Why do characters in fiction seem smarter than their real life counterparts?

[The Big Peat]

It's a somewhat glib answer but I can't help but think rephrasing the question as "why does entertainment pick the most entertaining possible permutations of reality for its subject" - which seems a very fair rephrasing to me - also provides the real answer. It's the same reason we tell people about the time someone stopped us in the street and did something terrifying/hilarious/unusual, not asked us if we knew the way to the train station.

And by now, anyone who gets into their job expecting it to be like fiction frankly has it coming.

Yes, you can create entertainment out of mundanity - see Line of Duty's interviews - but it's almost always juiced up somewhere.

 

[HareBrain]

It's the same reason we tell people about the time someone stopped us in the street and did something terrifying/hilarious/unusual, not asked us if we knew the way to the train station.

Ah -- I think I've just worked out why no one comes to my dinner parties any more.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Ah -- I think I've just worked out why no one comes to my dinner parties any more.

Probably more likely is it’s the Demis Roussos.

 

[Dan Jones]

"I say, you've done it again, Poirot! You've spent five weeks and hundred of pounds only to conclude that the murderer was someone wearing gloves!"

"'Astings, I do not see why you focus so much on this, when you 'ave dressed yourself again with your underpants on your 'ead."

Why is Poirot speaking in a Cockney accent?

Probably more likely is it’s the Demis Roussos.

And the Chartreuse. I still get the willies about that dream he made me have.

 

[MemoryTale]

I think reality has become unrealistic. If you write a hacking scene, people will expect frantic typing, much mentioning of firewalls, and someone dramatically saying "We're in!" No-one really expects a scene where the hacker runs a pre-made program, scratches under their armpit and wanders off to buy pizza while their program does its thing.

 

[JunkMonkey]

And by now, anyone who gets into their job expecting it to be like fiction frankly has it coming.

Actually my job for many years turned out to be exactly like fiction. When my first child was born I stayed home and became the stay at home dad and suddenly found myself fully understanding for the first time how accurate all those 1980s feminist novels I had read back in the day had actually been. Housework and child-rearing IS deeply boring, underappreciated, relentlessly repetitive, and soul-destroying.

 

[MemoryTale]

Actually my job for many years turned out to be exactly like fiction. When my first child was born I stayed home and became the stay at home dad and suddenly found myself fully understanding for the first time how accurate all those 1980s feminist novels I had read back in the day had actually been. Housework and child-rearing IS deeply boring, underappreciated, relentlessly repetitive, and soul-destroying.

Boring up until the point you have to deal with poo-mageddon.

 

[Montero]

Actually my job for many years turned out to be exactly like fiction. When my first child was born I stayed home and became the stay at home dad and suddenly found myself fully understanding for the first time how accurate all those 1980s feminist novels I had read back in the day had actually been. Housework and child-rearing IS deeply boring, underappreciated, relentlessly repetitive, and soul-destroying.

Well, a friend of mine when she had kids couldn't bear to leave them to go back to work, and so she trained as a child minder and made a living taking in extra kids during the day......

 

[JunkMonkey]

Well, a friend of mine when she had kids couldn't bear to leave them to go back to work, and so she trained as a child minder and made a living taking in extra kids during the day......

Oh don't get me wrong; I loved it. It was the job I was born to do. I have never been happier. It was odd being the only man on the school gates. I found myself saying things like "the other mums". But it did give me an insight into the way women and 'women's work' have been perceived and portrayed in the West that I had only really come across in fiction before. Like the moment I really truly 'got' what sexism was about - first day we put our first daughter into nursery, the staff - all women - directed every question they had about my daughter to my wife. What she liked to play? any food allergies? did she nap in the afternoon? all that stuff. Every time my wife would say - "Ask my husband; he's the one who stays home with her. I go to work." I would answer... and the next question would be directed at my wife again as if I wasn't in the room. And round it would go again. I was invisible. I finally got what all those women writing all those books published by The Women's Press and Virago etc. had been saying. I felt it for the first time. Odd moment. And yes I did burst into tears when I left her at school for the first time. She didn't. She was away like a rat up a drainpipe happy as hell.

 

[Montero]

Oh yeah, sexism is complicated and there is a lot of women's attitude in it too. Or put more broadly, some people are really inflexible and also it is really hard to unlearn habits. What can be a shock is seeing a film of yourself doing something - as in if those nursery staff had been filmed and then shown the film, it might have shocked them to see their own behaviour which had effectively been unconscious.

 

[Vladd67]

With our second child I was the stay at home dad, I tried a couple of toddler groups but it quickly became obvious that they were mother and toddler groups and the mums dealt with a man in their midst by just ignoring me. So in end I used to drop the oldest off at school then take the youngest to the park or our local muffin/coffee shop.

 

[JunkMonkey]

With our second child I was the stay at home dad, I tried a couple of toddler groups but it quickly became obvious that they were mother and toddler groups and the mums dealt with a man in their midst by just ignoring me. So in end I used to drop the oldest off at school then take the youngest to the park or our local muffin/coffee shop.

I live in a small village so I knew some of the mums to start with (and some of their mums too). My proudest moment at playgroup was standing outside having a ciggy (I used to smoke) with a couple of the women when there was some sort of ruckus inside the church hall and I heard my daughter howling.
"Gotta go. That's my daughter's wanting me."
"Bloody hell!" one of them said. "You've got good hearing!"
"Not really. She's the only one yelling "Daddy!"

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

For me it's a balancing act between smart and stupid. And sometimes you get it right, sometimes wrong. Horribly wrong!

So here's a couple of examples where to my mind they got things horribly wrong. The West Wing's up there first because while I only watched a couple of episodes I was constantly asking myself why are they speaking so fast and how can everyone on the show seem to know everything about everything?

And then there was Luthor. I loved the show, but every damn time something happened I had to wonder how someone so bright could make so many utterly stupid decisions. In the blurbs they called him self destructive, but really he just couldn't work out the most basic thing - if someone is in danger for their life and you can't do something about it as a cop, you call the cops. But how many times did he fail to take this simple step for no obvious reason? Exwife being held at gunpoint, you're on the other side of town on foot and running, obviously can't get there in time? Well of course you don't call the cops and have them get there in their cars!!! It drove me nuts!

And then there was "The Majorca Files where in I think the first episode the detectives found an abandoned boat which might or might not have been the bad guy's vehicle, then found a receipt on the ground vaguely near it, realised that it must belong to the bad guys even though it could have blown in from anywhere, go to the store and then see someone they don't know enter it and immediately know he's the bad guy! That was just plain crazy!

But those are just the ones that got me. I'm sure you all have your own examples.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Hi,

For me it's a balancing act between smart and stupid. And sometimes you get it right, sometimes wrong. Horribly wrong!

So here's a couple of examples where to my mind they got things horribly wrong. The West Wing's up there first because while I only watched a couple of episodes I was constantly asking myself why are they speaking so fast and how can everyone on the show seem to know everything about everything?

And then there was Luthor. I loved the show, but every damn time something happened I had to wonder how someone so bright could make so many utterly stupid decisions. In the blurbs they called him self destructive, but really he just couldn't work out the most basic thing - if someone is in danger for their life and you can't do something about it as a cop, you call the cops. But how many times did he fail to take this simple step for no obvious reason? Exwife being held at gunpoint, you're on the other side of town on foot and running, obviously can't get there in time? Well of course you don't call the cops and have them get there in their cars!!! It drove me nuts!

And then there was "The Majorca Files where in I think the first episode the detectives found an abandoned boat which might or might not have been the bad guy's vehicle, then found a receipt on the ground vaguely near it, realised that it must belong to the bad guys even though it could have blown in from anywhere, go to the store and then see someone they don't know enter it and immediately know he's the bad guy! That was just plain crazy!

But those are just the ones that got me. I'm sure you all have your own examples.

Cheers, Greg.

I figure everyone - even characters in movies whose lives are scripted for them - is allowed to make one really dumb move per story. We all make mistakes. They can get away with more than one if the character very quickly realises he or she has made a mistake and tries to put things right - most farces would be over in minutes if this didn't happen. It's when the characters continually make stupid mistakes without realising it, or do things that no sane person - even in a moment of panic- would do in real life that I give up. Especially when those 'mistakes' are made purely to keep the plot moving. I gave up on a film recently when a character said - "Let's keep this to ourselves till we can figure it out." solely because the film's budget obviously didn't run to having any more actors and the story (such as it was) would be over 15 seconds after they told anyone else what was going on.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Probably more likely is it’s the Demis Roussos.

I recently bought a couple of Demis Roussos albums. I had forgotten how good and in a lot of ways forward thinking his music was. He's one of the few singers of his era I didn't once shout misogynistic prick at (I mean it could be concealed in the Greek). He really doesn't do stalker songs. I dance and sing round the kitchen.

He's more than welcome at my dinner parties

 

[mistri]

And then there was Luthor. I loved the show, but every damn time something happened I had to wonder how someone so bright could make so many utterly stupid decisions. In the blurbs they called him self destructive, but really he just couldn't work out the most basic thing - if someone is in danger for their life and you can't do something about it as a cop, you call the cops. But how many times did he fail to take this simple step for no obvious reason? Exwife being held at gunpoint, you're on the other side of town on foot and running, obviously can't get there in time? Well of course you don't call the cops and have them get there in their cars!!! It drove me nuts!

Luthor, in the early eps anyway, also had a habit of making leaps of logic that were beyond smart to impossible - because he'd got them from the script, not from what he could've picked up on screen. So frustrating!

Most police work (and other types of work) require a lot of effort, some tedium, and a good amount of time, too. Which in fiction wouldn't be too exciting, so we shorten the processes to get to the dramatic bits quicker. Which, if the writing is good, makes the character smart and efficient. If the writing isn't good enough it just becomes unbelievable instead.