Engineers.

[colddiesel]

Why are Engineers so rarely the heroes or heroines of Lit stories? I read a lot here and the stars are often Doctors, Lawyers, IT nerds etc - but rarely Engineers. My late wife defined Engineers (admiringly) as guys "who do stuff." I think she meant doers rather than talkers.

Or is it just that writers don't know much about guys that "do stuff."

Come to think of it there are one or two other no-no occupations for heroes, Farmers for example - and I have never read a story where the main man was a butcher.

Any thoughts ?

 

[SimonDoom]

Why are Engineers so rarely the heroes or heroines of Lit stories? I read a lot here and the stars are often Doctors, Lawyers, IT nerds etc - but rarely Engineers. My late wife defined Engineers (admiringly) as guys "who do stuff." I think she meant doers rather than talkers.

Or is it just that writers don't know much about guys that "do stuff."

Come to think of it there are one or two other no-no occupations for heroes, Farmers for example - and I have never read a story where the main man was a butcher.

Any thoughts ?

My guess is that engineers are underrepresented among writers on Literotica, and it's a harder occupation to fake for a non-engineer writer than some others.

 

[KeithD]

My guess is that engineers are underrepresented among writers on Literotica, and it's a harder occupation to fake for a non-engineer writer than some others.

That would be my guess as well.

 

[HectorBidon]

Not many stories about accountants or bureaucrats either. A lot of engineers spend a lot of time at the drafting table rechecking specifications. Probably doesn't seem that glamorous to a lot of people. The heroes in some of my stories have been engineers, but they haven't been all that heroic.

There are certainly stories in which the hero is a guy who "does stuff" but whose occupation is not specifically stated. Maybe we can just assume that some of them are engineers.

Or are you talking about the Casey Jones type of engineer?

 

[NotWise]

Why are Engineers so rarely the heroes or heroines of Lit stories?

It's really hard to pin down what an Engineer actually is. "Guys who do stuff" isn't bad, but it doesn't apply everywhere, all the time. Let's start with "Guys." Lots of engineers are women. You distinguished IT nerds as something different, but they're often engineers.

Engineers don't get a lot of attention. When they do, it's generally not the "Guys who do stuff" who make the news. It's expert witnesses, supervising engineers, technical spokesmen, and (at least locally) researchers.

I use engineers as main characters -- two so far this year. Colin in "Her Bodyguard," was a civil engineer, but I'm not sure that was spelled out, and the demand on his time as a junior engineer was a big part of the story. Tamsin in "Tamsin of Sky Village" (a SciFi story) was a transport engineer, and a woman. Stephen (Fudd) in my most recent story is an architect rather than an engineer, but it's a near thing.

In older stories, Manny in "A Valentine's Day mess," (of which part four is next up for me), is a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering. He's a rocket scientist. In "Oscar's Place," Nick is a structural engineer.

I can write engineers. I'm an engineer by degree but a consulting scientist by profession. I work for and with engineers all the time, and have for more than 30 years. My older sister was an engineer, and her husband was (prior to his retirement) one of the most influential engineers in the world. The guys in the office next to mine are engineers. I had a kid working in my office a couple years ago who was in "Physics Engineering" at Dartmouth. That's a field that will make your head hurt.

I'm awash in engineers. That's probably why I use them as characters. Besides, they do stuff. If you're going to write a story to go along with the porn then it's good to have characters that do stuff.

 

[TANSTAAFL58]

Big deep breath for my rant.

Stephen King makes most of his "heroes" writers, because that's the profession he knows best.

I agree with Keith and Simon. The writing Engineers do is highly technical, with lots of jargon, acronyms and initialisms, and purposely split infinitives and ("...to purposely overload the generator will cause severe overheating of the..."). We like porn, because once upon a Time there were no women in Engineering School.

We are famously poor spellers. A friend said his wife keep all his letters. They all began "Hi sweatheart". I'm sure an Engineer created Spell checker.

I am a Mechanical Engineer. I mostly write Maintenance Instructions, Standards (internal, National and International) and angry emails to my supervisors about the things I hate, threatening to retire. (I write them, then delete them; I just have to get it out of my system sometimes).

The male leads in my stories "Tourist Season" (sequel in progress) and "Temagami: Camping at the Portage" are identified as Engineers, so is the male lead in an unsubmitted series (It's called "Cat Tale", if it ever sees the light of day). Oh, and "The Lieutenant" features the Chief Engineer of the Starship Hood (more fully developed in the sequel I'm working on).

On the other hand, we aren't all designing space ships or race cars. My job mostly involves yelling at people who won't listen to me. Most of them are complete morons; some are not yet fully formed. At least I can have an intellegent argument with a maintenance mechanic or a machinist.

You know the old joke:

To the Optimist, the glass is half full,

To the Pessimist, the glass is half empty.

To the Engineer, it's twice as big as it should be, and it's Procurement's fault.

That's my job.

Ok, quickly: name a fictional Engineer other than Montgomery Scott or Geordie LaForge. Maybe Q (from James Bond). Mark Watney in "The Martian" was said to have a degree in Engineering as well as in Botany in the book, but "Engineer" didn't make it to the movie. Stanley Baker's character in the movie Zulu! Was a Royal Engineer. After the battle he tells Michael Caine's character something to the effect of "I told you. I'm an Engineer. I came here to build a bridge."

 

[Bramblethorn]

Why are Engineers so rarely the heroes or heroines of Lit stories? I read a lot here and the stars are often Doctors, Lawyers, IT nerds etc - but rarely Engineers. My late wife defined Engineers (admiringly) as guys "who do stuff." I think she meant doers rather than talkers.

Or is it just that writers don't know much about guys that "do stuff."

Come to think of it there are one or two other no-no occupations for heroes, Farmers for example - and I have never read a story where the main man was a butcher.

Any thoughts ?

It's not just Literotica. Aside from occasional documentaries, you don't tend to see a lot of engineers on TV - occasionally BBC runs some sort of "great engineering achievements" documentary but that's about it. I can recall a few books about engineers - Arthur C. Clarke's "Fountains of Paradise" springs to mind - but they're not common there either.

I agree with Simon that representation among authors is probably part of it. There are a lot of "IT nerds" around, and engineering is hard to write if you haven't worked in the field.

Also: Most authors want drama. For most engineers, the #1 priority is to prevent drama. Your job isn't to pull people out of collapsed buildings or save kids from cholera, it's to build sturdy buildings and good sanitation so those things don't happen in the first place. If an engineer's job does become dramatic, it's probably because they fucked up badly - which has plenty of story potential, but a lot of folk don't want to write fallible heroes.

Even within the "sexy" fields, fiction tends to concentrate on the dramatic end of the business. There's a lot of fiction about ER medics and brain surgeons, not much about the geriatricians who look after old folk in hospitals and nursing homes. Hot-shot trial lawyers, especially in criminal law, but not much about contract law or conveyancing.

Not on Literotica, but if you want a short story about a butcher... https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858781751/

 

[NotWise]

Also: Most authors want drama. For most engineers, the #1 priority is to prevent drama.

There's lots of kinds of engineers, but I'd use "problem solver" as the most universal definition. I don't see a lack of drama there.

 

[Polyacrylate]

I'm a chemical engineer. Hell, my SN is a chemical.

There are probably a lot of reasons why engineers aren't well represented in stories, or the author community. For characters, the job is generally not particularly glamorous, and a lot of people don't really understand what an engineer really does. If the details are not plot relevant, it's probably easier to show how smart a character is by referencing their doctorate degree in, say, theoretical math or particle physics, rather than by demonstrating their engineering knowledge of various piping standards.

There is a wide stereotype that engineers aren't particularly left-brained, and don't have appreciation for the fine arts, or great social skills with the opposite sex. That stereotype could, I suppose, reduce interest in stories about engineers. And if there is truth in that stereotype, it could result in a smaller pool of engineers creating content on this site. Personally, I've always enjoyed art, music, and literature, both creating and consuming, but my social skills were behind the curve when I was younger, and it took some time for me to figure out how to navigate dating.

As for characters who are engineers, where their location is relevant, there are a handful of decent stories out there. I have one story that was reasonably well received where the protagonist is an engineer. The story even concerns events that take place at his work.

 

[TANSTAAFL58]

There's lots of kinds of engineers, but I'd use "problem solver" as the most universal definition. I don't see a lack of drama there.

Agreed, but often the area of expertise an Engineer works in is arcane and all but incomprehensible to anyone else. Not to mention boring if you can't see the poetry in a reversing contactor, or a crane or a gas turbine.

 

[NotWise]

Agreed, but often the area of expertise an Engineer works in is arcane and all but incomprehensible to anyone else. Not to mention boring if you can't see the poetry in a reversing contactor, or a crane or a gas turbine.

As an engineer, your view may be too near-sighted and concentrated on the details of your job. For a story, all you need is a character. For a good story you need a character with goals and conflicts.

In "Oscar's Place," Nick was there to inspect a dilapidated hotel. It turned into a ghost story. In "A Valentine's Day Mess, Pt 3" Manny took his sister to a department party, and they were escorted home, by a protective pack of supernatural wolves. In "Her Bodyguard" Colin was exhausted and socially isolated by the demands of being a junior engineer in bad times. It forced him to new solutions. In "Tamsin of Sky Village," Tamsin used her technical knowledge to save her adopted people.

If you need your engineer to be more interesting, then make him/her into a consultant. He (or she) travels and solves problems on-the-fly. Why did that tanker explode on the Maryland Turnpike? Go there, recreate the conditions, and find out. If your character is doing something, then there's no shortage of possibly sexual situations, from BDSM to Romance to SciFi. Pick a direction.

 

[SimonDoom]

Not many stories about accountants or bureaucrats either.

I wrote a story in which the lead female character was an accountant. The entire story takes place during one day in an office building, so I need a job that would be based in a large office building, and I wanted a job that was perceived as not glamorous to heighten the eroticism of what the characters do in the office.

I think there's another reason engineers don't figure in stories. Literary types are biased against them. This bias is plainly evident, for example, in the works of Stephen King, to whom TANSTAAFL58 refers above. His heroes are either artistic types, or blue collar types. He dislikes upscale white collar professional people, business people, government bureaucrats, and scientists. I think a lot of literary/author types think this way, and would be loath to make an engineer a lead character for that reason, even if it's not a conscious decision.

 

[NotWise]

I think there's another reason engineers don't figure in stories. Literary types are biased against them.

I don't see the bias on Lit. My engineers-as-main-characters stories are well-rated.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't see the bias on Lit. My engineers-as-main-characters stories are well-rated.

That's because the bias doesn't come from readers but from authors. My guess is engineers are better represented among Lit readers than in the population as a whole because engineers are intelligent and the Lit readers (LW trolls excepting) are more intelligent (because they read) than the average person.

 

[NotWise]

That's because the bias doesn't come from readers but from authors. My guess is engineers are better represented among Lit readers than in the population as a whole because engineers are intelligent and the Lit readers (LW trolls excepting) are more intelligent (because they read) than the average person.

[RANT]
Public policy now is to train all the engineers we can. Hence the emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Science (STEM) in public schools.

I have an issue with the emphasis on training mass numbers of "engineers." Major corporations need more technically-competent employees, so they're pushing STEM. It bothers me because I was brought up and educated with the concept of the engineer as a competent professional with a set of ethics to go with a trusted position. What they want to train is a big supply of low-cost techs who will bring down the pay scale for the technically employed.

That ain't my only issue. I think the current emphasis on engineering/technical education endangers our whole culture: music, graphic arts, literature and philosophy (to name a few) used to be home for our greatest minds. They built western culture. They made us who we are. If the STEM proponents get everything they want, then in another generation our traditional culture could be lost, or (except popular music) at least endangered.

I'm feeling a lot of commonality with the American Indian people who struggle to maintain their culture. Our culture is in danger, too.
[/RANT]

Culture is my issue, hence my daughters where raised to art. It's probably not your issue.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

One of my upcoming series, 'Freja & Jeanie', stars a Danish girl who is a brilliant engineering student, she just happens to be completely off her rocker and is rather shameless and perhaps morally bankrupt. She prone to forgetting her clothes, and her English degenerates horribly under stress, but she's a phenom at engineering and tinkering.

Jeanie, her Canadian wife, is an absolute dunce, but the most caring and empathetic person one could ask for. They're poly-pan-omnisexuals who are desperately in love and share just about anything that would qualify as a lover.

Writing about these two keeps me laughing so hard.

I'm glad for this thread, because yes, engineers need a fair shake too, and my Freja is one of them.

 

[ausfet]

I kid you not, my male character in my Sunburned Country story is an engineer.

I also have a butcher (Country (af)fair) and had a story where the main character was a farmer (until someone had a waaahhhh about it and it got yanked). Other occupations for male characters include; painter, civil contractor, transport manager, takeaway owner, mining executive, paramedic, motorcycle mechanic, diesel fitter, parts interpreter, car mechanic, financier, sales rep, air con installer and greenkeeper. Hah, I've just realised how 'transport orientated' I am!

 

[Handley_Page]

My guess is that engineers are underrepresented among writers on Literotica, and it's a harder occupation to fake for a non-engineer writer than some others.

I can think of one; "Share the Road" by Thucydides.

But I quite agree with the Engineer being under-represented.

The snag is that we have yet to define just what an Engineer IS, and realise it ain't necessarily the same all over the world. For example, we have Engine Drivers, I gather that in the USA, he's (?) an 'Engineer'.

And don't get me started on a Technician. . . .

 

[oggbashan]

According to my then employers, on my final promotion, they made me an engineer because I was the manager for two groups of engineers, one group operating the computer systems and the other training engineers including two engineering apprentice schools.

Every engineer I was responsible for was a Chartered Engineer. I was the only fake engineer but their manager. If I wanted advice on the engineering aspects of the work I was responsible for - I had dozens of qualified people to give contradictory views.

 

[FEELINGLUCKYPUNK]

I was a civil engineer for several years, then owned a company that created roofing solutions and scrutiny of surveyors (they err a lot).

Engineers aren't sexy, we're clever.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There's lots of kinds of engineers, but I'd use "problem solver" as the most universal definition. I don't see a lack of drama there.

Me, personally, I agree with you. My latest story here has a 1700-word digression on the mathematical challenges of running a container port. I love that stuff and my readers... well, they seem put up with it. But for some reason not everybody here is into that :-(

That ain't my only issue. I think the current emphasis on engineering/technical education endangers our whole culture: music, graphic arts, literature and philosophy (to name a few) used to be home for our greatest minds. They built western culture. They made us who we are. If the STEM proponents get everything they want, then in another generation our traditional culture could be lost, or (except popular music) at least endangered.

Speaking as a STEM professional, I agree with this 100% except that I don't think you'll need to wait another generation to see the damage done by neglecting arts & humanities.

We do need better scientific literacy - democracy can't function when the public is unable to understand issues like climate, vaccination, encryption. But sucking the resourcing out of humanities isn't the answer.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've worked with engineers all my professional career - aerospace, naval, road, rail, systems, software, blah blah blah etc. etc. etc. Clever folk, every last one of them. But very sensitive. In one company, we non-engineers upset a bunch terribly one day when we stuck a cartoon up on the notice-board that said, "Yesturday I didunt kno how to spel ingineer, now I are one."

Couldn't see the problem myself. They'd take the piss out of the accountants, lawyers, quality guys, procurement and contracts folks, soon as look at them. Still, when you're in a plane five miles up, you want someone who pays attention to the finer points to be involved in building the damn thing.

 

[ericrodman101]

Sexy engineer gear

There's lots of sexy engineer gear online but I've never seen it in the flesh, so to speak.

https://ih0.redbubble.net/image.483...3f4786,front-c,295,163,750,1000-bg,f8f8f8.jpg

 

[KindofHere]

...............

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Well, can’t speak for the world, but the hero of my House of Feathers series is an engineer. I don’t go into any tech details, math, materials or such, but he, and one of his friends, are eligible for that classy iron ring.