Showing Off Research

I'm not talking about scientific research. IMO, that should be displayed proudly to anyone who can stand to listen. And if you're going to gab about it, make sure the normal folk can understand. But that's another story entirely. I want to rant about writers who insist on showing off their research - or defending it in crits. Most of the time you can tell when a writer has written some snippet based on research. There's a prominent mention of detail or facts. Usually it's small, so you don't mind reading it. And, most of the time, it's also presented in a fashion where you can say, "Cool, I didn't know that" and add to your reading experience. But there are times when all you can gather from reading a research snippet is that the author wanted to gloat/brag/etc about how well he can understand something or how well he researched something. My biggest example of this is Michael Crichton's Prey. I disliked this book for many, many reasons. But the one thing that always bugged me was how Mike couldn't stop showing off his research. I remember distinctly a couple pages where he goes on in three different ways about evolving from a common ancestor. One way he described it worked great: it got the important details for the book across in a quick, easy to understand way that stayed true to the science. I would've been quite happy and not minded the obvious display of "Look, Ma, I can understand science" had he left it at that one long paragraph. But the man had to go on about it in two more ways, both of which were stuffy, boring, detail-buried, and written in some archaic form of English. I read this book months ago. So why do I have my undies in a twist about it now?

Last night, I encountered a Research Exhibitionist in the making in my crit group. She has a neat story idea, she writes well, and she also has great feedback for others. She has a problem keeping her mouth shut when it's someone else's turn to talk, but we're dealing with that. But this woman has also Researched the Hell out of her book. That's not a bad thing. The bad thing is when she insists on defending this research every time someone comments on having a problem with something. For example, the doctor in the scene she brought last night grabbed a brown bottle and poured something out of it. Someone had a problem with there being no label on the bottle (we can get pretty picky sometimes). I agreed it was problematic because, as a scientist, I labeled everything. She went on about her research and how the doctors of the times used different colored and shaped bottles to distinguish things and not labels. This sounds vaguely familiar. So, fine, our nitpick isn't one she need concern herself with. Move on, don't waste our time going ape shit over something tiny like that. I wouldn't have had a problem with this defense, really, had it not been the last of twenty we had to suffer through. I'm guilty of getting defensive about my work, sure. But there comes a time when enough is enough. Just bite your tongue and ignore the comment when you go to do revisions. It's not that hard.

Or maybe my skin is just that thick.