I’ve recently been bingeing The Office. Specifically, I’m watching the Superfan version, which I find vastly more interesting and engaging than the original edit.
To me the most astonishing character is Dwight Schrute. There is something so pure about him, so absolutely unsullied by the constraints of what the rest of us call “the real world”. Dwight is essentially making up his own alternate reality as he goes along.
In the Superfan version of the series, you really get to see inside his unique mind. The man is clearly somewhere on the spectrum, with odd gaps in his perception of others, but that often ends up functioning as a kind of super power.
While watching the show this time around, something has been nagging at me. Dwight Schrute reminds me of somebody, but I’ve been having trouble figuring out who.
And then just today it hit me. You can see it in the way Dwight thinks, in the way he relates to others (or doesn’t), and in the way he sincerely believes that reality, and all the people in it, are merely constructs for him to bend to his will.
Basically, Dwight Schrute is Elon Musk.