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]

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.