Sorry for the bad title. I'd like to hear some opinions on socially inept characters. And some opinions about characters who don't care about social constructs. I would love to hear some alternative interpretations. I imagine that they would be fun to work with. My interpretation is that at some point, some socially awkward characters are going to stop caring about the dance. I was chatting with an old friend who made all the effort to find me on facebook. At one point, I said something like "this is the point in the conversation where I realize that we are talking about me and I try to steer the conversation to being about you." I recognized some social stuff, but decided to be blunt because I couldn't handle being subtle. (Turns out that she ignored my earlier attempt at attention-shifting, but bore the bluntness well.)
I decided it was only half-relevant. Not important enough for the browse people, still there for the really bored.
Well, I think there's a stark difference between social ineptitude and disdain or disregard for social constructs. For example, I'm not a socially awkward person. I don't have any anxiety at interpersonal relationships at any level and I pick up cues as naturally as any person who groks the gears and cams of humans in groups. But... There are times when social rules piss me off and I purposefully flout them when others might lemming their way into silence. When someone is clearly lying under malicious pretense or to avoid culpability, I give no pause to calling them liar right there and then. The social dance of the cultural in which I live requires me to engage in certain little verbal rituals that have a religious source, which I neither believe in nor wish to perpetuate, so I don't engage in those little rituals, though it occasionally causes discomfort in those around me. But again, I know what I am doing and not doing. I get the rules and know the consequences for not following them. To me that's really different than social ineptitude, which would seem to me to be an inability to pick up on the cues that make for the rhythm and flow of the dance of which you speak. I know how to dance, I just sometimes don't feel like it. That's different than having two left feet.
If you want to have a look at the prototype socially inept character, have a look at Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge David Brent from Ricky Gervais' the Office is also excruciating at times, but hilarious. Both of these are classic TV characters Moss from the IT crowd (in my avatar) is a different kind of awkwardness, more cartoonish. But he's just a big nerd. I have a question for you Smoke, and be honest...Are you socially inept?
I think that some people who appear to be socially inept are actually socially indifferent. To be adept at something you need to have the desire to be adept, and willing to put the time and effort into developing that skill. If the activity does not interest you, you are obviously going to be inept at it.
