Still thinking about Sherlock, but this is a more general question...

[magnetic_pole]

I had an interesting exchange with donnaimmaculata on Monday about our frustrations with Sherlock and the way the show treats his "cleverness" as a superpower, which in turn got me thinking a bit about the various types of intelligence, and how they manifest themselves, and how you can depict them in fic.

So my question for you, flist, is this: is there someone in your life who's particularly bright in one way or another, and how can you tell? How would you go about representing that kind of intelligence in a fic? And/or, if you've written fic about a particularly bright person, how did you represent that aspect of their character?

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

I'm intrigued by all the contradictions here, D--the engineering types who are either good listeners or bad, the bright people who are frustrated by others and the ones who are open to surprise. I feel as if the more I think about the topic, the less certain I am about anything--everything ultimately seems to dissolve into (or at least get mediated through) personality traits or coping mechanisms. And perhaps that's life--nothing appears unmediated.

On a completely different note--well actually a related note (intelligence = relative, contingent, no absolutes, only differences in specific contexts, kind of like physical attractiveness)--I'm SO HAPPY to see Beholder back again this spring! It's always one of the highlights of the fannish year for me. M.

[delphi]

Ha - yes, I suppose I didn't give any kind of meaningful answer there. But that ties into my principal annoyance/puzzlement with how intelligence is portrayed on TV. Outside of certain wise old mentor roles (wisdom being something different from intelligence, in tropes) intelligence is almost always paired with being seriously deficient in the social or emotional sphere somehow, either endearingly or frustratingly. But besides the fact that very high intelligence invites comment and notice and usually requires the person in possession of it to develop some sort of social coping mechanism, people are people. No one, no matter how intelligent, acts solely by conscious thought. Patience, impatience, curiosity, timidity, risk-seeking, insecurity, extroversion, introversion, emotional range...so many other genetic and environmental outcomes contribute to how we use our strengths and weaknesses in memory and language and reasoning.

But: I'm glad you're happy to see Beholder back! I hope you'll be signing up. :-)

[magnetic_pole]

No, no, I didn't mean that as a criticism of your response! I was just fascinated by the way that you took the descriptions somewhere else every time, which got me thinking again about how weirdly adrift I feel on this issue.

And absolutely! :) M.

[delphi]

It's an interesting topic. I'm actually in the process of reading through the Enola Holmes books again recently and am now doubly appreciating how the Holmes family is portrayed there - with the extra difficulty that the books are actually from the clever character's point of view. First-person POV is certainly one cure for intelligence-as-superpower in fiction.

[magnetic_pole]

First-person POV is certainly one cure for intelligence-as-superpower in fiction. :)

I'm skimming through the old Beholder master lists right now, getting excited... M.

[delphi]

I'm very happy to be running it, but I do miss writing for Beholder sometimes.

[magnetic_pole]

And we miss your fics. M.