History InnocentlyInsensitive / Literature

* In ''Squad'' by Mariah [=MacCarthy=], one of the major incidents that led to Jenna and Raejean's friendship starting to fracture was when Raejean called Jenna a [[TheDitz ditz]] in front of several of their peers, and Jenna poured her drink on her in response. Jenna instantly felt horrible and apologized, but in her narration, reveals Raejean makes jokes about her intelligence a ''lot'', and it was starting to really bother her--this time just happened to be the last straw. [[spoiler:When they talk about it at the end of the book, nearly a year later, Raejean has almost entirely forgotten the incident until Jenna reminds her. When Jenna shares how much the jokes about her being dumb were hurting her feelings, Raejean is genuinely taken aback. She explains then that she didn't think it was a big deal, and thought the jokes were funny because Jenna is so clearly ''not'' dumb and anyone who knows her can see that.]]

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': When Myne tries making a book out of thin wood slates, the project fails mostly because her mother sees any piece of wood with no obvious other purpose as firewood, resulting in Myne's materials ending up in the hearth almost the second she leaves them unattended. In addition to this, Myne's plan for the book was for it to be a written record of a story her mother once told her. Her mother's response to the information is that she can just ask if she wants to hear the story again.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' [[PrinciplesZealot Stannis Baratheon]] occasionally makes these comments to people due to his lacking social skills and BrutalHonesty -- which is not helped by the fact that Stannis doesn't think he has any friends (though he has quite a good relationship with [[TheGoodChancellor Davos Seaworth]]). In the prologue to ''Literature/AClashOfKings'', Stannis tells the aged Maester Cressen he is reducing his work as he's too old to be of use. However, he then mentions that working for him at his age could be dangerous (particularly as Cressen recently fell and broke his hip), so Stannis was trying to be nice to Cressen. In ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'', he tells Jon Snow that one of Jon's beloved siblings, [[spoiler:Robb Stark, Jon's murdered brother, was a traitor for not declaring for Stannis and while Stannis perceives this as true, it was certainly a horrible thing to say to Jon.]]

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' Dean Thomas asks Firenze if Hagrid breeds the Centaurs like cattle, it is lucky he did not ask this of any other centaur; Firenze merely corrects him and continues the lesson, but the other centaurs seen have flown into a violent indignant rage over far lesser insults and things which are difficult to envisage as insults.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}':

* BrainlessBeauty Christine from the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'', an opera hopeful with the looks but [[DreadfulMusician not the musical talent]], is apparently oblivious to the fact that her very presence is trampling over the ambitions of Agnes Nitt, who has the musical talent but not the looks. She also says at one point that Agnes is [[ComplimentBackfire lucky about not having to watch what she eats]].

* In ''Literature/SuperMinion'', Tofu both originally plays this straight and later defies it. Having only a few weeks of social experience, he has a tendency to say unintentionally rude things, like complaining about a form being attention-getting to mutants who can't shapeshift to ''not'' look attention-getting. When he gets the chance, he enthusiastically signs up for sensitivity training so that he can learn not to hurt people's feelings. At least, not when he doesn't want to.
* In ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'', this is lampshaded and happens several times over.
** Sir John, who in all respects is a kind and generous man who gives Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters a home after her worthless stepson and daughter-in-law force them out of their own[[note]]due to the entail of her late husband's estate[[/note]] teams up with his mother-in-law Mrs. Jennings to tease Elinor about her "beau" with the initial of F. (that information being given by likewise innocently insensitive Margaret, the youngest Dashwood sister). They routinely tease any young friend about romance in nothing but good humor and well-wishes, but in this instance, it's quite painful; Elinor really is in love with Edward Ferrars and has to constantly pretend that she's not, both because his family would never approve his marrying a girl as poor as Elinor and, worse, he's secretly engaged to another woman and she's the only one who knows it.
** Marianne, who eventually throws a tantrum at the endless teasing she herself endures from Mrs. Jennings, brushes off Elinor's explanation that the older woman means well by saying that Elinor can't possibly know how she, Marianne, is suffering. (She's properly ashamed when she learns of Elinor's situation.)
** Near the end of the book, Edward is disinherited when his secret engagement to Lucy Steele comes to light. Colonel Brandon, whose own family forcibly separated him from his sweetheart as a young man, decides to grant him the parish living on his own estate. As he's not well-acquainted with Edward, he asks Elinor to act as intermediary, not realizing that he's asking his friend to speed up the marriage of her love to another woman.
* In ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}'', Admiral and Mrs. Croft quickly befriend Anne, and they're both kind, good-natured people. But they have no idea of the pain they're causing when they ask casually which of the Musgrove girls Captain Wentworth will marry, having no idea that he was engaged to Anne once.
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', it is mentioned that Ward pretends to be this as part of his ObfuscatingStupidity. For example, when his uncle asks him whether he knows what just happened (after his father's death), Ward nods and says "I get father's horse", the stupidest and most inappropriate thing he can come up with at the moment.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'':
** Princess Eilonwy has moments of this.
** In the third book, King Rhuddlum is a bit guilty of this, as he explains to Taran that he's hoping to eventually betroth Eilonwy to his son Rhun - not even slightly aware that Taran himself is in love with Eilonwy.
* Depending on interpretation, Franchise/SherlockHolmes. Opinion varies on whether he's genuinely socially inept or deliberately spiteful to people who aren't as smart as him. The [[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 2009 film]] favours the latter explanation, but critics who stress Holmes' loneliness as a character trait favour the former.
** The BBC series ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' seems to use a bit of both - he once asks John whether a comment was too insensitive, but also makes fun of everyone for not understanding his deductions. We haven't seen much of the loneliness outright yet, but he sure does get upset when John's in danger. He ''claims'' to be a sociopath, as well, but the fact that he shows genuine concern for another human being pretty clearly tells that if he has a disorder, it's not as serious as he thinks. Or perhaps John is just the exception. WordOfGod from Moffatt is that Sherlock is a) full of crap and b) ''wants'' to be a sociopath; he thinks his intellect would be much more efficient if it wasn't for all this ''caring'' about stuff getting in the way.
** Both presentations may be correct. Individuals with exceptionally high [=IQs=] often have difficulty with proper social interactions, usually coming off as either distant, patronizing, or outright arrogant and insulting (even when it is not their intent). Psychologists think it comes from their altered viewpoint of reality. People with high [=IQs=] easily make intellectual connections and usually have a better understanding of things. But even when they know intellectually that it is due to their high [=IQ=], they can't always grasp why no one else gets it or may be frustrated by how they need to explain "simple" things. For Sherlock, who likely has a very high [=IQ=], he doesn't get why everyone else can't see the world the way he does. To him, he is pointing out things on the same level of obviousness as "The sky is blue" and then dealing with people who are so dense they need it spelled out to them (even though no one else would ever make those connections).
** In the first Literature/MaryRussell book, "The Beekeeper's Apprentice," Holmes touches a nerve during his SherlockScan of Russell, identifying that she was in an accident that killed her parents and caused her move to Yorkshire based on scar tissue, muscle weakness, and her accent. He has his eyes closed and realizes he has gone too far when he sees her face.
** Something similar happens in ''The Sign of the Four'', in which he casually deduces that Watson's pocket-watch used to belong to his elder brother, who lived largely in poverty, took to drink, and has recently died, without thinking that this might be a sensitive subject until Watson reacts.
* BrainlessBeauty Christine from the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'', an opera hopeful with the looks but [[DreadfulMusician not the musical talent]], is apparently oblivious to the fact that her very presence is trampling over the ambitions of Agnes Nitt, who has the musical talent but not the looks. She also says at one point that Agnes is [[ComplimentBackfire lucky about not having to watch what she eats]].
* Gray Wing from ''Literature/WarriorCats'': ''Dawn of the Clans'' tries (poorly) to comfort Wind Runner by saying that her son Emberkit was in a better place. This, however, makes Wind Runner angry at him, yelling at him that the best place for a kit was at its mother's belly and wishing him grief, saying that he's as bad as Clear Sky and she'll throw that comment back at him. But when [[spoiler:Turtle Tail dies]], she apologizes to him.
* Lightning Strike from ''Literature/OutOfPosition''. He's not necessarily a {{Jerkass}}, but he has no problem sharing his opinions, no matter how annoying or upsetting they may be. He even tries to give Dev bondage gear as a Christmas present ''at a very public party'' because he believed it was something Dev wanted.
* In ''Literature/TomcatBlueEyesDiaries'', Blue Eyes and White Whiskers Rusty go to visit their mutual friend, cat Green Eyes who has just had babies. Blue Eyes is always a very friendly, affectionate little tom-cat -- almost a kitten himself. He says to Whiskers that Green Eyes' babies are real ugly and- the horror- even blind. Green Eyes gets angry and swats him twice with her front paws and runs away with her babies. Whiskers tries to explain to him that every mother is sorry when somebody shames her children and tells Blue Eyes that he was not prettier when he was born. Blue Eyes doesn't believe him and is sure that he was never blind.

** Charles asks Asil how torture affects an Omega werewolf - just before remembering that Asil's wife was tortured to death. (He apologizes later.)

* ''Literature/TanteiTeamKZJikenNote''[='=]s Wakatake doesn't have any problems with boys, but he doesn't seem to know what ''not'' to say in front of girls. For example, saying the girl he [[CrashIntoHello crashed into]] a mailbox, or "I found girls annoying'' in her face.

* In ''Literature/TheDinosaurLords'', the Gardeners, a religious sect basing their philosophy on works of one Jaume dels Flors, is prone to praising their spiritual guru whenever Karyl is present, which is painful for Karyl, as dels Flors is the man who killed him (Karyl [[BackFromTheDead got better]]).
* Clay from ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' can be this at times, especially around [[BloodKnight Peril]]. The other dragonets have to cover for him, and it even leads Tsunami and Glory pulling a trick on Clay to show that being this can be hurtful at times.
* In ''Literature/WolfHall'', Thomas Cromwell has a slightly difficult relationship with his son Gregory; they love each other, but Gregory is guileless and doesn't understand his father very well. So when Cromwell makes a joking-not-joking comment that his [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Cromwell%2CThomas(1EEssex)01.jpg portrait]] makes him look like a murderer (a persistent insecurity of his), Gregory simply says "you didn't know?"

* In the ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''Original Sin'', Chris Cwej meets a member of a race conquered by the Earth Empire, and - being a spaceship geek - gushes about how he had a model of one of their ships and how cool they were. He's genuinely confused when the alien bitterly responds that they obviously weren't good ''enough''.
* In ''Literature/TheHateUGive'', the protagonist Starr is a black teenage girl who's dating a white boy, Chris. Chris is a generally nice guy, but he does occasionally put his foot in his mouth. Most notably, when he asks Starr and her friends why black parents give their children "weird" names. Their response is essentially, "...''Seriously''?", along with a quick lesson in what a lot of those "weird" names mean in various languages -- and pointing out that plenty of white people have ridiculous names, too. Chris realizes it was a stupid thing to say and quickly apologizes.
* In the second book of ''Literature/CrazyRichAsians'', Astrid meets AmicableExes Charlie's wife Isabel for the first time and innocently mentions that she and Charlie recently went on a road trip together (conveniently forgetting to mention that her cousin was with them also). Isabel, who was having marital problems with Charlie (though Astrid wasn't aware of that), immediately jumped to the worst conclusion.
* Quentin Coldwater of ''Literature/TheMagicians'' is occasionally beset with this problem, in keeping with his characterization as an oblivious {{Manchild}}. For example, at one point in the second book, he tells Julia that she didn't miss a thing by failing the entrance exam to Brakebills... when Julia had been forced to endure several painful months of depression and SanitySlippage as a result of her failure, being '' '''visibly''' '' on the brink of a nervous breakdown by the time she met Quentin again. Also, it eventually becomes clear that [[spoiler: she become so desperate to learn magic that she prostituted herself to Hedge Wizards and later ended up having a traumatizing encounter with a monstrous demigod who murdered her friends and raped her]].

* In ''Literature/{{Stargirl}}'', this is arguably the titular character's only flaw. She is genuinely a kind and friendly girl who wants to make others happy but in between being home-schooled most of her life and her {{Cloudcuckoolander}} attitude, she simply doesn't realize how the real world works.
** She sings Happy Birthday to everyone on their birthday, embarrassing them all because she never asked their permission or consider they might not like it.
** A senior girl's grandfather passes away and Stargirl isn't invited to the funeral because the family doesn't know her. Stargirl shows up anyways but the mother angrily tells her to leave.
** She makes a public Valentine's Day declaration of love to her boyfriend while both were shunned from the rest of the student body. Said boyfriend was so embarrassed he didn't talk to her for the whole day.
* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': When Myne tries making a book out of thin wood slates, the project fails mostly because her mother sees any piece of wood with no obvious other purpose as firewood, resulting in Myne's materials ending up in the hearth almost the second she leaves them unattended. In addition to this, Myne's plan for the book was for it to be a written record of a story her mother once told her. Her mother's response to the information is that she can just ask if she wants to hear the story again.
* ''Literature/MonsterOfTheMonthClub'': When Owl uses Rilla's e-mail to contact people with "monster" in their screen names and ask if they're a real monster, he ends up offending pretty much all of them, but doesn't seem to understand why they're insulted.
* The titular character of ''Literature/EleanorOliphantIsCompletelyFine'' often has horribly awkward interactions with other people because she often unintentionally insults them to their face--for example, turning down a nail salon's returning customer offer because she can do her nails "at home for free, and better." When others take offense, Eleanor dismisses ''them'' as having poor social skills.
* Ayla in ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' sometimes comes off this way when interacting with people, even bordering on (unintentional) BrutalHonesty. She never intends to be rude or hurtful, but she tends to say ''exactly'' what she thinks and feels, and due to being raised by the Clan (who CannotTellALie) and travelling around a lot, she is often ignorant of social norms and customs, which can unintentionally cause offense.
* ''Literature/BecauseOfTheRabbit'':
** Two girls on the school bus tell Emma her hair looks like an orange and suggest that she dress as orange juice for Halloween with a straw in her hair. Emma realizes they're trying to be friendly, but she doesn't like people drawing attention to her hair.
** Some of the girls outside of Emma's class who once had Jack in their class tell Emma not to tell anything she'd prefer to keep private to him because he can't keep a secret. Jack, of course, didn't mean to hurt them by revealing their secrets, he is autistic and simply doesn't know any better.
* ''Literature/IAmJazz'': When Jazz was very young, she would tell her sister about how she wanted to grow up to be a beautiful lady. Jazz's sister, not realising that Jazz was trans, would giggle and call her a "funny kid".
* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'':
** Lida, a fellow attendee at Hazel's cancer support group, says she admires Hazel for continuing to fight for so long, and says she wishes she had her strength. Hazel, who's only strong because she has no other choice, responds that she'd much rather have Lida's remission. To her credit, Lida apologizes, though Hazel regrets saying anything because she knows Lida was being sincere and didn't mean to come off as patronizing.
** Played with by a little girl Hazel meets at the mall. She comes up to her and rather bluntly asks about Hazel's oxygen tank and why she needs it. Her mother is horribly embarrassed and scolds her for being rude, but Hazel genuinely doesn't mind, since the kid's only curious. She explains to the girl that she needs help breathing, and even shows her how it works.

* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'': Lida, a fellow attendee at Hazel's cancer support group, says she admires Hazel for continuing to fight for so long, and says she wishes she had her strength. Hazel, who's only strong because she has no other choice, responds that she'd much rather have Lida's remission. To her credit, Lida apologizes, though Hazel regrets saying anything because she knows Lida was being sincere and didn't mean to come off as patronizing.

* ''Literature/IAmJazz'': When Jazz was very young, she would tell her sister about how she wanted to grow up to be a beautiful lady. Jazz's sister, not realising that Jazz was trans, would giggle and call her a "funny kid".