Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Is my character an intellectual or detective or both?

Sherlock Holmes is famous for deducing answers to puzzles from observation. He was widely and deeply read, although he also deliberately forgot information which he felt wasn't important. He was a ...

posted 8y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:38Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24505
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:34:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24505
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T05:34:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
Sherlock Holmes is famous for _deducing_ answers to puzzles from observation. He was widely and deeply read, although he also deliberately forgot information which he felt wasn't important. He was a detective because the matters brought to him were problems which needed investigating — often crimes, but not always.

An intellectual is someone who is intelligent and studied, but not necessarily someone who is greatly observant or someone who can deduce facts given those observations.

So if your character knows that Bill is lactose intolerant but he says he was drinking milkshakes with Suzy, she can call him out on that lie. That's being a detective. If Bill starts going on about the benefits of supply-side economics and she counters with examples of Kansas's distastrous budget, that's being intellectual.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-09-08T00:29:15Z (about 8 years ago)
Original score: 4