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Thread: Does Being Intelligent Have Anything to Do with Writing Good Literature?

  1. #61
    Registered User Nikonani's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WolfLarsen View Post
    I sometimes feel that I'm one of the most intellectually challenged members of this Internet site. Maybe it's my genes. Maybe I played too much football as a kid without a helmet, but whatever the reason I'm not very smart.

    However, I am also one of the most creative members of this Internet site.

    Sometimes I think that being smart has nothing to do with writing creative literature.

    Actually, being smart seems to have nothing to do with writing great literature whether it's creative or conventional.
    I sometimes feel that I'm one of the most physically challenged members of this Football team. Maybe it's my genes. Maybe I read too many books as a kid without standing up and taking walks, but whatever the reason I'm not very strong.

    However, I am also one of the most creative members of this Football team.

    Sometimes I think that being strong has nothing to do with playing football.

    Actually, being strong seems to have nothing to do with throwing footballs whether it's creative or conventional.


    Stop looking for an easy out, you have it or you don't. Figure out that divide with practice and intensive and directed reading.
    Last edited by Nikonani; 08-09-2015 at 12:19 AM.
    “But though I loved not holy things,
    To hear them scorned brought pain,—
    They were my childhood; and these dames
    Were merely perjured in saints' names
    And fixed upon saints' days for games."

  2. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by WolfLarsen View Post
    Good evening, or morning...

    Plot structure can always be thrown out the window.

    What do you need a plot for?

    Lots of my books don't have plots.
    Last phrase reminds me Haruki Murakami. I love his books! I feel about them the same as about a music. Pleasure to read / listen. Once it is stopped - you do not hear it anymore. His books are as a melody... That is why he is unique.

  3. #63
    Maybe YesNo's Avatar
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    "Unique" is the way I would describe WolfLarsen's writing as well. I haven't seen him around lately. Maybe he will show up. BTW, welcome, Margerma!

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    Quote Originally Posted by YesNo View Post
    "Unique" is the way I would describe WolfLarsen's writing as well. I haven't seen him around lately. Maybe he will show up. BTW, welcome, Margerma!
    Vulgarity is not unique.

  5. #65
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    Perhaps it is a blessing, but I haven't seen anyone else write like him.

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    Quote Originally Posted by YesNo View Post
    Perhaps it is a blessing, but I haven't seen anyone else write like him.
    He threatened to castrate me.

  7. #67
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    Quote Originally Posted by YesNo View Post
    "Unique" is the way I would describe WolfLarsen's writing as well. I haven't seen him around lately. Maybe he will show up. BTW, welcome, Margerma!
    Thanks YesNo:-) I do not know WolfLarsen books, but after reading the comments and googling him, it seems he is one of those "scandalous" people?
    Anyway, back to the question re Intelligence/writing books, I think Intelligence is impossible to define. My 8 year old son is obsessed with Science and space. When he tells me about space junk and my opinion what is the best option to deal with it - I do not know what to say. I am absolutely dull with all that. How submarine gets radio waves, how plane knows a way in the sky, why Venus does not have water anymore - am I not intelligent enough?
    I believe (maybe it is utopical way of thinking) that every person has it's own talent. There are not stupid or non-talented people, the question is how to find your talent. Your intelligence depends on your talents, natural skills.

  8. #68
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    Yes, I agree that people's talents are different. I can't get my feet into those yoga postures, for example, but we are all intelligent enough to get through the day. And "scandalous" is another good description of WolfLarsen. Sometimes "annoying" comes to my mind as well, but then I think isn't it fortunate that we are not all alike?

    One thing you could do with your 8 year old is introduce him to the internet, if he doesn't have it already. I have a 2 year old great-niece who has no problem using her mother's phone to get the cartoons she wants to listen to. Luckily her mother's phone has a protective case around it since it does drop out of the high chair often. Then all you have to do is help him search for the information he wants at a level suitable for his age.

  9. #69
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    Quote Originally Posted by HCabret View Post
    He threatened to castrate me.
    Yeah, that doesn't surprise me.

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    Quote Originally Posted by YesNo View Post
    Then all you have to do is help him search for the information he wants at a level suitable for his age.
    Then again, it might not be long before he wants something that is not suitable for his age.

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    I believe writing a good book requires a fairly high level of intelligence, but possibly just as important, and maybe more so, that they have creative genius which cannot be quantified in the same way IQ can. It is true that all writers are subject to their own experiences, environment, and the books they have read, but that doesn't guarantee a good writer, hence the creative aspect.

    I would also argue that reading WELL requires a fairly high level of intelligence, or at least a fair amount of knowledge and experience to be able to understand the many nuances and references contained in a challenging book. One person may read a book and miss 90% of what the author was trying to say, whereas another person might understand everything the writer said or implied, which would imply that the reader's comprehension and knowledge are nearly equivalent with the author's, but this still doesn't guarantee that the reader could have produced the same kind of book if they lack the requisite talent and drive to do so.

  12. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vota View Post
    One person may read a book and miss 90% of what the author was trying to say, whereas another person might understand everything the writer said or implied
    That's a good point. On some threads people ask how many books can you "read" in a year. A better question would be how many books did you actually "understand" last year. Of course, it would be hard to answer that second question since one may not know that one did not understand the book.

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    Quote Originally Posted by YesNo View Post
    That's a good point. On some threads people ask how many books can you "read" in a year. A better question would be how many books did you actually "understand" last year. Of course, it would be hard to answer that second question since one may not know that one did not understand the book.
    Thoreau tells you not to read. Not not to read, but not not not to read. Read the Iliad!

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    "To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written."

    " A truly good book attracts very little favor to itself. It is so true that it teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down and commence living on its hint. When I read an indifferent book, it seems the best thing I can do, but the inspiring volume hardly leaves me leisure to finish its latter pages. It is slipping out of my fingers while I read. It creates no atmosphere in which it may be perused, but one in which its teachings may be practiced. It confers on me such wealth that I lay it down with regret. What I began by reading I must finish by acting."

    "I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run."

  15. #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by HCabret View Post
    Thoreau tells you not to read. Not not to read, but not not not to read. Read the Iliad!
    Those sentences are a perfect example of the difference between reading and understanding! I read them, but I did not understand them.

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