IS STUPID REALLY STUPID, OR A DIFFERENT KIND OF SMART?: Disputations, as usual, makes the necessary distinctions I didn’t:

“Poe is kind of dumb, you know? He isn’t complex.”

Are these two sentences supposed to say the same thing? “Kind of dumb” = “not complex”?

In any case, I don’t think there’s any question that Poe the man was quite intelligent, and I think this comes out clearly enough in his writing. Without thinking it through, I wonder whether readers generally think that, if the author is intelligent, the
story is intelligent.

OK, yeah, I do think I was using “intelligence” to imply complexity, subtlety, doing a lot of sometimes-conflicting things rather than doing one thing really ferociously. Possibly that isn’t a useful set of associations–I’m not sure. In general we tend to use “intelligence” very impressionistically, at least I do, and operate by feel more than by providing a checklist of qualities that make a work intelligent or not-so-much. Again, not sure if that impressionism illuminates more than it obscures….

I’m sure I did conflate writers and their work, as well, which was–how to say?–dumb.

Horrible Thoughts writes:

This may sound like a stretch, but I would nominate Avram Davidson, particularly his Dr. Esterhazy stories, as thoughtful commentary on human nature under the guise of science fiction. If you’ve never read through The Inquiries of Dr. Esterhazy, you really ought to. In your stupid/fierce conception, he would probably not be either, but the oodles of intelligence that ooze out of the text make up for any lack of ferocity. I understand that he was once a Talmudic scholar. He is also the reason that I occasionally frustrate my wife by randomly proclaiming my implacable opposition to the “damned monophysites!” Often loudly, and in restaurants.

Thanks very much to both!