"Thou art too damned jolly. Sail on." Herman Melville in Moby Dick
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes- "A Study in Scarlet"
A recommended reading for those of us who will not be satisfied with the required reading. It is the first Sherlock Holmes and shows how Watson and Holmes meet.
I have to quote Sherlock Holmes from Chapter 2 of this novelette, in which he is explaining his lack of knowledge or interest in the solar system, "I consider the man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber or every sort that he comes across, so that the knowlege which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. ... Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."
1. What does this say about liberal arts education?
2. Aha, so that's whats wrong with me. Too many useless facts elbowing out the useful ones!
Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. Quite so! I've long had this very thought.
I do think a liberal arts education helps to reinforce some skills, through repeated use across various subjects. For instance, I've written many, many papers on 234,345,670 different topics. I don't remember more than 2 or 3 of the topics, but I can put together a research paper or a speech like noone's business (or at least I like to think so). But, I think they key here is to quickly put yourself on a path with classes with common themes or else you run the risk or retaining very little - a la SACD's comments.
I'm so glad you posted this quote, as I was reading The Five Orage Pips when this jumped out at me:
"Holmes grinned at the last item. 'Well,' he said, 'I say now, as I said then, that a man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of his library, where he can get it if he wants.'"
Another fab quote from that same story, as Holmes is being presented a case by a client, in reaction to one of the client's actions: "Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible imbecility!' he cried." Tact and grace - he always ain't...but mostly he gets the job done.
First, since you wanted to know: How did Holmes and Watson come to live together? In this novelette it is all spelled out in the first chapter or so. Watson is a medical doctor who is injured in Afghanistan and sent back to England on a medical discharge with limited funds to live on. He runs into an old chum in London and mentions that he doesn't have enough money to rent a decent place and therefore is looking for a roommate. This friend happens to know Sherlock Holmes and that Holmes is also searching for a roommate to share in the expense of this great apartment he had found but couldn't afford alone. The friend introduces Watson to Holmes, with warnings that Holmes is a strange bird. Watson finds Holmes interesting and agrees to share the aforementioned apartment. Slowly Holmes draws Watson into his "cases" and thus the Holmes/Watson partnership is established.
Now, Part I of Study in Scarlet introduces you to Holmes and Watson and then the first case that they are working together. They catch their culprit and Holmes is just about to tell the detectives how he caught him when Part I ends. Part II picks up several years BEFORE Part I in Utah with the Mormons. I can't tell you how confused I was at first. I thought maybe they had started a new case without telling us how he caught the culprit in the first case (and was really mad). After about 20 pages it became clear that this was leading up to the case in Part I. It establishes Sherlock's perpetrator as actually the hero of the story. Without telling you how it ends, I will say it is NOT a happy ending. IT is also not very flattering for Mormons, clearly establishing them as the bad guys in this case.
It is interesting that Holmes refers back to his attic/furniture discussion in later stories (Orange Pip). I wonder if there are other conversations/ideas that will repeat?
4 comments:
I have to quote Sherlock Holmes from Chapter 2 of this novelette, in which he is explaining his lack of knowledge or interest in the solar system, "I consider the man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber or every sort that he comes across, so that the knowlege which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. ... Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."
1. What does this say about liberal arts education?
2. Aha, so that's whats wrong with me. Too many useless facts elbowing out the useful ones!
Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before.
Quite so! I've long had this very thought.
I do think a liberal arts education helps to reinforce some skills, through repeated use across various subjects. For instance, I've written many, many papers on 234,345,670 different topics. I don't remember more than 2 or 3 of the topics, but I can put together a research paper or a speech like noone's business (or at least I like to think so). But, I think they key here is to quickly put yourself on a path with classes with common themes or else you run the risk or retaining very little - a la SACD's comments.
I'm so glad you posted this quote, as I was reading The Five Orage Pips when this jumped out at me:
"Holmes grinned at the last item. 'Well,' he said, 'I say now, as I said then, that a man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of his library, where he can get it if he wants.'"
Another fab quote from that same story, as Holmes is being presented a case by a client, in reaction to one of the client's actions:
"Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible imbecility!' he cried."
Tact and grace - he always ain't...but mostly he gets the job done.
First, since you wanted to know: How did Holmes and Watson come to live together? In this novelette it is all spelled out in the first chapter or so. Watson is a medical doctor who is injured in Afghanistan and sent back to England on a medical discharge with limited funds to live on. He runs into an old chum in London and mentions that he doesn't have enough money to rent a decent place and therefore is looking for a roommate. This friend happens to know Sherlock Holmes and that Holmes is also searching for a roommate to share in the expense of this great apartment he had found but couldn't afford alone. The friend introduces Watson to Holmes, with warnings that Holmes is a strange bird. Watson finds Holmes interesting and agrees to share the aforementioned apartment. Slowly Holmes draws Watson into his "cases" and thus the Holmes/Watson partnership is established.
Now, Part I of Study in Scarlet introduces you to Holmes and Watson and then the first case that they are working together. They catch their culprit and Holmes is just about to tell the detectives how he caught him when Part I ends. Part II picks up several years BEFORE Part I in Utah with the Mormons. I can't tell you how confused I was at first. I thought maybe they had started a new case without telling us how he caught the culprit in the first case (and was really mad). After about 20 pages it became clear that this was leading up to the case in Part I. It establishes Sherlock's perpetrator as actually the hero of the story. Without telling you how it ends, I will say it is NOT a happy ending. IT is also not very flattering for Mormons, clearly establishing them as the bad guys in this case.
It is interesting that Holmes refers back to his attic/furniture discussion in later stories (Orange Pip). I wonder if there are other conversations/ideas that will repeat?
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