villains who are manipulative, autistic characters who are prone to manipulation, and so on. Not every autistic person is easily taken advantage of, but for many this is our experience, especially when we're younger. Taking what people say at face value, and being taught from an early age to ignore our gut responses, can produce unique vulnerabilities.
I gushed about this in my review of Kaia Sønderby's "Failure to Communicate." A big part of the plot hinges on Xandri falling for a villain's manipulation, until it's almost too late (and then realizing what happened, fighting back, and saving the day, because Xandri rocks). Xandri is a brilliant interpreter of alien communication. The reader can see the signs, and she can, too - but every time she notices a red flag, it lies so close to her own insecurities about her autism and her ability to deal with humans that she doubts herself and explains it away.
I was obsessed with watching this play out because I could relate to it so hard. It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I feel like I can mostly trust my judgments of people! (And like I know what to do, and where to look for verification / second opinions, when something does feel off.)
Essa Hansen's Graven trilogy goes even deeper into themes of manipulation, and does some very interesting worldbuilding around them. Several of the major villains in this trilogy, as well as one of the heroes, have an ability called "gravitas," which makes it almost irresistible for other beings to trust and obey them. People with gravitas can wield this ability in various ways, from the gentle and conscientious to the genuinely monstrous, but none of them can fully turn it off. The people around them are affected by their gravitas all the time, and it's impossible either for them or for others to know who would truly remain on their side without it. Both the first two books (review of Azura Ghost is coming soon, I promise!) ruminate about the ideas of choice, free will, and friendship and how gravitas affects all of them.
The theme of manipulation also shows up in the Outside series. Akavi, the shape-shifting cyborg angel, is a manipulative villain. Yasira, the autistic protagonist, starts out believing she's loyal to the computer Gods even though she really doesn't like them at all. A lot of her arc has to do with sorting out what she's been told by the people who raised her, by Akavi, and by the heretic Dr. Talirr, what's true and what's not, what's in line with her values and what's not. It's very difficult work.
The theme comes across even more strongly when we delve into Elu and Enga's backstories in The Fallen. Both of them were manipulated into joining the angelic corps - both by the people who led them to want to join initially, and by Akavi after the fact - but what that looked like in practice was very different for each of them. These flashbacks were some of the easiest parts of The Fallen for me to draft - they flew onto the page very quickly.
I think that, once we realize we have been manipulated, it's almost impossible not to ruminate about what manipulation is, how it works, how it's happened to us in the past, how to sort through its effects and how to avoid it in the future. I suspect it's easy to do that when we see others being manipulated, as well.
What do you think? Where else do you see the theme of manipulation coming up, and being done well, in autistic literature?