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

[delphi]

Hm. It now occurs to me that I don't think I've ever tried writing a character smarter than I am, partially because of my frustration about how intelligence tends to be portrayed in the media.

(Although I was once taken aback to get a beta note on a story expressing horror at the sociopathy of a certain character whose actions I hadn't intended to be read as particularly negative, and while I did change the story, my first reaction was: "Wait, no, he's just the sort of clever person who's always thinking about all the possibilities in the world, and being able to conceive of unpleasant things doesn't mean you condone them - it just means you're not capable of not imagining them.")

I've admired a lot of technologically/mechanically bright people - the sort of natural engineers and inventors who were building rocket launchers in high school and who I would want on my side if society ever collapses - and I think one of their defining characteristics as a group would be confidence. They were people accustomed to problem-solving (something that either made them very good listeners when it came to others or very bad ones) and who went into daunting situations with the attitude that they could figure them out.

I've also known several people who were usually the smartest person in any room they found themselves in. Some were deeply uncomfortable with that fact; they always assumed that whoever they were talking to was at least as smart as them, if not smarter, and then were stymied by the lack of logic when that was proven false. Those who knew they were the smartest person in the room often fell into two camps.

First, there were those easily frustrated by people less quick or perceptive than they were. They tended to assume what people they were interacting with were going to say, and they were usually right, but it made them insufferable to deal with when they were wrong. They could be very impatient, wanting those around them to skip to the foregone conclusion. Their intelligence was very externally focused; they paid close attention when their own knowledge was involved and tuned out visibly when they didn't feel challenged or authoritative. They were also the kind who would play little conversational games to gauge the intelligence of someone they had just met.

The other kind were people who had learned to cope with being the smartest person in the room by cultivating a deep appreciation for absurdity. They had learned that intelligence does not actually grant you any meaningful power or authority in this world, and so there was nothing to do but laugh or look on the bright side or err towards kindness when life kicked you in the knee. Their data intake wasn't fettered by ego, and they were always willing to be surprised by others.

[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.