Ironies in BBC Sherlock

[Carol the Dabbler]

  

6 hours ago, J.P. said:

Well, I rather suspect Mofftiss didn't think of Martin's shooting hand while writing the script. I wonder if any of them even noticed Martin is left-handed or ambidextrous.

He describes himself rather unambiguously as a lefty.  But (other than writing) he seems able to switch-hit most activities, so yeah, maybe they hadn't noticed.  Even the directors might not have, if he was able to comply with their blocking.

Still ironic, though!

 

[Hikari]

On 9/3/2020 at 5:39 PM, J.P. said:

Well, I rather suspect Mofftiss didn't think of Martin's shooting hand while writing the script. I wonder if any of them even noticed Martin is left-handed of ambidextrous.

In The Great Game, when 'Bored' Sherl is having at the sitting room wall, he's firing with his left hand from his louche posture in the armchair.  When John enters the room and Sherlie stands up for some behind-the-back bravado and suchlike, Ben switches the gun to his dominant right hand.  

Viewers are invited to entertain some theories:

1.  Sherlock Holmes is ambidextrous.  Surely something he would have worked at in order to master, even if it did not come naturally owing to the potential usefulness of such a skill in the pursuit of the art of deduction.

2.  Sherlock Holmes is too Bored to be bothered switching hands due to the Effort and is just taking his chances with the wall.  Making his discharging of a firearm inside a residence even more reckless.  What if he'd hit Mrs. Hudson, doing a spot of cleaning?

I'm always on the lookout for southpaw actors, but I think many times right-handed ones are obliged to use their left hand for some action which is going to film better from that side.  If their left side is facing camera and we need to see what they are doing, their body would block the shot if they try to use their natural hand.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Hikari said:

1.  Sherlock Holmes is ambidextrous.  Surely something he would have worked at in order to master, even if it did not come naturally owing to the potential usefulness of such a skill in the pursuit of the art of deduction.

Indeed, that does sound like the sort of skill he would have cultivated.  Or perhaps he never developed a dominant hand at all, because why should he?  (One might question whether an ambidextrous Sherlock would see anything odd in the location of Van Coon's bullet wound -- but then again he was surly aware that most people are either right-handed or left-handed, and had already noticed Van Coon's pattern of left-handed positioning.)

3 hours ago, Hikari said:

2.  Sherlock Holmes is too Bored to be bothered switching hands due to the Effort....

That one also sounds plausible.  So maybe:  3. Both.  (?)

3 hours ago, Hikari said:

I'm always on the lookout for southpaw actors, but I think many times right-handed ones are obliged to use their left hand for some action which is going to film better from that side.  If their left side is facing camera and we need to see what they are doing, their body would block the shot if they try to use their natural hand.

Indeed, the business of acting involves doing a whole lot of things that you would not normally do, or would do differently.  Also, directors may tend to block their scenes with all or most characters right-handed (unless there is, as you say, a reason to do it otherwise), because

a. they themselves are right-handed and (consciously or otherwise) consider it "normal," or

b. they themselves are left-handed and fully aware of being in the minority, or

c. blocking the scene with everyone left-handed might leave the audience with a subliminal feeling that something's odd (wonder if that tactic has ever been used intentionally, in order to induce that feeling?).

I'm trying to recall ever seeing a tv show or a movie where a character was explicitly left-handed -- well, other than Van Coon.  Surely there have been a few, and of course the usual percentage of actors are left-handed.  But I doubt they'd make a character explicitly left-handed unless it was an actual plot point.  (Lefties -- the last underrepresented minority?)

 

[Arcadia]

Guess what Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto and Brent Spiner all have in common (aside from playing, essentially, the same role  ).

[Carol the Dabbler]

14 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Guess what Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto and Brent Spiner all have in common (aside from playing, essentially, the same role  ).

Gonna take a wild guess that each of them has also played Sherlock Holmes (well, I know that Spiner has, or rather he's played a character who sometimes plays Holmes).

 

[Arcadia]

2 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Gonna take a wild guess that each of them has also played Sherlock Holmes (well, I know that Spiner has, or rather he's played a character who sometimes plays Holmes).

Okayyyyy ... I suppose that's possible too ... but no, what I was referring to was, they're all left-handed. (Geez, what's all this obsession with Sherlock Holmes ... oh, wait ... )

[Carol the Dabbler]

10 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

they're all left-handed

Good grief -- I see but I do not observe!  Leonard Nimoy was left-handed?!?!  (I think I even got his autograph once and didn't notice.)  Are my favorite actors *all* left-handed?

As for playing Holmes:  Nimoy did too, twice!  (You can read about it -- and see pictures -- here.)

I haven't found any evidence that Quinto has played Holmes, but of course Spock has claimed that one of Holmes's most famous quotes ("Once you eliminate the impossible." etc.) was said by "an ancestor" of his.  As for actually playing the character, do you have any doubt that it's only a matter of time?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I just looked online for evidence of Nimoy's handedness, and the few pictures I could find where I could see which hand he was using to sign autographs, the pen was in his *right* hand.  Of course he was born long enough ago that his teachers might have forced him to write with his right hand, even if he was naturally left handed, so that's not conclusive.

I do see a few sites that claim he was left-handed but offer no evidence.  And he seemed to be pretty ambidextrous with the Vulcan salute.

 

[Hikari]

I'd venture a hypotheses that a greater percentage of actors and artists would tend to left-handedness than the general population owing to the dominance of the Right (creative) brain.  So when I see an actor writing with their left hand, I'm like, "Aha! That makes another one."

Julia Roberts is a lefty.  I'd like to know if that runs in the family with brother Eric and niece Emma.

Lisa Edelstein (Cuddy on House) is a lefty as is Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson).  Who is of course, the "Watson" of that piece.

I had a friend who was decidedly left-handed for the fine motor stuff--writing and eating--but he played sports with his right hand.  He had no explanation for this.  It seems like it would feel so unnatural to me.   

We are all right-handers in my family but one sister ties her shoes like a left-handed person.  I have deduced that in kindergarten when she was learning how from the teacher, she was mirroring what she saw a right-handed person doing from the front.  I have tried repeatedly and failed to tie a shoe left-handed--don't know how she managed it.  She was a very shy kid so she wouldn't have dreamed of telling the teacher that this seemed extra especially hard and what was she doing wrong?  

So the moral of that story is:  if you have an opportunity to teach a preschooler (or someone of any age) to tie their shoes, be sure to stand behind them so they can see how their hands are supposed to look.  And if your tutee is a lefty and you are not--go find a left-handed person to teach them because it's really better that way.

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, Hikari said:

We are all right-handers in my family but one sister ties her shoes like a left-handed person.  I have deduced that in kindergarten when she was learning how from the teacher, she was mirroring what she saw a right-handed person doing from the front.  I have tried repeatedly and failed to tie a shoe left-handed--don't know how she managed it.  She was a very shy kid so she wouldn't have dreamed of telling the teacher that this seemed extra especially hard and what was she doing wrong? 

Do you remember learning to write?  And do you remember what your first efforts looked like?  Learning a brand-new fine-motor skill is hard, it takes a lot of concentration and lots and lots of practice.  While tying one's shoes may be less picky than writing, it's still pretty tricky for a newbie.  And when you're a little kid, you're learning lots of new things, many of which are hard.  My point being, it probably never occurred to your sister that shoe tying was supposed to be any easier.

And maybe it really wasn't any harder for her left-handed.  People are pretty flexible, and little kids especially so, because their brains are still wired for learning.

7 hours ago, Hikari said:

I'd venture a hypotheses that a greater percentage of actors and artists would tend to left-handedness than the general population owing to the dominance of the Right (creative) brain.

That's an interesting hypothesis.  No idea how to test it, though.

14 hours ago, Hikari said:

I had a friend who was decidedly left-handed for the fine motor stuff--writing and eating--but he played sports with his right hand.  He had no explanation for this.  It seems like it would feel so unnatural to me

As mentioned earlier, my father was a natural lefty who pitched left-handed but batted right-handed.  My assumption is that he pitched left-handed without even thinking about it, but had been taught to bat by a right-hander who either didn't know Daddy was a lefty or who never stopped to think it'd make a difference.   And my father (like your sister) just did as he was shown.

 

[Arcadia]

It's a well-known (although I don't know if it's "proven") notion that the visual artist population, at least, tends to be disproportionally left-handed. I would imagine the same would apply to other areas of the arts.

I never noticed Nimoy was left-handed either. I was watching City on the Edge of Forever today and meant to pay attention, but soon got involved in the story and forgot. But in the few minutes I paid attention, I didn't noticed any handed-ness one way or the other. I do notice, however, that in that Nimoy-as-Holmes picture you linked to, he's holding something in his left hand....

[Hikari]

9 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

my father was a natural lefty who pitched left-handed but batted right-handed.  My assumption is that he pitched left-handed without even thinking about it, but had been taught to bat by a right-hander who either didn't know Daddy was a lefty or who never stopped to think it'd make a difference.   And my father (like your sister) just did as he was shown.

 

As a children's librarian, I always do action songs as part of my preschool story times (pre-Corona).  When a motion involves right or left I always turn around so the kids can see which side is the correct one.  If they copy me from the front they will be raising the wrong hand and learning it wrong.   People who aren't used to teaching might not remember to do this.

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

As a children's librarian, I always do action songs as part of my preschool story times (pre-Corona).  When a motion involves right or left I always turn around so the kids can see which side is the correct one.  If they copy me from the front they will be raising the wrong hand and learning it wrong.   People who aren't used to teaching might not remember to do this.

It may sound silly -- so what if they don't do a song correctly -- but it's a learning experience, and knowing right from left is important in our society (e.g., for driving).  So I applaud your method.

One day on the school bus I noticed that one little boy's hands were labeled "left" and "right" in ballpoint ink.  His big sister happened to be sitting next to me, so I asked her why, and she explained that he was (and still is, last I heard) ambidextrous, and had trouble remembering which hand to use when his piano teacher said "left" or "right."  Most kids his age would have developed ways to remember, such as "I write with my right hand," where the two sound-alike words are helpful.  But he didn't have that.

 

[Hikari]

4 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

It may sound silly -- so what if they don't do a song correctly -- but it's a learning experience, and knowing right from left is important in our society (e.g., for driving).  So I applaud your method.

One day on the school bus I noticed that one little boy's hands were labeled "left" and "right" in ballpoint ink.  His big sister happened to be sitting next to me, so I asked her why, and she explained that he was (and still is, last I heard) ambidextrous, and had trouble remembering which hand to use when his piano teacher said "left" or "right."  Most kids his age would have developed ways to remember, such as "I write with my right hand," where the two sound-alike words are helpful.  But he didn't have that.

 

Any and all enthusiastic participation in my story times is welcome, of course.  A lot of the kids are toddlers and have years to learn this stuff.  For our kids who are 4, 5 and getting ready to graduate to kindergarten l any early literacy skills they can master before they get to a more organized classroom environment will help them succeed.  We've got some 11, 12 year olds who are still  hazy on which one is their right hand, so it's not a given that kids will intuit which is which.  It's quite shocking to me how many very basic skills a lot of kids never learn.  The attitude of a lot of parents is "The school will teach them".  Every school would have to a a boarding school with a 1:1 staff-student ratio for schools to cover everything they are supposed to teach!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Hikari said:

The attitude of a lot of parents is "The school will teach them".

Plus I suspect some parents simply don't see the point of an education.

People seem to think that kids can't learn unless the school uses the latest teaching techniques and has a fully-equipped campus.  The school I attended had none of that, but I learned because my parents expected it of me.  I recall Mom telling me, "We all have our jobs.  Daddy's job is to go to work and earn money for us to live on.  My job is to take care of the family.  And your job is to go to school and make good grades."  They didn't pressure us, but they provided an atmosphere that facilitated studying.  We had a full Encyclopedia Americana at home.  And we weren't allowed to listen to the radio till our homework was finished.

3 hours ago, Hikari said:

We've got some 11, 12 year olds who are still  hazy on which one is their right hand, so it's not a given that kids will intuit which is which.  It's quite shocking to me how many very basic skills a lot of kids never learn.

Any idea why they don't?  Seems like even if their parents don't encourage them, they'd pick up a lot of basics at school -- not just from the teachers, but the other kids as well.

 

[T.o.b.y]

I can't explain why but some people just seem to have more trouble with the concept of left and right than others. 

Until well into my teens (and even as an adult if I was super tired), I relied on a little scar on my left hand to be sure about which side is which. 

I still hear my mother saying to me as a little girl: "left is where you had the burn, dear." 

[Caya]

I remember having difficulty with the relative nature of left and right as a kid - like, north is always north, why does left depend on how I'm facing? As for handedness, I'm ambi-leaning-towards-lefty but when it comes to which hand to use, for me it's more a matter of being, for lack of a better term, left-eyed. So when I did fencing, I fought with my left hand because that caused my left side to be turned towards the opponent and my dominant eye with it; but when throwing javelins, I was using my right hand because, again, the body position had my left eye on target. That might be the reason for people batting and catching with different hands, too.

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, Caya said:

when I did fencing, I fought with my left hand because that caused my left side to be turned towards the opponent and my dominant eye with it; but when throwing javelins, I was using my right hand because, again, the body position had my left eye on target. That might be the reason for people batting and catching with different hands, too.

Thanks, hadn't thought of that.

7 hours ago, Caya said:

I remember having difficulty with the relative nature of left and right as a kid - like, north is always north, why does left depend on how I'm facing?

I know what you mean.  Maybe that's why people around here tend to give directions like "turn north" rather than "turn left."

But in recent years, I've had more trouble with east and west.  I'm fine with north and south, but I have to stop and think which is east and which is west (one helpful trick is to mentally place myself on a big map of the US, because I know which coast is which).  I never used to have this problem, and I suspect it started when I moved from Boston to Iowa.  I had apparently been thinking of "west" as "toward Indiana," but when I moved, that flipped.  Then I moved to New York State and it flipped again.  Now I'm back in Indiana, which is no help at all!

 

[Hikari]

13 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I know what you mean.  Maybe that's why people around here tend to give directions like "turn north" rather than "turn left."

Probably because they are farmers and intimately attuned to where the sun is?  My father was an Air Force navigator in his youth and had an unerring sense of directionality.  I get flummoxed by maps because I do not do well with converting 2-D lines on a paper to 3-D spaces in the physical world.  I was always really bad at it, which is why I thank God for GPS.  

Your remark reminds me of a favorite exchange in The Last of the Mohicans:

Hawkeye: opines that he and his companions propose to winter in Kantucky.

Maj. Heyward:  There is a war on!  How is it that you are headed west?

H:  I stand facing north, and then, real subtle like, I turn left.

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Hikari said:

Probably because they are farmers and intimately attuned to where the sun is?

Partly, I suspect -- or at least their parents/grandparents were farmers.  But also because directions are relatively easy around here.  Virtually all of the roads run fairly precisely either north-south or east-west, and they have names like East Washington Street or South Post Road, so people have gotten into the habit of thinking that way.  Even along roads that run diagonally, many of the houses are oriented to the cardinal directions.

People in certain other places don't seem to think that way, but I can hardly blame them, considering how their streets meander all over the place.  There's at least one street in the Boston area that actually runs parallel to itself at one point (having made a U-turn).

3 hours ago, Hikari said:

I get flummoxed by maps because I do not do well with converting 2-D lines on a paper to 3-D spaces in the physical world.

One thing that may help is to "orient" the map.  Hold it horizontally and rotate it so that the street that goes off to your left is on the left side of the map, and the park that's behind you is at the bottom of the map, and so on.  This makes it easier to see how the map represents the real world.  (Then you may want to rotate yourself so that the lettering on the map is right-side-up!)  If the place you want to go to is on the right-hand side of the map, then you need to turn right in order to get there.