Quirks of highly intelligent people - First Person POV

[Valiant]

I am writing a story which includes the point of view of a man who is supposed to come off as highly intelligent. What are some personal quirks in the thought process that I can convey through his thoughts/emotions that would make him seem of higher intellect, while still being considered believable?

 

[Ralph Fg]

It kind of depends on his personality.

If he is the more stereotypical nerdy type of genius, then show the readers that he knows many things that others don't, and are in general uninterested in others because of the fact that he finds others stupid, and don't forget to show that he is very mature and has complicated thought processes (say, a whole paragraph dedicated to how he deduce certain things with complicated logics).

 

[Saigonnus]

Perhaps a perpensity for giving a long description for something that could be described in a shorter manner. For example: John asks Bob (our smart guy) during a movie what he thinks about the main plot for the movie. Instead of a short answer like "It could use a little work." Bob proceeds to go into detail about every single flaw he noticed in the plotline movie, the real history behind said flaws and how he'd have changed things if he was producing the movie.

I don't pretend to be super intelligent, but I have that quirk and the wifey gets annoyed to no end sometimes; even calling me Mr. History Channel.

 

[ascanius]

I do that too, give really complicated long answers for a simple question. But I really don't see why people complain about it, it's what I think, and the reasons why. I always felt those things were needed for me to answer the question. Though I will say it makes it really hard to keep peoples attention.

I would say that said character would have problems with simple things that everyone else understands naturally, like socially inept. I have met a few people who were very intelligent and they, were, well stumbling over their feet when it came to people.

 

[Queshire]

mrrr... careful there bucko. Smart people are people too and we don't like to be stereotyped. That said, can't go wrong with random facts and trivia!

EDIT: Also, social ineptitude isn't neccesarily linked to intelligence. I consider myself relatively bright, and I will be the first to admit that I am socially inept, however that's because I have Aspergers, and not because of my intelligence. That said, I do suggest looking at Aspergers, I like to think of it as the Mad Scientist type condition. Admittedly, that's just because I have it and I think Mad Scientists rock, but to a point it's accurate. Also, it is NEVER portrayed correctly in literature, I'd very much like it if it was.

 

[Penpilot]

I would say people are people whether they're intelligent or stupid. There are socially inept intelligent guys and outgoing studly intelligent guys too. They can be snooty or humble. The thought processes of an intelligent person depends on their personality. Just because a person is intelligent, doesn't mean they think everyone else is stupid or inferior. Intelligent people, really intelligent people, in my experience know they don't know everything. I find that it's the stupid people who think they know it all. Treat your character as a person who just happens to be intelligent, not just an intelligent character and I think you'll be fine. Maybe check out the TV series Eureka. It a show filled with geniuses portrayed in all different shades.

 

[The Dark One]

Onya Valiant...this is a great thread topic.

At the risk of sounding a tad pretentious...there is one important precondition for writing from the POV of a highly intelligent person. You MUST be highly intelligent yourself. Let's assume that you meet the precondition (and I expect that most members of this forum would), you must then avoid at all costs trying dumb the narrator down - a highly intelligent person should by definition be a bit of a challenge for normal readers. Having said that, if you can manage to carry your readers along with you (and thereby make them feel highly intelligent themselves) you've probably got a best seller on your hands.

The thing I hated most about the Da Vinci Code was: it's supposed to be told from the perspective of a world expert in religious iconography. We're constantly privy to Prof Langdon's (or whatever his name is) thoughts, and to me his thoughts seem less like a middle aged professor and more like a sassy teenager with attitude! How often does he say: Whatever! For god's sake! Even worse, with little more than the average person's knowledge of religious iconography, I guessed everything that happened about five pages earlier than Professor Langdon! That does not make me feel like I'm in the presence of genius. If you can't stay ahead of your readers in your own story, don't insult their intelligence. Stick to third person or settle for a POV of less exalted intellect.

Having said all that, I have presumed to write four novels from the POV of a highly intelligent narrator...two of them published, one just sent to my agent (which I'm hoping will be the one that takes me to the next level). My approach to writing these characters is to establish a strong narrative voice and to be utterly uncompromising in telling the story on the narrator's terms. Do not stick rigidly to literal descriptions or linear unfoldings of plot. Complex characters must have complicated means of expressing themselves, but at the same time maintain a sound momentum of story which is easy to follow.

It's taken me 20 years to get that blend right. Really interested to see what others have to say about this deeply fascinating subject.

 

[Cloud]

Three easy, important, traits for an 'intelligent' P.O.V.

Speed of thought
If someone can think an essay in the time it takes for a dropped cup to hit the floor, readers consider them smart.

Accuracy of thought
Seeing the correct solution where others cannot is a simple benchmark of intelligence. Put your character in situations which baffle others, and let him provide that eureka moment and make it look easy.

Range of knowledge
It's not enough to think quick, or well, they must also have a history of thought - a deep and fascinating well of knowledge to dip into a draw comparisons to their current situation.

 

[Valiant]

Thank you for the replies everyone. I especially appreciate your response Dark One. If the pages in your book are anything like the paragraphs in your response I am sure you will find success with your publications.

 

[The Dark One]

Thank you for the replies everyone. I especially appreciate your response Dark One. If the pages in your book are anything like the paragraphs in your response I am sure you will find success with your publications.

Wow! Thanks Valiant, that's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me on a forum.

I must say, I thought Cloud's contribution was quite pithy also - good simple advice, easy to follow.

In the first novel I ever finished (which I thought was a work of deeply profound genius at the time), the main character was the head actuary in the biggest corporation in the world. In fact, it was written in 3rd person but the MC's mind was incredibly powerful and esoteric and seemed to flow into everything...even the 3P description!

I think that part of the story I definitely got right, but to be honest, on the rare occasion I open that book these days (which sold 124 copies in 2001) I can't read three sentences without vomiting blood.

 

[Kikuchiyo]

An excellent starting point, I believe, if a tad bit extreme, would be to read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It revolves around Ignatius J. Reilly, an over-educated, obese oaf who possesses a worldview based on medieval philosophy, and his struggle to fit into the modern world as a result. Hilarity ensues.

 

[Steerpike]

An excellent starting point, I believe, if a tad bit extreme, would be to read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It revolves around Ignatius J. Reilly, an over-educated, obese oaf who possesses a worldview based on medieval philosophy, and his struggle to fit into the modern world as a result. Hilarity ensues.

Great book.

 

[Trick]

Depending on the personailty you end up developing this may not work for you but it's my bit of advice, as it were.

Highly intelligent people tend to be prideful (sometimes rightly so, sometimes not) and hate being given lengthy explanations. When someone is going throught the complex workings of a ceiling fan for the third time a genius is likely to snap a little; ie, "I get it! I could have created a better design for this when I was eight! I understood everything about it before your first time explaining it!"

On the flip side, they tend to over explain things to others, assuming them to be of a lesser intelligence than their own (sometimes rightly so, sometimes not) which can engender poor relationship skills.

Also, highly-intelligent and genius don't always mean the same thing and, IMHO, true geniuses tend to be less prideful and more distracted.

Hope that helps.

 

[The Dark One]

I'd forgotten about this thread - very pleased to see it resurrected.

Notwithstanding my long post earlier, I think I'd restate the advice as simply being: make sure the character says and does intelligent things. I wouldn't bother with trying to convey intelligence in a 'device driven' way. If you don't naturally write like that then you may just look a bit half-baked/unintelligent yourself - especially when writing from 1st person. Much easier to do a 3rd person intelligent character. To do 1st person, you must seriously be highly intelligent yourself.

Of course, how do you truly know such a thing?

I read somewhere that believing oneself to be highly intelligent tends to be a feature of schizophrenia.

 

[wordwalker]

A couple tips:

One, intelligence is not the same as knowing more-- but it's often tied to a better memory, and being more creative at recognizing one fact as relevant to something else. The ability to use whatever knowledge you've taken in more efficiently. --Of course, once someone gets good at using information, the idea of spending more of the day learning gets more appealing.

Two, I like to draw the line between intelligence and wisdom (and not just because of D&D). Intelligence in itself is a positive, enabling thing: A can mean B can mean C and soon you have a plan. Wisdom is cautionary, keeping aware that those links are still "CAN mean" and there may be weak links in the chain. People with just the first (or whose intelligence gets running faster than wisdom keeps up) are in classic Mad Scientist territory, trying out brilliant ideas and forgetting what could go wrong-- or just the genius who forgets giving people the answers won't help if they don't listen.

Beyond that, a lot of it may be in the plotting. Read up on the tvtropes "Idiot ball" and make sure you have a plot where your genius doesn't have to do that to keep suspense up, unless there's an established character flaw (like the above) in play. He doesn't have to see everything coming, but when he's not off-balance or on an unfamiliar subject, the reader should have a sense that he sees most of it, until something more left-field pops up and then everyone's in trouble.

It also doesn't hurt if, like Holmes, we see him only through the eyes of another character who's not stupid but always appreciates how he's better. Or if, like the classic academic, he's great at theory and in his own element, but just not used to thinking under pressure.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

How to portray intelligence? To my mind the benchmark of intelligence is being able to put together the pieces of a puzzle, whatever that puzle might be, a bit quicker and on less information than others. As an aside I once had a physics teacher who claimed that the difference between a genius and another person was that the genius could reach the wrong answer faster than everyone else. And there's some truth in that.

So if you want to display your MC's brains (without an autopsy I assume) go through the plot of your work, and assuming that there is a puzzle to be solved, have him solve it, and in doing so let him show the pieces of the puzzle and how they fit together, pieces which hopefully your readers won't have picked up on by that point. It's similar to the revelation moment in a whodunnit.

As for quirks? No. All people have quirks. But to my mind adding quirks to someone to show that they're smart, eg the thoughtful pose, absent minded stares and shyness, is really just stereotyping your character.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[CupofJoe]

Anger and Competitiveness
If your MC is used to being "the smartest [wo]man in the room" then meeting someone as smart [or seems as smart to them] could lead to anger as they will feel challenged.
I spent yesterday in a room with 100+ PhDs [most had specialised in mathematical modelling of large data sets - at least one person was from CERN] and the amount of one-up-manship [and general bickering] all to win a cheap prize [tee shirt, Rubik's cube or torch] was astounding.
I kept my head well down... and got a torch [it has a built-in laser!!!!]

 

[skip.knox]

I always look for models. Sherlock Holmes is the obvious one. Besides seeing things others don't, notice how Doyle uses Watson as a foil for Holmes. We get see Watson *not* see things first, then Holmes points it out. The reader is Watson, so Holmes comes off as smarter.

In a completely different vein, Jubal Harshaw is brilliant, but Heinlein makes him folksy-brilliant. He's arrogant and quick-witted and generally two steps ahead of everyone else. Plus he's successful, and we instinctively think successful people are smarter.

Or, to jump over to an artery, any number of characters from Jules Verne, but Captain Nemo springs to mind first. He's more of the extended-paragraph type, delivering pithy critiques of Modern Civilization.

In considering the above I realize that all three authors had their Smart Guy be
1. an outsider
2. a social critic
3. independently wealthy
4. slightly mad but not too much so

Interesting. There's a lit major thesis in there somewhere!

 

[The Dark One]

In considering the above I realize that all three authors had their Smart Guy be
1. an outsider
2. a social critic
3. independently wealthy
4. slightly mad but not too much so

Interesting. There's a lit major thesis in there somewhere!

Good god! The main character in my book about to be published ticks these 4 boxes - the 4th one is maybe ambiguous - but how do you like that? I'm not as original as I thought.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I've only read a portion of the replies but I'll add this.... Highly intelligent people are as varied as any other group. It seems to me, the only common variable you should demand is the exercise of their intelligence. Those above that mentioned characters that need to act intelligent, speak intelligently, and do so consistently are right on the mark. Otherwise, the variations in a character's quirks can be any that you wish.

If you're looking for tropes for the highly intelligent types you can use the Einstein model. Bad hair, out of date fashion sense, etc. I wouldn't recommend it though. Treat each character as an individual not as a stereotype. Their intelligence will shine through in their actions & dialogue.