Omnimaths?

[Guttersnipe]

Are there any stories or novels that involve someone who has knowledge of everything? I think I read about one in a Kurt Vonnegut novel--the man had become omniscient somehow. I always thought that it was an interesting idea. My question is, not only are there many omniscient characters in fiction, but what authors "got it right" and made the idea convincing and unique?

 

[AllanR]

The Nexialist is the Voyage of the Space Beagle (Van Goht) is somewhat an omnimath.
Oh that's an omnimath, not omniscient (they are different things)
Omnimath only means having expert knowledge in all subject matters.

 

[Rodders]

The only thing that comes to mind is the prescience that the Spice Melange gives its users in Dune. I suspect that is isn't quite the answer you're looking for.

I also think that most of the stories that can lay claim to a veneer of Omniscience are those involving vast intellects such as the AI Penny Royal in Neal Asher's Polity works or perhaps Ozymandias from Alan Moore's The Watchmen.

 

[Guttersnipe]

The Nexialist is the Voyage of the Space Beagle (Van Goht) is somewhat an omnimath.
Oh that's an omnimath, not omniscient (they are different things)
Omnimath only means having expert knowledge in all subject matters.

Yeah, didn't mean to conflate the two.

New Title: Omniscients/Pantomaths

 

[Valtharius]

I've actually been writing a book about a guy trying to become (more omnimath than omniscient) something like that.