I read a novel published in 1905 which has a comic scene with a scientist going on a date:
“Professor Frisbane asserted the other day, during a brief conversation with me,” he remarked learnedly, “that, in his opinion, direct communication with the planet Mars was a mere matter of time.”
″ Indeed?” returned Christine vaguely, and silence ensued.
“I have been deeply interested in a series of articles now appearing in the Scientific American,” volunteered Mr. Marks with renewed animation, “which discuss the subject of ossification in all its bearings. I will be glad to lend them to you.”
“No, please don’t,” replied Christine hurriedly.
It also makes fun of his unfashionable clothes and his need to write conversation starters on notecards rather than talking informally with a woman. So the “scientists are socially incompetent” trope has been going for at least a century.
Well, at least for this scientist. Then again, given the education standards of the era, it could have been “women are feather-brains” just as easily. :P
Seriously, though, I don’t think it was universal. See, for example, Professor Aronnax VS Captain Nemo; the first is such a nice guy he can’t believe enemy ships are actually shooting them on purpose, while Captain Nemo is a super-charismatic genius in the position to be an übermensch who is, in fact, so cool and awesome that people fail to notice how he slowly breaks down under the pressure of having so much power and no rules but his own.
Really, the only consistent thing you can say about scientists and engineers in pre-WWII literature is that they were outliers; strange, unusual, and exceptional, and otherwise all over the place in terms of morality, character, and attributes. Also, they got stuff done and effected huge changes.
I read a novel published in 1905 which has a comic scene with a scientist going on a date:
“Professor Frisbane asserted the other day, during a brief conversation with me,” he remarked learnedly, “that, in his opinion, direct communication with the planet Mars was a mere matter of time.”
″ Indeed?” returned Christine vaguely, and silence ensued.
“I have been deeply interested in a series of articles now appearing in the Scientific American,” volunteered Mr. Marks with renewed animation, “which discuss the subject of ossification in all its bearings. I will be glad to lend them to you.”
“No, please don’t,” replied Christine hurriedly.
It also makes fun of his unfashionable clothes and his need to write conversation starters on notecards rather than talking informally with a woman. So the “scientists are socially incompetent” trope has been going for at least a century.
Well, at least for this scientist. Then again, given the education standards of the era, it could have been “women are feather-brains” just as easily. :P
Seriously, though, I don’t think it was universal. See, for example, Professor Aronnax VS Captain Nemo; the first is such a nice guy he can’t believe enemy ships are actually shooting them on purpose, while Captain Nemo is a super-charismatic genius in the position to be an übermensch who is, in fact, so cool and awesome that people fail to notice how he slowly breaks down under the pressure of having so much power and no rules but his own.
Or Professor Challenger, who’s basically Brian Blessed the Paleontologist. Or the nigh-perfect Doc Savage. Or the very evil Invisible Man. Or, you know, the Bat-Man.
Really, the only consistent thing you can say about scientists and engineers in pre-WWII literature is that they were outliers; strange, unusual, and exceptional, and otherwise all over the place in terms of morality, character, and attributes. Also, they got stuff done and effected huge changes.