Tyranomaster
Guy who writes stuff
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2022
- Messages
- 587
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- 133
Hello everyone. It's been awhile since I've posted a thread. Today, I'm going to be taking a deeper look at the portrayal of intelligent and genius characters because I've noticed something I can't unsee, and it bothers me. I won't be talking about Social IQ in this, though there are plenty of egregious examples of misuse there too.
I'll open it up with what I've seen. A particular kind of character that is being portrayed as being intelligent or geniuses aren't. They're oracles, mystics. Beings with either precognition, remote viewing, or some other clairvoyant ability. Some types of intelligence are better portrayed than others. I have a few theories as to why this happens, but I'll save those for later. You've probably noticed this too. Characters so "smart" that they only ever make the right choice, even with limited information, often by making a negative statement about missing evidence as evidence that said evidence actually should exist.
Not that many people don't write intelligent characters well. Dr.House is a very well written intelligent character. He makes mistakes, he has flaws. If Dr. House was written as a webnovel, modern readers would write comments like, "He obviously should have just diagnosed that from the very start", or "He's obviously not that smart since he can't see his behaviors might put him in jail". Yes. Intelligence is not directly correlated with willpower or social understanding, yet smart characters are frequently demanded to be superhuman in all respects.
So, lets dig into what intelligence or genius is. Broadly, there are three different forms of high-intelligence that you would qualify as such in a real human, and sometimes people have two or more of these traits:
Knowledge: The walking encyclopedia type, or the wise old man. Often considered "Crystalized IQ". This is usually the one that is portrayed correctly. Either someone who can just spout information off the top of their head like google, or someone who has an experience they can share for almost every situation. They usually are mentor or sidekick characters. Dr. Stone is an example of a main character that fits this role, and is portrayed fairly well. He has to rely on others to fill in gaps in his skills or knowledge.
Quick-Wit: They just think faster than those around them. Often called "Street Smarts" or simply "A Quick Wit". They can easily come up with a solution to a puzzle that would take others significantly longer, or perhaps they're able to rig together a makeshift device to get out of a pinch. While less well portrayed than knowledgeable characters, they're still fairly well represented.
Pattern Recognition: Individuals who are very good at recognizing patterns or minor details. This is generally considered "Fluid IQ". This is by far the worst offender of the three types for poorly written characters. It's no real surprise that this is the case when a lot of science has shown that individuals each have an upper limit to this that is almost impossible to exceed. You can underperform your limit, but you can't really improve it once set in stone after your early childhood years are done. It really just boils down to it's name, "Pattern Recognition". There are simple patterns most people recognize. Things like the same car passing your house every day means that the person driving it probably lives along the road that you see it on. Then there are very difficult patterns, esoteric and seemingly unrelated. Think of Isaac Newton connecting the idea of falling objects on earth with the motion of tiny dots moving in the sky. That's a big leap.
Why are two of these well represented, and one isn't? I believe that the issue comes down to, "Can you imagine how such a character would behave?" Knowledge and Quick-Wit are things that people can learn and build on. You've probably stayed up late at night and came up with a quip to respond to a scathing burn you received during the day. A quick witted person would have said it on the spot. You've also probably learned things in your life. Pattern Recognition is almost a taboo to talk about the fact that individuals are cursed with whatever level of it they have (either good or bad). You can imagine down, but you can't imagine up, because if you could, you'd already be that smart.
The solution is to shortcut the situation. You've probably seen how people with high levels of pattern recognition seem to be capable of grabbing the right answer out of what seems to be thin air. They'll give you their reasons, but it's like they're practically manufacturing the reasons to fit the outcome in retrospect. So, to write such a character when you yourself don't match their intelligence, you replicate what you've seen. You manufacture minute causes, and put the outcome in place.
The way we've just decided to write that character is, indeed, precognitively. The author has given them the visions necessary to see the future. The TV show Psych plays with this heavily. To other people in the room, he seems to be someone with psychic powers, but in actuality, he's merely observing details others miss, and fitting the pattern.
The issue with the webnovel space specifically is that there are, well, a lot of people writing "Genius" style characters, and when the gap in skill becomes too large, they're just oracles of fate. They've already seen how everyone else will act. They aren't really Geniuses. They're the author's oracle within the world of the book, here to enact the authors will through divine fiat. Mistakes aren't made, flaws aren't acceptable.
Why isn't that correct, you yourself said that you have to replicate the causes backwards, and it's equivalent to precognition? In short, because smart people aren't machines without flaws. There are some really, really smart drug addicts out there. They know the ins and outs of not getting caught, and can sniff a cop out from a mile away. In fact, people with very high IQ are prone to having many other mental issues, foremost depression, but others too.
I mentioned at the start that Dr. House is a well represented intelligent character. He has all three intelligence traits I mentioned, but still has dozens of character flaws. Psych is similar, plenty of character flaws. Sometimes they learn from them, sometimes they don't. Throughout any episode or arc in a story involving a well written "genius" character, they'll make errors, and new evidence will contradict the theory they held previously. Geniuses make mistakes too. That's the most important part. A very important aspect of characters that have high pattern recognition is a strong sense of "Once Bitten, Twice Shy". They learn from their mistakes quickly, but they still make them! What they learn can be dubious though. Think of Dr.House. Even when convicted and sent to jail, he doesn't learn that he should stop bad behaviors. He merely learns to hide and control it better.
Sure, this is all well and good, but why bring this up at all? I bring this up because, within the webnovel space, there are a lot, almost too many to count, bad genius style characters. It's gotten so bad that a subset of readers have started to see accurately represented intelligence and call them stupid for not being precognitive, having no flaws, or for that matter, not immediately becoming fascist dictator of the world due to their superior intellect.
Perhaps the character is a drug addict, or too pacifist, maybe they're a pushover. Especially in an isekai. A character hopping to a different world, even a genius, needs to learn what to expect from the world. The golden rule for a genius is "Once Bitten, Twice Shy". The next time you go to write a character that is a genius, ask yourself, "Am I writing a genius, or am I writing an oracle?" Geniuses make mistakes and learn from them quickly. Oracles do not make mistakes of importance at all.
Thank you for listening to my TED Rant.
I'll open it up with what I've seen. A particular kind of character that is being portrayed as being intelligent or geniuses aren't. They're oracles, mystics. Beings with either precognition, remote viewing, or some other clairvoyant ability. Some types of intelligence are better portrayed than others. I have a few theories as to why this happens, but I'll save those for later. You've probably noticed this too. Characters so "smart" that they only ever make the right choice, even with limited information, often by making a negative statement about missing evidence as evidence that said evidence actually should exist.
Not that many people don't write intelligent characters well. Dr.House is a very well written intelligent character. He makes mistakes, he has flaws. If Dr. House was written as a webnovel, modern readers would write comments like, "He obviously should have just diagnosed that from the very start", or "He's obviously not that smart since he can't see his behaviors might put him in jail". Yes. Intelligence is not directly correlated with willpower or social understanding, yet smart characters are frequently demanded to be superhuman in all respects.
So, lets dig into what intelligence or genius is. Broadly, there are three different forms of high-intelligence that you would qualify as such in a real human, and sometimes people have two or more of these traits:
Knowledge: The walking encyclopedia type, or the wise old man. Often considered "Crystalized IQ". This is usually the one that is portrayed correctly. Either someone who can just spout information off the top of their head like google, or someone who has an experience they can share for almost every situation. They usually are mentor or sidekick characters. Dr. Stone is an example of a main character that fits this role, and is portrayed fairly well. He has to rely on others to fill in gaps in his skills or knowledge.
Quick-Wit: They just think faster than those around them. Often called "Street Smarts" or simply "A Quick Wit". They can easily come up with a solution to a puzzle that would take others significantly longer, or perhaps they're able to rig together a makeshift device to get out of a pinch. While less well portrayed than knowledgeable characters, they're still fairly well represented.
Pattern Recognition: Individuals who are very good at recognizing patterns or minor details. This is generally considered "Fluid IQ". This is by far the worst offender of the three types for poorly written characters. It's no real surprise that this is the case when a lot of science has shown that individuals each have an upper limit to this that is almost impossible to exceed. You can underperform your limit, but you can't really improve it once set in stone after your early childhood years are done. It really just boils down to it's name, "Pattern Recognition". There are simple patterns most people recognize. Things like the same car passing your house every day means that the person driving it probably lives along the road that you see it on. Then there are very difficult patterns, esoteric and seemingly unrelated. Think of Isaac Newton connecting the idea of falling objects on earth with the motion of tiny dots moving in the sky. That's a big leap.
Why are two of these well represented, and one isn't? I believe that the issue comes down to, "Can you imagine how such a character would behave?" Knowledge and Quick-Wit are things that people can learn and build on. You've probably stayed up late at night and came up with a quip to respond to a scathing burn you received during the day. A quick witted person would have said it on the spot. You've also probably learned things in your life. Pattern Recognition is almost a taboo to talk about the fact that individuals are cursed with whatever level of it they have (either good or bad). You can imagine down, but you can't imagine up, because if you could, you'd already be that smart.
The solution is to shortcut the situation. You've probably seen how people with high levels of pattern recognition seem to be capable of grabbing the right answer out of what seems to be thin air. They'll give you their reasons, but it's like they're practically manufacturing the reasons to fit the outcome in retrospect. So, to write such a character when you yourself don't match their intelligence, you replicate what you've seen. You manufacture minute causes, and put the outcome in place.
The way we've just decided to write that character is, indeed, precognitively. The author has given them the visions necessary to see the future. The TV show Psych plays with this heavily. To other people in the room, he seems to be someone with psychic powers, but in actuality, he's merely observing details others miss, and fitting the pattern.
The issue with the webnovel space specifically is that there are, well, a lot of people writing "Genius" style characters, and when the gap in skill becomes too large, they're just oracles of fate. They've already seen how everyone else will act. They aren't really Geniuses. They're the author's oracle within the world of the book, here to enact the authors will through divine fiat. Mistakes aren't made, flaws aren't acceptable.
Why isn't that correct, you yourself said that you have to replicate the causes backwards, and it's equivalent to precognition? In short, because smart people aren't machines without flaws. There are some really, really smart drug addicts out there. They know the ins and outs of not getting caught, and can sniff a cop out from a mile away. In fact, people with very high IQ are prone to having many other mental issues, foremost depression, but others too.
I mentioned at the start that Dr. House is a well represented intelligent character. He has all three intelligence traits I mentioned, but still has dozens of character flaws. Psych is similar, plenty of character flaws. Sometimes they learn from them, sometimes they don't. Throughout any episode or arc in a story involving a well written "genius" character, they'll make errors, and new evidence will contradict the theory they held previously. Geniuses make mistakes too. That's the most important part. A very important aspect of characters that have high pattern recognition is a strong sense of "Once Bitten, Twice Shy". They learn from their mistakes quickly, but they still make them! What they learn can be dubious though. Think of Dr.House. Even when convicted and sent to jail, he doesn't learn that he should stop bad behaviors. He merely learns to hide and control it better.
Sure, this is all well and good, but why bring this up at all? I bring this up because, within the webnovel space, there are a lot, almost too many to count, bad genius style characters. It's gotten so bad that a subset of readers have started to see accurately represented intelligence and call them stupid for not being precognitive, having no flaws, or for that matter, not immediately becoming fascist dictator of the world due to their superior intellect.
Perhaps the character is a drug addict, or too pacifist, maybe they're a pushover. Especially in an isekai. A character hopping to a different world, even a genius, needs to learn what to expect from the world. The golden rule for a genius is "Once Bitten, Twice Shy". The next time you go to write a character that is a genius, ask yourself, "Am I writing a genius, or am I writing an oracle?" Geniuses make mistakes and learn from them quickly. Oracles do not make mistakes of importance at all.
Thank you for listening to my TED Rant.
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