Re: intelligence of the author vs. intelligence of the characters

So I guess the real question is, "Can a 'smart' author create a 'genius'
character?"

I'd say yeah.

There are ways of getting around this. A smart author can research. Plus, you
don't even have to really directly depict the character. We have oodles of
descriptions of Seymour's poetry, for example, but only four lines of poetry --
and they're supposed to be juvenalia.

It's much easier to describe a genius, Wordsworthian level poet than to write
his poetry :).

The other way Salinger got around having to depict genius was by making all his
genius characters, well, Kids. At least the Very Top Geniuses were all kids.
We read the most directly from Seymour when he's a pre teen at camp (and a short
letter he'd written to Buddy as an adult), and then there's Teddy. It's easier
to make a ten year old look like a genius than a 30 year old, you know? :).

Jim

m e g h a n wrote:

> Yes, by smart I mean genuis levels, not just an A student in school. So
> smart that it stands out, not just "hey you get good grades" smart. If an
> author researches thought patterns and goes into all that work just to
> create a genuis level character, don't you think that s/he would have a
> substancial amount of intelligence themselves? The more I've thought about
> it today, I can't really think of an author who is "dumb." Maybe just to be
> a writer, or good one, you have to have above-average intelligence.
>
> Salinger's eastern philosophy influences are *defintely* another discussion.
> From my (limited) knowledge of eastern philosophy, particuarly Buddhism, it
> seems that to understand it, you need to be at a certain level. Perhaps the
> subject matters that the author deals with is an indicator of their
> intelligence. Then again, it could just show what they're interested in...
>
> I wish that instead of the goverment spending money on things such as "the
> impact of two competing grocery stores in one town and customer loyalty,"
> they would find out things that need answers! Such as my question. However,
> I'm not sure many other people really care about authors, and I bet an even
> smaller percentage cares about their intelligence.
>
> meghan
>
> >From: Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu>
> >Reply-To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
> >To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
> >Subject: Re: intelligence of the author vs. intelligence of the characters
> >Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 16:01:09 -0400
> >
> >That's a good question...hard to say :). I think part of this is really
> >about
> >how convincingly an author can draw a "smart" character, and this has more
> >to do
> >with what people in general recognize as signs of intelligence vs. actual
> >intelligence. If the author researches behavior/thought patterns of
> >"smart"
> >people (I assume by smart you mean genius level) he/she may be able to
> >convincingly create a genius character without being a genius.
> >
> >But it's really hard for me to think of an author I really know to be
> >"dumb" and
> >see how she/he drew "smart" characters. I'd think the author was just a
> >poor
> >writer first.
> >
> >I think Salinger's views of intelligence were at least partly influenced by
> >his
> >study of eastern philosophy...so that could be a whole other ball o' wax
> >there...
> >
> >Jim
> >
> >m e g h a n wrote:
> >
> > > I'm not even sure how I got started thinking about this, but all of
> > > Salinger's characters(I was focusing on the Glass family when I thought
> >of
> > > this though) are smart, to say the least. And while I've never really
> > > researched Salinger or his life, I think it's safe to call him an
> > > intelligent man. So what I'm wondering is, does the intelligence of the
> > > author impact the intelligence of the characters? Would it be hard for a
> > > "dumb" author to create a smart character, or for a smart author to
> >create a
> > > dumb character? Or do you think that in most cases, the author doesn't
> >think
> > > about the characters intelligence(except in cases where it somehow
> >effects
> > > the book), and because of that, the characters end up reflecting the
> >authors
> > > intelligence?
> > >
> > > Meghan
> > >
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