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what passes for a "genius" nowadays
So I was at my mom's house and I watched an episode of House. That almost sounds like the lead-in to a bad joke, and maybe it is.
So I watch the episode and its the typical, House nearly gets a patient killed before miraculously finding the cure. And I'm like "House isn't the medical genius he's supposed to be if he always has to nearly kill patients before saving them."
Then my mom is like "but Edmond, that's how real doctors do things!"
So I'm like "THEN HE'S NOT A GENIUS, HE'S JUST A DOCTOR, AND THERE'S NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT HIM!"
Not that I mind a show about a perfectly ordinary doctor, but don't sell me that House is a genius every five minutes and then have him not actually be a genius.
Then again, television in general has rotted everybody's brain, so maybe he is a genius.
Comments
Then my mom is like "but Edmond, that's how real doctors do things!"
*is about to comment but then remembers we are talking about US healthcare*That too. But to be honest, lately I haven't been impressed with the ideas of "intelligence" represented either in the House or other investigative cases, where they're mostly fuckwads who manage to get lucky most of the time, or else in the David Xanatos way where they make unbelievably complicated plots which only work because the story requires them to, nor in the Lit Crit way where "the story is about a murderous voodoo cult OMG ITS ASKING DEEP QUESTIONS ABOUT THE DARK SIDE OF RELIGION!"
Call me crazy, but when I see "intelligence," the jocks and bullies I used to hate in school start to make more sense. When it comes down to it, physical strength and fitness are where it counts, and having practical smarts--IE the ability to respond optimally to layman, real-world situations--is a cherry on top of that. If you have the cherry but not the ice cream it goes with, then you're missing something vital. Hell, a lot of people do fine without the cherry.
Of course then I watch a Fourth Doctor serial and start to wonder, but I imagine he's probably physically fit on top of being really smart so there you go.
He does.
To be fair, I like the show House itself--I find his attitude refreshing on days where I'm really depressed (though, that's probably a really bad way to deal with it). But its also an example of why I'm usually so hard on American media--we have a way of really lowering our standards.
Then again, as far back as whenever Mark Twain was alive we had "Tom Sawyer is clever because he can convince kids that painting a fence is fun," which isn't so much "Tom is clever" as "everyone else is really stupid." So I guess our standards have always been low.
"which isn't so much "Tom is clever" as "everyone else is really stupid."
That still qualifies. Part of cleverness is knowing how to pick your targets. *cough* Tea Party Movement *cough*
Better call that Stephen Hawking Guy and tell him.
... Dude, what? the House/Blackjack connection already rests on the fragile fact that both are doctors. The Blackjack/Holmes connection simply doesn't exist.
Is there a Japanese Doctor Who by chance?
You've been on TV Tropes too long. No, they don't have that much in common.
If anything it would at least keep them healthy enough to perform their experiments.
But yeah, Juan reminded me of how Chloe in Smallville is supposedly really smart by having a large vocabulary and knowing obscure facts, but lacks any actual analytical thinking whatsoever.
And I expected this thread to have devolved into a diatribe about what American popular entertainment says about the state of its society by now. Glad we avoided that.
Sorry to be Captain Obvious, but if House worked out what diseases his patients had easily and without several false starts, there'd be no programme; and if everyone didn't think he was a genius, they'd never put up with the way he behaves otherwise. It's a necessary suspension of disbelief.
^^ Actually, whenever anyone's been convinced I'm intelligent IRL, it's usually been because I knew obscure facts or used a big word, regardless of the quality of my thinking. That stuff does impress people.