
Brontodon
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The name Violet seems to have been a favorite of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as it was quite popular in Victorian England. There are four characters named "Violet" in the original Sherlock Holmes canon. These characters are: Violet Hunter from "The Copper Beeches" Violet Smith from "The Solitary Cyclist" Violet de Merville from "The Illustrious Client" Violet Westbury from "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" .
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Sherlock Holmes and Psychohistory
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
The way I read it, an "enigma" is an insoluble problem, incapable of being analyzed accurately, but a "mathematical problem" can be addressed using mathematical techniques and an answer found. I haven't found the one you have in mind, but there are a number of instances in which Holmes casigates himself for making an error. Here's an example from The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist: “Too late, Watson; too late!” cried Holmes, as I ran panting to his side. “Fool that I was not to allow for that earlier train! It’s abduction, Watson—abduction! Murder! Heaven knows what! Block the road! Stop the horse! That’s right. Now, jump in, and let us see if I can repair the consequences of my own blunder.” -
Sherlock Holmes and Psychohistory
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
The nearest I've been able to come to Holmes's "mathematical certainty" in The Martyrdom of Man is the following: "As a single atom, man is an enigma: as a whole, he is a mathematical problem. As an individual, he is a free agent: as a species, the offspring of necessity." I think Holmes expresses it in clearer language. >> Even Holmes occasionally let his deductions be led astray by his preconceived notions << That may be so, although he assiduously tried to avoid such preconceptions. From A Scandal in Bohemia: “I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." -
Sherlock Holmes and Psychohistory
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
Okay, here's the connection. If you're familiar with Foundation you know about psychohistory -- the fictional science in the series that allows psychohistorians to predict the future via an intimate understanding and scientific analysis of human behavior. In Foundation, Asimov calls it "a profound statistical science." Predictions of the behaviors of any given individual are not reliable, but become more accurate when applied to larger and larger populations. In the Foundation stories, the population to which psychohistorical analysis is applied are the quadrillions of human beings who inhabit the galaxy as part of the galactic empire. With such a large population, psychohistorical predictions can be quite accurate. In The Sign of the Four, Doyle writes: “Winwood Reade is good upon the subject,” said Holmes. “He remarks that, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician." When I first read this, it struck me as a very accurate summation of psychohistory! I then wondered whether Doyle had invented psychohistory, or if (probably more likely) Asimov had been influenced by this passage. Then I realized that the idea was not original with Doyle -- he was talking about Winwood Reade's The Martyrdom of Man. I have not read that book, but I've always been fascinated by the similarity of the idea to that of Asimov's psychohistory. -
Is anybody here a fan of, or at least familiar with, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series?
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Continuity Error in "A Scandal in Bohemia"!
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in Other Versions
I think it's a continuity error. Holmes was busy with his fingers or nails or whatever he was doing there, and I don't get the impression that he got up to change jackets and then sat down again. I do love the line (at 9:13), "Only a German is so uncourteous to his verbs," but I'm not sure "uncourteous" is really a word. Shouldn't it have been "discourteous"? -
I think most, if not all of us are glad that Arthur Conan Doyle ended up calling his fictional detective "Sherlock Holmes," rather than "Sherrinford Holmes" as he had originally intended: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Sherlock_Holmes I suppose, though, that we prefer "Sherlock" because we're used to it and "Sherrinford" sounds strange. If it had been the other way around, presumably "Sherlock" would sound strange. In either case, I think the name "Mycroft" sounds vaguely fungal...
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In keeping with our long history of picking nits out of Sherlockiana, I'd like to show you all a continuity error I have discovered in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes episode "A Scandal in Bohemia." I'm referring to the Granada Television series starring Jeremy Brett. Here is a link to the episode on YouTube: Observe Holmes seated at the mirror at time index 7:22. The camera shifts to Watson reading the note. When the camera shifts back to Holmes at time 7:43, note his attire! BTW, this is an excellent episode, one of my favorites!
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Where does "The Resident Patient" reside?
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
I thank you for your efforts on this issue. I participate in a number of other forum-type sites, and none of them have this difficulty. I can link to a URL, insert my own picture, and even drag-and-drop a picture into the typing field -- all will place the image into the post. I'm surprised to find that it's not as easy here. What do you make of it, Watson? 😉 -
Where does "The Resident Patient" reside?
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
OK, after I was able to change the theme on my desktop browser, it automatically changed on my phone! (I use the same desktop and mobile browser, and they are synchronized.) So that solves that problem. I'm still looking for a way to insert an image into a message, as you did above. -
Where does "The Resident Patient" reside?
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
I've changed the theme on my desktop computer to the light theme (MUCH nicer!), but I can't see any way to do that on my Android phone or tablet. -
Where does "The Resident Patient" reside?
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
I noticed the same thing, so I tried to correct it again. Then I found the control to switch to the light theme, and I saw why you couldn't read the light text on the white background. I just changed it to a middle gray, so it would be readable with either background, but I'm not sure this is the best solution. I'm also trying to figure out how to insert an image from my computer (not a URL) into my posts -- any suggestions? -
Where does "The Resident Patient" reside?
Brontodon replied to Brontodon's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
I noticed that even as I was typing the text was black on a dark gray background. At first I tried to see if there was a different theme, but I couldn't find one in the settings, so I tried using white text for my comments and orange for my quotes. But I see that about half of it came out black on gray. How do I change the theme? -
I'm trying to figure out the floor plan of Dr. Trevelyan's practice in "The Resident Patient." In the story, Mr. Blessington sets up Dr. Trevelyan in practice in a house on Brook Street in London. Blessington lives there as the Resident Patient: >> He turned the two best rooms of the first floor into a sitting-room and bedroom for himself. << OK, so what does "the first floor" mean? I assumed it meant the ground floor; in other words, at street level. But there are repeated references in the story to Blessington's rooms being upstairs: >> Some weeks ago Mr. Blessington came down to me << >> Mr. Blessington generally chose this hour of the day for his exercise. He came in shortly afterwards and passed upstairs. An instant later I heard him running down << >> “The police are already upstairs. << >> “‘Who has been in my room?’ he cried. “‘No one,’ said I. “‘It’s a lie! He yelled. ‘Come up and look!’... When I went upstairs with him... << >> A small page admitted us, and we began at once to ascend the broad, well-carpeted stair. << So it seems that Blessington's rooms are one level above the doctor's consulting room. Where is the consulting room? I now thought that it was on the ground floor, but then there is this passage: >> My page who admits patients is a new boy and by no means quick. He waits downstairs, and runs up to show patients out when I ring the consulting-room bell. << So now it seems there is a level below the doctor's office level -- which would seem to place Blessington's rooms two floors above ground level. But then how would that level be called the "first floor"? Can anyone clear this up for me? (I realize that this seems a rather nitpicky topic, but then, what is the purpose of this forum if not to nitpick?)
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Know Any Good Sherlock Jokes?
Brontodon replied to Pseudonym's topic in General Sherlock Holmes Discussion
This isn't a specific joke, but it occurred to me when I watched the BBC "Sherlock" series, in which impolite language may be used. I'm imagining Holmes and Watson inspecting a crime scene and for some reason related to the particular case, they are expecting some sort of excrement to be found. When it is not, Holmes asks Watson, "What do make of this, Watson?" To which Watson replies, "No shit, Sherlock." -
One that I read not long ago is "The Seven Percent Solution," by Nicholas Meyer. I did not care for it! It made Holmes into a paranoid drug addict who imagined the threat of Moriarty, building an innocent man up in his [Holmes'] mind to be a master criminal and a supervillain. (I did kind of like Holmes meeting, and being treated by, Sigmund Freud!)
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Another point -- which kind of answers my original question -- is that the King himself put a time limit on how long the secrecy regarding the affair had to be maintained: >> "I must begin,” said he, “by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at the end of that time the matter will be of no importance." << So I'll assume that Watson waited the requisite two years before "laying the case before the public."
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Since this is the first Holmes short story, and only the third Holmes work, that Arthur Conan Doyle had not really worked out many of the conventions that would later characterize the series, and he was just telling the audience a story without realizing its in-universe implications.
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But I'm thinking that in-universe, von Ormstein WAS the King of Bohemia, and in-universe, Watson ratted him out!
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In "A Scandal in Bohemia," the King is concerned that his earlier dalliances with Irene Adler remain secret. Why, then, is it OK for Watson to publish all the details, including names and addresses, and "lay them before the public," as he likes to say?