http://nitzthebloody.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-write-autistic-characters-with.html

This can be applied to writing characters of any minority group, but since I just read Jodi Picoult's House Rules and felt that it was as thoughtful a representation of autistic characters as the Taco Bell Chihuahua was of Mexican culture, I had to say something.

I don't have any familiarity with the book you mention, and really haven't caught much of the other entertainment sources you cite, but I certainly can't come up with a portrayal in popular culture that wasn't heavily influenced by the "Rain Man" autistic savant. The fully rounded portrayal you advocate seems so obvious, and yet I sadly can't think of it having been done. The Reed Richards idea mentioned at the end is interesting, though.

On this topic I note the death of Kim Peek, the real-life model for Babbett of Rain Man. I further note that Peek was not actually autistic but microcephalic with a blister inside his brain that damaged his left hemisphere. This means that a generation of autistic interpretations of the "idiot savant" are based on a portrayal of somebody who didn't experience autism.

While I enjoyed "The Curious Incident.." I don't read Picoult on principle (what principle I'm not exactly sure, but there you go) so can't comment on that. But you provide good food for thought.

Al B.