[PREV - CHANCES_ARE]    [TOP]

IDIOT_PLOT

                                             March 9, 2019

An excellent piece of terminology (which I've
unaccountably forgotten for years) which was
apparently invented by James Blish, then used by
Damon Knight, and later picked up by Roger Ebert:

   "idiot plot"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_plot

The wikipedia page uses Damon Knight's definition
"a plot which is kept in motion solely by virtue of
the fact that everybody involved is an idiot".


The wikipedia page expands on this:

    "It is a narrative where its conflict comes from characters not
    recognizing, or not being told, key information that would
    resolve the conflict, often because of plot contrivance. The
    only thing that prevents the conflict's resolution is the
    character's constant avoidance or obliviousness of it
    throughout the plot, even if it was already obvious to the
    viewer, so the characters are all 'idiots' in that they are
    too obtuse to simply resolve the conflict immediately."

I'm enthusiastic about this terminology because it's an
excellent description of some of the more frustrating of
the Korean "romcoms" I've been watching.

    I also like the observation that they attribute to
    David Brin of a kind of idiot plot where no one
    gets any professional assistance with anything
    so the story can continue to focus on the protagonist.

    In kdrama-land I occasionally go "Uh, lawyer?
    Now is when a sane person hires a lawyer."


And (still more wikipedia quotage here), Roger Ebert
noted that the farcical "comedy of errors" style of
story relies on this kind of idiocy, and has to be
regarded as an exception: "I can forgive and even
embrace an Idiot Plot in its proper place (consider
Astaire and Rogers in Top Hat)."


   In the case of the "romcom", I'm afraid
   there's a tolerance for a higher degree of
   idiocy because it often focuses on female
   characters and we all (still) have lower
   expectations of their competence.

       There's also the "love has made me temporarily
       blind" schtick, which is *possible* to get to
       work-- thinking clearly when you're hung up
       on someone can be difficult, particularly for
       the young and inexperienced.

       Having a story rely on that can be difficult
       though-- it's hard to identify with someone
       who's obviously being stupid even if you're
       someone who manages to be stupid now and
       then, as we all do-- oh, except for *you*
       of course.


Some apparently like to distinguish the case when only
the main character is an idiot, but that doesn't strike
me as at all necessary:  an idiot character can interfere
with identification, but is hardly implausible.  An idiot
*plot* arises not when one person is managing to be stupid
(that happens to us all, no?) but when *everyone* is
being stupid.

Further, the wikipedia page gives Damon Knight's definition
for a "second-order idiot plot": "in which not merely the
principals, but everybody in the whole society has to be a
grade-A idiot, or the story couldn't happen."

   Though, the observation might be made that however
   implausible it seems, the entire world appears to be
   stuck in a "second-order idiot plot".

   As jwz often notes, we are living in "the stupidest timeline".




--------
[NEXT - DR_SMITH]