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In literary criticism, an idiot plot is one which is "kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot," and where the story would quickly end, or possibly not even happen, if this were not the case. It is a narrative where its conflict comes from characters not recognizing, or not being told, key information that would resolve the conflict, often because of plot contrivance. The only thing that prevents the conflict's resolution is the character's constant avoidance or obliviousness of it throughout the plot, even if it was already obvious to the viewer, so the characters are all "idiots" in that they are too obtuse to simply resolve the conflict immediately.

Attributes	Values
rdf:type	yago:Abstraction100002137 yago:LanguageUnit106284225 yago:Neologism106294441 yago:Part113809207 yago:Relation100031921 yago:Word106286395 yago:Wikicat20th-centuryNeologisms
rdfs:label	Idiot plot (en)
rdfs:comment	In literary criticism, an idiot plot is one which is "kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot," and where the story would quickly end, or possibly not even happen, if this were not the case. It is a narrative where its conflict comes from characters not recognizing, or not being told, key information that would resolve the conflict, often because of plot contrivance. The only thing that prevents the conflict's resolution is the character's constant avoidance or obliviousness of it throughout the plot, even if it was already obvious to the viewer, so the characters are all "idiots" in that they are too obtuse to simply resolve the conflict immediately. (en)
dcterms:subject	20th-century neologisms Narratology Narrative techniques
Wikipage page ID	5980245 (xsd:integer)
Wikipage revision ID	1094806346 (xsd:integer)
Link from a Wikipage to another Wikipage	Protagonist Roger Ebert Samaritan Snare David Brin 20th-century neologisms Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers Conflict (narrative) Star Trek: The Next Generation Idiot Narratology Top Hat Damon Knight Farce Literary criticism The Comedy of Errors Science fiction James Blish Narrative techniques Plot hole In Search of Wonder dbr:Dennis_Russell_Bailey
sameAs	Idiot plot Idiot plot Idiot plot Idiot plot Idiot plot
dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate	dbt:Reflist dbt:Rp dbt:Short_description
has abstract	In literary criticism, an idiot plot is one which is "kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot," and where the story would quickly end, or possibly not even happen, if this were not the case. It is a narrative where its conflict comes from characters not recognizing, or not being told, key information that would resolve the conflict, often because of plot contrivance. The only thing that prevents the conflict's resolution is the character's constant avoidance or obliviousness of it throughout the plot, even if it was already obvious to the viewer, so the characters are all "idiots" in that they are too obtuse to simply resolve the conflict immediately. Science fiction writer and critic Damon Knight, in his 1956 collection In Search of Wonder, says that the term may have originated with author James Blish. Knight went on to coin the term second-order idiot plot as a narrative "in which not merely the principals, but everybody in the whole society has to be a grade-A idiot, or the story couldn't happen." Critic Roger Ebert wrote in 2005 that "I can forgive and even embrace an Idiot Plot in its proper place (consider Astaire and Rogers in Top Hat). But when the characters have depth and their decisions have consequences, I grow restless when their misunderstandings could be ended by words that the screenplay refuses to allow them to utter." Alternate formulations describe only the protagonist as being an idiot. Writing in 2013, author David Brin explored one variation of the idiot plot. In most adventure films and novels, the writers and directors have an imperative to keep their protagonists in jeopardy. This becomes difficult if they are surrounded by skilled professionals, paid to intervene and help if called. Hence, storytellers feel compelled to separate their characters from meaningful help, so that any assistance they receive is either late or else below the level of danger offered by the antagonists. The more powerful the villains, the more competent that help is allowed to be. "But for the most part, institutions and your neighbors are portrayed as sheep, so that only the hero's actions truly matter." (en)
gold:hypernym	Idiot
prov:wasDerivedFrom	wikipedia-en:Idiot_plot?oldid=1094806346&ns=0
page length (characters) of wiki page	5404 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger)
foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf	wikipedia-en:Idiot_plot
is Link from a Wikipage to another Wikipage of	The Princess Diaries (film) Dave (film) Damon Knight The Android Invasion JLA: Act of God Idiot Plot Plot hole Second-order idiot plot
is Wikipage redirect of	Idiot Plot Second-order idiot plot
is foaf:primaryTopic of	wikipedia-en:Idiot_plot

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