Genius Book Club: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

One common way to show that a character is exceptionally smart is to portray them reading classical literature or something heavily technical and science-y. Additionally, characters are always reading the heavy bound versions of the book so we can easily see ''what'', exactly, it is that they're reading- otherwise, why even bother putting the book there in the first place?

 

Also see [[Smart People Play Chess]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Evangeline from ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' was once seen reading the illustrative ''A Day, a Dog'' by Gabrielle Vincent, whose existential complexity was used humorously because, even though she's [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]], she appears 10.

* Subverted in ''[[Naruto]]'' with Kakashi, who is often referred to as a genius but whose literature of choice is erotic fiction. Written by another 'genius' ninja, no less.

* In ''[[Black Butler]]'', the young Joanne Harcourt (age unknown, but probably around 14) chooses to read ''The Logic of Hegel'' and in a flashback Vincent Phantomhive in his late teens reads Aristotle's ''Metaphysics''. In contrast, the main character Ciel Phantomhive, who is most definely also a genius, likes popular fiction and is a fan of ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]''.

 

* Evelyn Cream from ''[[Miracleman]]''. Among other things, he's read the untranslated works of various French authors and owns an original painting from a famous modern artist.

* Lex Luthor is introduced in the Alternate Continuity ''[[Superman]]: Red Son'' playing chess against 12 people at the same time, while reading Machiavelli's ''Il Principe'' and learning Urdu through an audio tape to which he's listening in the portable tape recorder that he designed in the washroom that morning.

* Lorelei, villain Ross Webster's assistant and girlfriend in ''[[Superman III]]'', appears to be a standard [[Dumb Blonde]]. However, while alone she reads Immanuel Kant's ''Critique of Pure Reason'' and disputes one of its arguments, thus showing [[Obfuscating Stupidity|her stupidity is a facade]] she puts on to manipulate others.

* The live action ''[[Death Note]]'' film has a scene with [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Light]] reading ''Thus Spake Zarathustra''.

* Played with in the film ''[[Dr. Who and the Daleks]]'': We are introduced to the title character and his family through a panning shot showing them sitting and reading. Granddaughter Susan (age 12) is reading ''Physics for the Enquiring Mind'', granddaughter Barbara is reading ''The Science of Science'', and the Doctor is reading [[Dan Dare|a comic book]].

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** This one suffers from [[Small Reference Pools]].

** Earlier in the series, it's implied that she's a [[Jane Austen]] fan, too.

* In a humorous story by [[Woody Allen]], "A Little Louder, Please" the narrator shows off how sophisticated he is by bragging that he read ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' on a roller coaster at Coney Island.

* [[Philip Roth]]'s ''[[Goodbye, Columbus]]'' has the protagonist's cousin reading ''[[War and Peace]]'' every summer and it grows increasingly obvious that she only brings the book along so she can display how intelligent she supposedly is. Given that the book is about a Jewish boy from Newark, visiting with his Aunt in Livingston and chasing after a girl who lives in (and goes to a country club in) Short Hills (local NJ geography is semi-necessary for reading), class differences are huge and he's probably making some sort of point.

* For some utterly inexpliable reason, Door from ''[[Neverwhere]]'' is repeatedly seen reading a copy of ''[[Mansfield Park]]'' that she's apparently pulled from [[Hammerspace]]. Whether it's supposed to tell us something about Door's personality or simply remind us that London Below is [[Planet Eris|just weird]] [[Mind Screw|like that]] is not made clear.

 

* Subverted the "All-England Summarise Proust Competition" from ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''.

* Subverted in ''[[Father Ted]]'': Ted leaves several novels - ''[[War and Peace]], [[Crime and Punishment]]'', etc. - on the table to impress a writer who has come to stay. Dougal says to him, "Ah, you're throwing out the ones you couldn't get through?"

** Also subverted when Father Ted goes to pick up a book he had lent to another priest. As the priest goes through his library, he mentions various heavy-weight works of philosophy and theology, until he reaches a book called ''"Tech Wars"'' - which is, of course, the book Ted lent to him.

* Tony Stonem in ''[[Skins]]'' is a bit of a literature and philosophy fan, seen reading Nietzsche and Rand on separate occasions, the latter when he's still recovering from a brain injury.

* Hiroto Suto in ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'' doesn't just read philosophy books, he reads ''English'' philosophy books.

* Used in a more specific way in the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Buffyverse]]''. To emphasize Angel's guilty brooding he is seen reading Sartre and other bleak existentialists.

* Used often enough on ''[[Lost]]''; [[Con Man|Sawyer]] is shown to be reading a lot in early seasons, though he reads basically anything he can find. A straighter example is [[The Chessmaster|Ben]], who has been seen reading ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'', ''[[VALIS]]'' by [[Philip K. Dick]] , and of course, James Joyce's ''[[Ulysses]]''.

* In one episode of ''[[Andromeda]]'', Tyr is reading [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]'s ''Beyond Good and Evil.''

** Well, considering his people call themselves [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzscheans]], that's hardly surprising.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

{{quote|'''[[GLaDOS]]:''' ''[Chell and [[GLaDOS]] exit the elevator to find a harpsichord piece by Bach playing on the speakers]'' Ohh... no, he's playing classical music. ''[they enter the testing room to hear the sound of pages being turned]''

'''Wheatley:''' Oh sorry sorry sorry; Hope that didn't disturb you too much there. It was the sound of books... pages being turned. So, that's just what I was doing, just reading, uh... books. So not a moron. [[Feigning Intelligence|Anyway, just finished the last one, just now, the hardest one. Machiavelli. Do not know what all the fuss was about - understood it perfectly.]] Have you read that one?

'''[[GLaDOS]]:''' ''[disdainfully]'' Yes.

'''Wheatley:''' Yeah, decked it. Well, on with the test! Wished there was more books! But there's not. }}

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In a moment of intentionally [[Hypocritical Humor]], Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer said on ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' season one [[DVD Commentary]] that the network thought a lot of their work was too smart for the average viewer, then started talking about a script for an episode they had written that was all about Proust.

* Given a [[Double Subversion]] in ''[[Doug]]''. In "Doug's Brainy Buddy", it is revealed that Skeeter managed to get a perfect score on an intelligence test. Doug, skeptical that his ditzy friend could really be a genius, goes to Skeeter's house and says that geniuses, among other things, "read lots of books!" Skeeter objects, pointing out his library. Doug counters that these aren't real books (they're elementary and middle school humor fiction), until running into Immanuel Kant's ''A Critique of Pure Reason''. Skeeter proceeds to make Doug dizzy and ''fall down'' with his complex (if accurate) explanation of why Kant is so interesting.

** Parodied in a ''Family Guy'' episode, in which we find that the bookshelf of Peter Griffin, who is legally retarded, contains "two ''[[Garfield]]'' books and the [[Novelization]] of the movie ''[[Caddyshack]]''."

* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' has a lot of literary influence, so it's not surprising it invokes this. Goliath is seen reading Dostoyevsky (leading Elisa to joke "Really? Who's it by?"). Also, Fox spent time in prison reading Sartre, leading to this exchange:

{{quote|'''Hyena:''' ''(While shooting paperclips at cockroaches)'' Why do you read that stuff?