Open Thread, November 1 - 7, 2013

witzvo

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

which stories should be x-rationalizated next

This leads to another comment on rationalist fiction: Most of it seems to be restricted to fan-fiction. The mold appears to be: "Let's take a story in which the characters underutilized their opportunities and bestow them with intelligence, curiosity, common sense, creativity and genre-awareness". The contrast between the fanfic and the canon is a major element of the story, and the canon an existing scaffold which saves the writer from having to create a context.

This isn't a bad thing necessarily, just an observation.

Wait, what?! Is "a story where the protagonist behaves rationally" really a new genre of literature?

So, the question becomes, how do you recognize "rationalist" stories in non-fan-fic form? Is it simply the presence of show-your-work-smart characters? Is simply behaving rationally sufficient?

Every genre has a theme...romance, adventure, etc.

So where are the stories which are, fundamentally, about stuff like epistemology and moral philosophy?

So, the question becomes, how do you recognize "rationalist" stories in non-fan-fic form? Is it simply the presence of show-your-work-smart characters? Is simply behaving rationally sufficient?
Every genre has a theme...romance, adventure, etc.

I'd say the difference between "rationalists" stories and "non-rationalist" stories lies in the moral of the story, of the lessons the story teaches you.

I don't think it's a genre in the same way romance or adventure are. It's more of a qualifier. You can have rationalist romance nove... (read more)

0Viliam_Bur13y

That's a great question. (And related to how to recognize rational people in real life.) I'd say that there must be some characters which are obviously smarter than most people around them. Because that's what happens in real life: there is the bell curve, so if all your characters are on a similar level, then the story is (a) not realistic, (b) the characters are selected by some intelligence filter which should be explicitly mentioned, or (c) the characters are all from the middle of the bell curve. Also, in real life the relative power of intelligent people is often reduced by compartmentalization, but this reduction would be much smaller for a rationalist hero. So I'd say it's behaving rationally while most of other people aren't. The character should somehow reflect on the stupidity of others; whether by frustration from their inability to cooperate, or by enjoyment of how easily they are manipulated.