Because of this, and because of other influences like Mr. Spock, I was fascinated with brain power. Pure logic solving any problem. If only I could tap the secrets of logic and other mental gymnastics I would be ahead of the game. Maybe there was something to ESP, too! I could tap that!
There were plenty of other examples in fiction that reinforced this noting
- Sherlock Holmes
- Encyclopedia Brown
- The Great Brain
- Batman
- The Professor
- and more recently: The Tales of the Thinking Machine and Professor Van Dusen
I'm older now. I know and know of really REALLY smart people. But even they don't possess Holmsian-esque super-powers solving nigh unknowable problems and mysteries with pure logic and and vast recall of useful facts. It's fiction, that sort of portrayal. And more's the pity.
And a semester of logic at college was a waste, but the professor was absolute shite.
Those Thinking Machine stories are great! "The Problem of Cell 13" is a great story. I wish Jacques Futrelle hadn't gone down with the Titanic, I'm sure he had lots more stories of Van Dusen in him.
ReplyDeleteG.K. Chesterton and his collection of mysteries solved by Father Brown is another great collection. The book of these stories is called (imaginatively) "The Complete Father Brown Mysteries.