Clever is the new cool

[MajorRewrite]

An opinion piece says smart is hot.

Pop stars are launching book clubs – the 1970s had Studio 54, this decade has Dua Lipa’s online literary salon Service95 – or joining Substack, where Charli xcx recently published a 1,800-word essay interrogating why it is that as a pop star “you cannot avoid the fact that some people are simply determined to prove that you are stupid”. The supermodel Kaia Gerber (who is fashion royalty – her mum is Cindy Crawford) passes the time backstage at fashion week reading Didion, Duras and Camus, not Vogue.

Ratajkowski’s visibility in this space presented a particular challenge to the status quo, because she is not just pretty, she is hot. And here she was, publishing essays, giving interviews about feminism and power, and, in 2021, releasing My Body, a bestselling collection that insisted that a woman could be a serious writer without backing down on the day job of being a sex symbol.

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Do any of your stories discuss brainy subjects as background to the sexual parts of the tale?

 

[TheLobster]

Clever is the new cool​

Not implausible. What’s rare is often attractive; and as society gets dumber, intelligence becomes less and less common and therefore more appealing.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm a bit skeptical about this sort of thing, because you shouldn't read things out of a need to "prove" anything to anybody, but instead out of genuine pleasure for reading. But it's better if the stars are reading than if they're not. The article also points out the contrast with our political culture, where cleverness is not valued. There's no question that our political "stars" should be reading more. In politics in the US, cleverness is at ebb tide right now.

 

[StillStunned]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Do any of your stories discuss brainy subjects as background to the sexual parts of the tale?

From my own stories, Sal in "Too Cold Not to Fuck" and its sequels is brainy and very sexual, but the stories don't veer into the intellectual. But Sligh in "The Rivals" is a scholar and conman, and he often quotes obscure ancient poetry or provides bits of information about old cultures or sects. Avilia pretends to find it exasperating, but in reality she thinks it's sexy. I was particularly fond of this exchange:

When the sun rose the following day the silence as they mounted Zretha was companionable rather than sullen. They ate as they rode, and Avilia found herself leaning back against Sligh's chest.

"So what's the plan?" she asked. "I assume you've been putting that devious mind of yours to good use all this time."

"Is that what I was supposed to be doing?"

She glanced up. "Alright, what have you been thinking about?"

Sligh let go of the reins with one hand and brought it up to Avilia's chest. His fingers found her breast through her soft leather jerkin and squeezed. "This, mostly."

After a long moment Avilia took his hand and guided it between her legs. "Put it there while you talk. I don't believe for a moment that you've only been thinking of molesting me." She pressed his hand hard against her mound. "Just most of the time."

 

[Rob_Royale]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Do any of your stories discuss brainy subjects as background to the sexual parts of the tale?

Yes. In the way that they are professionally successful and hot.

No.

 

[NotWise]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Do any of your stories discuss brainy subjects as background to the sexual parts of the tale?

I have not written characters to be intellectual. To make a character authentically intellectual I'd have to demonstrate levels of thought and knowledge that are beyond my casual efforts, and that would probably not entertain the readers. It's easier to characterize someone as intelligent and thoughtful, and I think that stops short of intellectuallity.

To me, "brainy" IS hot.

Louise Brooks was an avid reader and her contemporaries (who mostly didn't read very much) regarded her as an intellectual. She was photographed reading Schopenhauer on the set of Pandora's Box, and the German press thought it was a publicity gimmick. She claimed that it was just what she was reading at the time and she used it to fill her time between shots.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Pretty much all of them:

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/on-writing-voice.1652051/page-3#post-102580401

 

[THBGato]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Yep. I find clever women very attractive. Doesn't have to be academically clever (though I have a couple of characters with PhDs, and most are University graduates) - they could be extremely clever artistically or physically e.g. musicians, dancers. But, yeah, I find cleverness very sexy.

 

[TheRedChamber]

If you've ever seen/read 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' that's quite a few of my characters in a nutshell. Most smart people don't go around advertising how smart they are all the time especially in Britain, but instead put that considerable intellect to work being really really silly (or as this is Lit - filthy).

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Do any of your stories discuss brainy subjects as background to the sexual parts of the tale?

Not brainy as in booklearn't brainy. Booklearnin' in a sex story can be a put off.

But my Moms and other women were business people, corporate execs (past or present), and basically ruled over everyone ese in many ways. They were the smartest and most in-control sexpots of the stories.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

In my personal life: I won’t even look at a woman if she hasn’t been to three different universities in three different countries.

In my writing: does she have breasts, hair? Yes? Boy, do I have some adventures for you.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Do any of your stories discuss brainy subjects as background to the sexual parts of the tale?

Yes. Liz is a science nerd, and in a work in progress spends an entire story reinventing herself as a scholar. Maria (not that you necessarily know this from her stories yet) is an accomplished painter and a design consultant. Luis is a lawyer.

The brainy discussions happen in the WIP mentioned above.

In my personal life: I won’t even look at a woman if she hasn’t been to three different universities in three different countries.

How do you find out about her university transcripts without looking at her? Background checks?

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

Someone once commented on a story of mine: Clever women are sooooo my type. So yeah, clever is cool. Particularly for lesbian space pirates.

 

[yowser]

A fair percentage of Geek Pride stories have 'smart' or 'intellectual' characters (not always 'hot', at least initially.)

This search within that subset gives a number of sapiosexual stories:

https://search.literotica.com/?query=geek pride intellectual&page=1

It's a great challenge and prompted my first of several tales on the plight of the overeducated academic.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

How do you find out about her university transcripts without looking at her? Background checks?

Listen, I’m not saying it’s a workable system. I’m still single and I’m covered in bruises from wearing a blindfold. But I’m confident I’ll bump into the perfect woman one day.

In all seriousness though, I’m just making the point that what I find attractive or sexually alluring in writing can be quite different to real life. I’m way more fun on the page.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Have you written characters who are intellectual and hot?

Do any of your stories discuss brainy subjects as background to the sexual parts of the tale?

On Lit? Not a lot. Unless the intelligence is a key aspect of the story, it's not really heavily featured. They're smart and intelligent and hot, but not coded as such, per se. My erotica tends to be more interpersonal than anything. My non-erotic writing is chock full of this, though. But that usually requires research and all my research time is currently going into making realistic anthro genitals

I did have a space-obsessed character, definitely not modeled on me at all, and it took a massive amount of restraint to avoid spiraling off into facts about space every five seconds. It still came up, just not as in-depth as perhaps I would've liked. Definitely talked about Pluto a bit, though...

 

[XerXesXu]

On Lit? Not a lot. Unless the intelligence is a key aspect of the story, it's not really heavily featured. They're smart and intelligent and hot, but not coded as such, per se. My erotica tends to be more interpersonal than anything. My non-erotic writing is chock full of this, though. But that usually requires research and all my research time is currently going into making realistic anthro genitals

I did have a space-obsessed character, definitely not modeled on me at all, and it took a massive amount of restraint to avoid spiraling off into facts about space every five seconds. It still came up, just not as in-depth as perhaps I would've liked. Definitely talked about Pluto a bit, though...

Can't wait to hear about Uranus.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Can't wait to hear about Uranus.

Okay!

• With an equatorial diameter of 31,763 miles (51,118 kilometers), Uranus is four times wider than Earth.
• From an average distance of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers), Uranus is about 19 astronomical units away from the Sun. From this distance, it takes sunlight 2 hours and 40 minutes to travel from the Sun to Uranus.
• One day on Uranus takes about 17 hours, and it makes a complete orbit around the Sun in about 84 Earth years.
• Uranus is the only planet whose equator is nearly at a right angle to its orbit, with a tilt of 97.77 degrees. This may be the result of a collision with an Earth-sized object long ago. This unique tilt causes Uranus to have the most extreme seasons in the solar system. For nearly a quarter of each Uranian year, the Sun shines directly over each pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a 21-year-long, dark winter.
• Uranus has 28 known moons. While most of the satellites orbiting other planets take their names from Greek or Roman mythology, Uranus' moons are unique in being named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
• Uranus has two sets of rings. The inner system of nine rings consists mostly of narrow, dark grey rings. There are two outer rings: the innermost one is reddish like dusty rings elsewhere in the solar system, and the outer ring is blue like Saturn's E ring.
• In order of increasing distance from the planet, the rings are called Zeta, 6, 5, 4, Alpha, Beta, Eta, Gamma, Delta, Lambda, Epsilon, Nu, and Mu. Some of the larger rings are surrounded by belts of fine dust.
• Uranus is one of two ice giants in the outer solar system (the other is Neptune). Most (80% or more) of the planet's mass is made up of a hot dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane, and ammonia – above a small rocky core. Near the core, it heats up to 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,982 degrees Celsius).
• Uranus is slightly larger in diameter than its neighbor Neptune, yet smaller in mass. It is the second least dense planet; Saturn is the least dense of all.
• Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane gas in the atmosphere. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere and is reflected back out by Uranus' cloud tops. Methane gas absorbs the red portion of the light, resulting in a blue-green color.
• Uranus's planetary atmosphere has a minimum temperature of 49K (-224.2 degrees Celsius). Wind speeds can reach up to 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers per hour) on Uranus.
• Uranus has an unusual, irregularly shaped magnetosphere. Magnetic fields are typically in alignment with a planet's rotation, but Uranus' magnetic field is tipped over: the magnetic axis is tilted nearly 60 degrees from the planet's axis of rotation, and is also offset from the center of the planet by one-third of the planet's radius.
• Uranus has auroras, but they are not in line with the poles like they are on Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. This is due to the planet's lopsided magnetic field.

Always glad when someone's excited about space!

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Yes and yes. A fair few of my stories take place at scientific conferences. A chap who listens to a woman's ideas and takes them seriously often becomes attractive to said woman...

I try to summarise the geeky stuff in a sentence or so, for the benefit of readers wanting the next part of the story.

 

[dirk2024]

In my personal life: I won’t even look at a woman if she hasn’t been to three different universities in three different countries.

In my writing: does she have breasts, hair? Yes? Boy, do I have some adventures for you.

Is hair, or lack thereof, really a dealbreaker for you?

 

[dirk2024]

Okay!

• With an equatorial diameter of 31,763 miles (51,118 kilometers), Uranus is four times wider than Earth.

Always glad when someone's excited about space!

Hmm...I pictured Uranus as larger than that.

 

[dirk2024]

My characters are generally smart, competent and capable.

But not necessarily geniuses.

 

[XerXesXu]

Okay!

• With an equatorial diameter of 31,763 miles (51,118 kilometers), Uranus is four times wider than Earth.
• From an average distance of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers), Uranus is about 19 astronomical units away from the Sun. From this distance, it takes sunlight 2 hours and 40 minutes to travel from the Sun to Uranus.
• One day on Uranus takes about 17 hours, and it makes a complete orbit around the Sun in about 84 Earth years.
• Uranus is the only planet whose equator is nearly at a right angle to its orbit, with a tilt of 97.77 degrees. This may be the result of a collision with an Earth-sized object long ago. This unique tilt causes Uranus to have the most extreme seasons in the solar system. For nearly a quarter of each Uranian year, the Sun shines directly over each pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a 21-year-long, dark winter.
• Uranus has 28 known moons. While most of the satellites orbiting other planets take their names from Greek or Roman mythology, Uranus' moons are unique in being named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
• Uranus has two sets of rings. The inner system of nine rings consists mostly of narrow, dark grey rings. There are two outer rings: the innermost one is reddish like dusty rings elsewhere in the solar system, and the outer ring is blue like Saturn's E ring.
• In order of increasing distance from the planet, the rings are called Zeta, 6, 5, 4, Alpha, Beta, Eta, Gamma, Delta, Lambda, Epsilon, Nu, and Mu. Some of the larger rings are surrounded by belts of fine dust.
• Uranus is one of two ice giants in the outer solar system (the other is Neptune). Most (80% or more) of the planet's mass is made up of a hot dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane, and ammonia – above a small rocky core. Near the core, it heats up to 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,982 degrees Celsius).
• Uranus is slightly larger in diameter than its neighbor Neptune, yet smaller in mass. It is the second least dense planet; Saturn is the least dense of all.
• Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane gas in the atmosphere. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere and is reflected back out by Uranus' cloud tops. Methane gas absorbs the red portion of the light, resulting in a blue-green color.
• Uranus's planetary atmosphere has a minimum temperature of 49K (-224.2 degrees Celsius). Wind speeds can reach up to 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers per hour) on Uranus.
• Uranus has an unusual, irregularly shaped magnetosphere. Magnetic fields are typically in alignment with a planet's rotation, but Uranus' magnetic field is tipped over: the magnetic axis is tilted nearly 60 degrees from the planet's axis of rotation, and is also offset from the center of the planet by one-third of the planet's radius.
• Uranus has auroras, but they are not in line with the poles like they are on Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn. This is due to the planet's lopsided magnetic field.

Always glad when someone's excited about space!

But, what does it smell of?

 

[anthrodisiac]

But, what does it smell of?

The clouds in the upper atmosphere has a lot of hydrogen sulfide, so rotten eggs, plus methane as well. Of course, if you were to smell it, you'd also pass out within seconds due to the temperature and lack of oxygen, and quickly die after that. Always wear a spacesuit.

 

[XerXesXu]

The clouds in the upper atmosphere has a lot of hydrogen sulfide, so rotten eggs, plus methane as well. Of course, if you were to smell it, you'd also pass out within seconds due to the temperature and lack of oxygen, and quickly die after that. Always wear a spacesuit.

I'd always wear some form of prophylactic.