comment

DanG at 9:15PM, Dec. 18, 2024

I really loved the song mr.Gunwallace. Thank Ya!

Ozoneocean at 6:00PM, Dec. 17, 2024

@Paul- One of the sad realities of life is that all the big political manoeuvring, wars, financial disasters and things we commonly ascribe to intelligent people making plans and working behind the scenes (which is ESPECIALLY common in fiction), is ALL in reality simply just the mistakes and blundering of idiots and then people blindly reacting to it. with a tiny little minority intelligently taking advantage of things as they happen- but even that is usually dumb luck.

Ozoneocean at 5:47PM, Dec. 17, 2024

@Paul- that's the scary reality of stupidity :(

Ozoneocean at 5:46PM, Dec. 17, 2024

@Marco- that's how I always misspell stupidity haha! You make a good point- innocence triumphs, it's nice. One thing I mention in the Quackcast are Robert E Howard characters- I show his Hillbilly Brekinridge Elkins in the cover image and he's a complete idiot, but characters like Conan are mostly idiots to, he is ignorant of culture, maths, science, magic, religion etc (all things in his world) and yet he's shown to always triumph regardless or BECAUSE of that: Because his raw animal intelligence and instincts are superior to intellect XD -I'm not sure what Howard was saying there because although he was a big strong man and loved physicality himself he was massively knowledgeable and very intelligent and well read.

Banes at 4:05PM, Dec. 17, 2024

@Paul - I tend to portray the innocent type simpleminded folk. You give some good food for thought. I’d have to change the majority of my characters xD - but going forward it’s worth thinking about what you’re saying.

PaulEberhardt at 1:52PM, Dec. 17, 2024

I used to portray idiots as having a childlike, almost charming innocence, too, but I'm consciously moving away from that. The older I get the less tolerant I become of them. I personally suffered from idiots and people indulging them, as did relatives of mine, and... well, I was raised not to attack anyone who's clearly weaker, but there's only so much you can take. Bonhoeffer was so right. If you tolerate idiocy, you'll allow it to spread, and smart evil people will be all too happy to make use of it.

PaulEberhardt at 1:47PM, Dec. 17, 2024

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer - a pastor who got famous (and killed) for openly opposing the Nazis when no one else had the balls to - said more or less: idiots are even more dangerous than evil people because stupidity gets too much tolerance, so nobody will take them seriously enough until it's too late; then idiots are generally full of themselves, can't be reasoned with in any debate and impulsive on top - making them hostile and totally unpredictable to rationally thinking people. He was right. This is basically my blueprint for stupid characters. My personal experience with stupid people also suggests that when writing characters like that, any notion of temporary suspension of disbelief should be ignored: no matter how unbelievably dense you make them and their actions, real-life morons will one-up it. Politics provide plenty of points in case.

marcorossi at 3:31AM, Dec. 17, 2024

Stuoidity in stories depends on the fact that the characters sees the world s/he inhabits differently both from the readers and from the author (or at least from the readers), so the "stupid" charachter is actually a way to explore another "wrong" point of view. For example a stupid antagonist could be a meathead, and this allows to show the point of view of someone who only sees physical strenght, or a stupid protagonist could be too naive and innocent, and therefore triumph in the end, thus showing that "good values" always triumph in the end etc.