Guns & Brains

It has recently occurred to me how wise and knowledgeable supposedly “normal” people in novels often are. In the latest book I am reading, for example (Stephen Baxter’s “Transcendent”), one of the protagonists sits next to someone on a plane, who proceeds to speak to him about aspects of Gaia Theory. Admittedly, in this case, it is someone who sells excrement recycling plants for a living, so I suppose it would make sense, in order to authenticate his sales pitch, for him to appear to have genuine relevant background knowledge on his product… but… I do seem to often come across a character – a policeman or whatever – who randomly inserts quotes from philosophers etc into conversations with his colleagues. Is it just that, in order for a novel to be interesting/readable, at least one of its central characters must be of higher than average intelligence? I suppose it wouldn’t do for your sensitive-yet-troubled-and-with-a-dark-and-complex-past hero to go on at length about the latest Big Brother evictions or the weather or his indignation at being lumped with an exorbitant installation charge for his Sky+ HD digi-box…

Has anyone else noticed this tendency, or conversely, can anyone provide any particular examples which prove me wrong?

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