Hah, yea they nail literally every point I mentioned. Guess this wasn't a new revelation but to be fair I'm not a big scifi guy.
I kinda fell off once I got through adolescence and realized how much of the genre is a special little boy no one believes in (harry potter, ender, Luke Skywalker) from nowhere special who has a magical destiny that makes him so much better than everyone else... you get it.
It's wish fulfillment for sad lonely kids (Which, hey I used to be an SF fan, not gonna act like I wasn't a sad lonely kid). Anyway, is there a taxonomy?
Where's the line between an unathletic nerdlinger imagining being discovered for having great hidden talent and going on adventures and a mundane adult with no particular skills imagining being a super competent worldbeating genius?
Also, one niggle, I'm not talking Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court type stuff which seems to be the focus of the piece you linked, but specifically a guy of that context and milieu who is just smarter and better than everyone sround him. Usually set in the future, but in Who Goes There it's just an extra smart 1950s scientist in a base full of 1950s scientists.
Hah, yea they nail literally every point I mentioned. Guess this wasn't a new revelation but to be fair I'm not a big scifi guy.
I kinda fell off once I got through adolescence and realized how much of the genre is a special little boy no one believes in (harry potter, ender, Luke Skywalker) from nowhere special who has a magical destiny that makes him so much better than everyone else... you get it.
It's wish fulfillment for sad lonely kids (Which, hey I used to be an SF fan, not gonna act like I wasn't a sad lonely kid). Anyway, is there a taxonomy?
Where's the line between an unathletic nerdlinger imagining being discovered for having great hidden talent and going on adventures and a mundane adult with no particular skills imagining being a super competent worldbeating genius?
Also, one niggle, I'm not talking Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court type stuff which seems to be the focus of the piece you linked, but specifically a guy of that context and milieu who is just smarter and better than everyone sround him. Usually set in the future, but in Who Goes There it's just an extra smart 1950s scientist in a base full of 1950s scientists.
The trope isn't particular to SFF.