As the description says, I wonder if Monk can only exist as a fabrication possibly weaved from dfference sources by the writers or do you think there could really be someone like him validating the saying "Truth is Stranger than Fiction"?

I read a lot of antique books - like from the 1880s-early 1900s. And I recall one section about the deductive powers of the mind. It said that if you took 10,000 people and trained them to be detectives only 500 or so would distinguish themselves, and of that 500 only three or four would be considered exceptional. However, each and every one of those three or four would pale by comparison to the 1 in 10,000 natural detective who needed no training what so ever.

I cant say if the figures were for demonstration or if he thought he had a real grasp of the math - or if I recalled them correctly - but the truth is in there somewhere.

I mean, we're all Monkish to some degree, so - ideally - there must be one person out there who is more Monkish than anyone else. Be that detective-wise or phobia-wise, or whatever.

So yeah, I bet there's truth in fiction and fiction in truth. Where else would we get all our ideas from if it was any other way?

-M

If there's a man out there like Monk, I hope he's single and into short italian chicks. I'd have to "man" him up just a teensy bit but he's the ideal, imo. Feels love deeper than any other real man I've ever encountered but he's not all sensitive like a woman. He has a strong ethical and moral core. He's kept a sense of innocence and decency that most people--with all the ugliness out there--have long since lost. He is fiercly loyal to his friends and his late wife. They don't make men like that. I'd crawl over a pile of dead bodies to have any kind of shot with a man like that. And I think that's this show's strongest appeal.

LOL! Yvette, stand in line. I've said it before, if I wasn't married and he wasn't fictional.

Monkish men make the best husbands, IMO. I married a very Monkish man. When all the young silly girls were chasing after something else, I picked up a real prize. And I've not regretted it once.

But just a tip. If you find one, resist the urge to try to 'man' him up a little. Just treat him like gold and he might surprise you after all.

lol. By "man" him up a little, I don't mean making him hard or cold--there's too many of those as it is. I mean he needs to carry the groceries into the house and he needs to be the one to go without a seatbelt if there's only one available, and he needs to not only kill his own bugs but also any bugs or spiders I have. rofl. It's the rule: the man kills the bugs.

LOL! Mine will do bugs and spiders, but he draws the line at snakes. He has a snake phobia that trumps Monks. (He can't even be in the room with a picture of a snake -- no I'm not kidding.) I laughed when my husband was in the room during the Curly, Larry, Moe scene. Monk was on top of the table, and my husband was on the end of our couch with his face in the cushions whimpering.

I think Monk would have carried the groceries for Trudy. And I bet he would have killed a bug if she really needed him too. I think since he's paying his assistant, he just assumes that's her job.

As much as I love and sympathize with Monk, I also recognize a great deal of inconsistencies in his personality for though he can be generous and kind, at times he could also be incredibly insensitive and selfish - elements that may suggest such a character could only exist in the minds of the writers and not in reality thus seemingly reverseing my intitial premise to the extent that in Monk "Fiction is Stranger than Truth".

I don't know... I can be generous and kind some times, and insensitive and selfish at others. Am I fictional?

And if I am fictional, does that mean I have a chance with Adrian Monk?

Good point.

The issue may not be inconsistency per se but its intensity and if it isn't then are you saying that there is a possibility of a real Monk out there somewhere?

Feasible as a person -- yeah. Feasible as a detective? Maybe. Although I don't know any real detectives, so I could hardly be an expert.

But each of his character traits, gifts and background elements exist seperately in other people, so they could be shuffled into one character. Now whether that character could really function at that level? I don't know. It might happen.

My hubby's actually pretty close. He's brilliant, a little quirky, a little cheap, and highly successful at his job. But he only has one phobia, and no OCD -- okay he obsesses a little over laundry. If the laundry basket is over half full, he has to do a load. (Add to this the fact that he is 50, has brown eyes, dark hair, is 5'10 and a 42 regular, and favors browns in his wardrobe -- it can be scary)

[quote name='BfloGal' date='Jun 25 2008, 06:05 AM' post='888182']
Feasible as a person -- yeah. Feasible as a detective? Maybe. Although I don't know any real detectives, so I could hardly be an expert.

But each of his character traits, gifts and background elements exist seperately in other people, so they could be shuffled into one character. Now whether that character could really function at that level? I don't know. It might happen.

My hubby's actually pretty close. He's brilliant, a little quirky, a little cheap, and highly successful at his job. But he only has one phobia, and no OCD -- okay he obsesses a little over laundry. If the laundry basket is over half full, he has to do a load. (Add to this the fact that he is 50, has brown eyes, dark hair, is 5'10 and a 42 regular, and favors browns in his wardrobe -- it can be scary)
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Thank you for your reply.

My wife who teaches autistic children told me that when she first saw Monk that he exhibits traits asociated with this personality disorder but I somehow feel that the writers have exaggerated these for their dramatic and comedic effects to the extent that the result we know as Monk could only exist in virtual reality but then again truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.

I'm going to put in another 2 cents worth here: Monk is fiction. 100%

I've kissed every frog in the pond. Oh yeah, he's fiction alright. The best you can find is some noodle head trying to fake it. I find it shocking that male writers have managed to create a character that what so many women would see as the perfect man. Cruel bastards. lol.

<huffy indignant rib-bit!>

<slpashes back in to the pond>

Guess I missed a frog. Serves you right for hiding out in the seaweed. Ha!

Kawasakifan, your wife is exactly right. My son has a form of autism, and he reminds me of Monk very strongly, and a lot of the personality traits that Monk displays are common among people with autism. I often think that Monk might bea high functioning autistic, or have an autistic spectrum disorder. As for how realistic it is to think that there could be a person like him, my grandmother is so much like him that sometimes I think they must have based him on her. I am not exaggerating when I say that she is every bit as cheap, and generous, as loyal, and insensitive, cautious, quirky and Monkish as he is. A lot of people don't believe me till they meet her. It would seem to run in my family, the very neat, high anxiety, intelligent but just a bit tightly wound OCD gene. My mother, brother and sister also have OCD and and my sister, mom, daughter and son all have anxiety disorder. And because of his autism, my son also has a lot of OCD tendencies.

I want to thank the many posters whp responded. If any kind of conclusion can be drawn it is that many believe or know of a Monk like person out there and though not talked about, I would also like to think that there is also a compassionate Natalie by his side as well. Thanks again.