Rain Man as inaugurating a common but mistaken media stereotype that people on the autism spectrum typically have savant skills, and references to "Rain Man", in particular Dustin Hoffman's performance, have become a popular shorthand for autism and savantism. Conversely, "Rain Man" has also been seen as "dispelling" a number of other misconceptions about autism, and improving public awareness of the failure of many agencies to accommodate autistic people and make use of the abilities they do have, regardless of whether they have savant skills or not. The film is also known for popularizing the misconception that card counting is illegal in
The Great Man (novel) The Great Man (novel) The Great Man: A Novel is a 2007 novel by American author Kate Christensen. It won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, beating nearly 350 other submissions and earning Christensen the $15,000 top prize. The story takes place five years after the death, at 78, of celebrated painter Oscar Feldman, the "great man" of the title. Two competing biographers, both working to document the life and times of a man who made his fortune painting nude women, turn for information to the women who had shared his life: his wife, his mistress, and his sister, who