[HPforGrownups] Is Hermione Supposed to be a Genius?

[Silverthorne]

No: HPFGUIDX 94504

{Viridis}

The previous answrs handled it in detail, so let me just quote T.A.Eddison (acclaimed as a genius): "Genius is 5% of inspiration and 95% of perspiration".
<Snip>
She does make mistakes, she doesn't function well under stress, but she's pretty powerful, bot theoretically and practically.


{Silverthorne}

**Coming in at an IQ of 180 and a weight of 210lbs (really), and a ten-dollar an hour job tossing boxes, Anne comments**

To add to Viridis's comment via Eddison:

Just because you have a high IQ, does not necassarily mean that you have a little something called 'common sense* (Although Hermione certianly has that in spades as well). Or, perhaps I should say, they don't always have the ability to *practically* apply that intelligence to every day living.

Many 'genius's' were quite capable of coming up with things like Relativity, inventions and theories no one even had a basis for at the time (telephones, electricity, the shape of the earth, microscopic entities that make you sick), incredible music scores, and so forth.

By the same token, some of them couldn't remember what they were doing three minutes ago, had problems making thier way from point a) to point b), lacked any organizational skill whatsoever, or simply could not function in a normal society (at least not without getting labeled, at best, as 'eccentric'). 

And then there are the ones who *really* go over the deep end and become the genius 'monsters' (ask my lifemate about this one--she does a lot of study on Cold Case files, serial killers, so on and so forth--it's rather frightening to see how many of these criminals are *highly* intelligent--often topping the 190 range...O.O).

Anyway, point is, high IQ does not immediately equal sucess and/or the ability to live sucessfully in an everyday scenario. Hermione manages both, which is where you can rightfully call her 'smart' *and* 'intelligent'. She still needs a little work on the 'think and don't panic' scenarios (as in with the Devil's Snare), but I think thats more a matter of training than intelligence. Given time, once she cna get her emotional responces under control during stress, she'll be able to handle those situations very well indeed...

(Hopes that makes sense in the context of this discussion...really need to go have my first cup of coffee...)

Anne