May 6, 2022
There's an idea expressed in both Jack Vance's Dying Earth Trilogy and Tana French's In The Woods which I think is worth putting a finger on.
The detective in French is above-average at reading cues and signs, performing inference (ie detective work). And "Cugel the Clever," of Dying Earth, is in fact abnormally clever.
But because both protagonists see themselves this way, they are too assured of their reads and interpretations, and end up making mistakes. They bite off more than they can chew, because they think they can handle it. Hubris is one of the classic tragic flaws for a reason.
