try to comprehend that which you'll never comprehend

[dragonladyflame]

In an amazing followup to recent conversations about face-macing, Housemate Abby actually maced herself in the face at dinner recently. Apparently, she thought the mace distribution mechanism was a flashlight

Comments

[jonathankorman]

Apropos of rational characters, Neal Stephenson gave a recent talk about science fiction in which he argued that the major difference between SF and “mainstream” fiction is that in SF the characters behave intelligently ... as industrial-era professionals do.

[dragonladyflame]

Hmm, sounds interesting. Do you happen to know if there's a text transcript anywhere?

[jonathankorman]

Not to my knowledge. But I can promise that Stephenson's talk is pretty entertaining, if you care to listen through it.

[dragonladyflame]

I have a distaste for video that is unfitting for a member of my generation, but maybe I'll try to get some sewing done while I listen or something. :grin:

i have no insight

[anonymous]

because i know so little about writing narrative or dialog. but i found nothing to disagree with in what you wrote. nor am i aware of any disagreements yudkowsky would have with you on this topic.

i'm glad i was able to point you to something interesting.

mike

[dragonladyflame]

I cannot think of a less offensive comment!

Death Note

[morpheusak]

It's like an action anime without any fighting, about a pair of incredibly intelligent characters who do battle with each other using mental and social rolls alone.

[dragonladyflame]

I'll have to check it out. I've heard of it, for sure, but it just sounded like a clone of "Bleach" ... unless I'm confusing it with something else ... anyway, your description makes it sound very different.

[morpheusak]

Yea, big swords get boring. Death Note was extremely satisfying.

[dragonladyflame]

Definitely. It's downright hard to try and write characters who are as non-cogent as real people. I think part of it is also that we just have a really hard time imagining all the different inputs that real people are receiving. A novel only outlines a few inputs at once, whereas we actually deal with dozens plus histories far more detailed than the ones we can encapsulate on paper. It's sort of amazing that we can write fictional characters at all, really.

[proudduckling]

In terms of rational behavior, all I really ask from characters is internal consistency. And even that doesn't have to be one hundred percent - a character can do something that s/he never would have done six pages ago, but I'd at least like it acknowledged, and some explanation or character arc given.

[dragonladyflame]

Can you think of any examples of lack of consistency that have frustrated you in the past?