You know your "Sherlock" obsession is bad when...

[Arcadia]

Ohhhh. Thanks!

 

You know you're obsessed when: you don't get a joke because you're so convinced the characters are real that you assume their baby was born months ago. :D

[sfmpco]

...when you order 3 of Ben's movie's from eBay within 48 hrs - To the Ends of the Earth, Amazing Grace, and 12 Years a Slave

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

When you read through all of your collection of Doyle stories looking for one passage even when you have to get up early in the morning and you just can't seem to stop.

[sfmpco]

...when you consider buying the complete works of ACD...

[SherlockedCAMPer]

...when you order 3 of Ben's movie's from eBay within 48 hrs - To the Ends of the Earth, Amazing Grace, and 12 Years a Slave

 

Haven't seen To the Ends of the Earth yet, but enjoyed the other 2.  Finally got Amazing Grace this past August (saw it in the theater when it came out)

 

...when you consider buying the complete works of ACD...

 

Been there, haven't done that yet.

 

Ohhhh. Thanks!

 

You know you're obsessed when: you don't get a joke because you're so convinced the characters are real that you assume their baby was born months ago. :D

 

Haven't gotten that bad on the baby thing, but I do need to remind myself that it is a fictional show when I do get to the emotional parts (the jump, and following, in particular).

 

 

You know you have a bad obsession when you go for a run through the forums trying to get caught up and the S4 related threads keep updating faster than you can get through that area, let alone the forum.

[Arcadia]

We all need multiple laptops, like Sherlock's mind palace ... one for each thread!

[SherlockedCAMPer]

We all need multiple laptops, like Sherlock's mind palace ... one for each thread!

 

Yes we do.  And I have access to 3 laptops and 2 smartphones (kind of).  Although it would be hard to kick my son off his laptop and my sister off hers & her smartphone.  So I have 2 options as long as tapatalk is working.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... I do need to remind myself that it is a fictional show when I do get to the emotional parts (the jump, and following, in particular).

Don't we all?!

 

Standing on the far side of the Ambulance Station, looking up at the roof of Bart's, is quite an emotional experience, let me tell you. I know it's fiction, but wow!

[sfmpco]

...when you know all the major Twitter accounts for following Ben and #Sherlock news.

[joanneta1]

I have not followed the entire conversation going on, but my favourite Sherlock piece is " when you discard the impossible, whatever remains MUST be the truth" ! I even use it in real- life situations and it DOES help a lot

[sfmpco]

I have not followed the entire conversation going on, but my favourite Sherlock piece is " when you discard the impossible, whatever remains MUST be the truth" ! I even use it in real- life situations and it DOES help a lot

 

Hello and welcome to the forum!

[SherlockedCAMPer]

How about this: you know it's a slow day for your Sherlock obsession when (during their usual

times) your twitter & Facebook feeds are not nearly incessant stuff on Sherlock/Benedict news, pics, or fan art.

[joanneta1]

When you know you can put any of the Sherlock DVDs' on at anytime and know you will never get bored!

 

Totally agree with you, especially since I can watch the modern "adaptation" and it's commentaries end to end and then grab any of the Granada series ones ( I have the boxed collection) and remind myself that:

A) Mrs Hudson is definitely NOT a Mrs Pepperpot, vid. the way she is repeatedly the agent of Sherlock and how he acknowledges her contribution in The Empty House.

B] Sherlock can make deductions in an elegant, intelligible, perfectly grammatical way

C) Dr. Watson has his own life but can drop everything at a moment's notice

D) Sherlock is not a snob in both series, seeing how he behaves in A Scandal in Belgravia as well as in The Master Blackmailer CAM himself, in The Second Stain and in The Illustrious client towards women from various walks of life.

[joanneta1]

I have not followed the entire conversation going on, but my favourite Sherlock piece is " when you discard the impossible, whatever remains MUST be the truth" ! I even use it in real- life situations and it DOES help a lot

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

Thank you! It seems such a nice place to be, for fans of both the series and the stories!

Edited January 15, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Repaired quote codes

[joanneta1]

According to my coworkers:

 

Apparently your obsessed if the name of the main character ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) easily rolls off your tongue.

 

Also I know I'm obsessed because I'm pretty sure that Benedict Cumberbatch would be the only celebrity that would encourage a scream from my mouth, uncontrollable sweating and/or fainting. I've never had this much excitement over any fictional character. NEVER...

You do realize that Benedict Cumberbatch is not a fictional character? (Just checking....)

 

;)

Yes, but he plays a fictional character. Honestly if it wasn't for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, I don't know if I'd know who he was.

 

That's all very well, but it means you missed out on Amazing Grace, which is my absolute favourite since it combines him with Ioan Gruffyd of Horatio Hornblower fame, Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl and Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Each one acted with great skill and depth of character development.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Carol the Dabbler
Combined two related posts

[sfmpco]

That's all very well, but it means you missed out on Amazing Grace, which is my absolute favourite since it combines him with Ioan Gruffyd of Horatio Hornblower fame, Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl and Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Each one acted with great skill and depth of character development.

 

I just got Amazing Grace but haven't seen it yet, and I haven't yet seen The Other Boleyn Girl.   I've been trying hard to catch up and be well-rounded in my knowledge of his film work, but at first my obsession with SHERLOCK so intense that I would not allow myself to view any of his other work.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

 

That's all very well, but it means you missed out on Amazing Grace, which is my absolute favourite since it combines him with Ioan Gruffyd of Horatio Hornblower fame, Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl and Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Each one acted with great skill and depth of character development.

I just got Amazing Grace but haven't seen it yet, and I haven't yet seen The Other Boleyn Girl. I've been trying hard to catch up and be well-rounded in my knowledge of his film work, but at first my obsession with SHERLOCK so intense that I would not allow myself to view any of his other work.

Benedict does a great job in Amazing Grace. What I saw of The Other Boleyn Girl, he did a good job (need to watch it all the way through some time).

[joanneta1]

 

 

You know you're obsessed when you argue with the previous post, to whit:

 

a. Are those Victorian outfits, or just formal attire?

 

b. Why would John grow a mustache in order to go to a theater?

 

c. I have trouble imagining Sherlock wearing a costume just for a party. Or consenting to go to, you know, a party.

For research purposes, here's the photo in question:

 

 

a. Sherlock could go either way, but for John I'd say definitely a period costume.

 

b. I meant that they might be undercover at a theater -- i.e., pretending to be actors for a case. And I doubt that John actually grew the mustache, it's probably part of his costume.

 

c. Good point -- OK, maybe they're undercover at a costume party?

a. Seems like Sherlock can go either way in a lot of areas.

 

b. Actors pretending to be detectives pretending to be actors. My brain just imploded.

 

c. Disguised as what? Sherlock Holmes and John Watson? :P

I totally agree with you! When I first saw that photograph on the BBC official release, it made me wonder! He is not wearing the whole "penguin outfit" complete with the specific tie which Jeremy Brett complained about (apparently no one would sit next to him during the breaks) but the Bowler-hatted moustachioed Dr. Watson is another throwback which is scary! Mr. Gatiss specifically mentioned ghosts in a short interview and the mind boggles! By the way, sorry for the misquotation in this thread, it is clearly "Once you remove the impossible, however improbable, must be true."

[Carol the Dabbler]

By the way, sorry for the misquotation in this thread, it is clearly "Once you remove the impossible, however improbable, must be true."

Holmes actually phrased that thought in quite a number of different ways (as enumerated in the "Impossible" vs. "Improbable" thread):

 

Sherlock Holmes has long been noted for quotes such as these (thank you, Wikiquote!):

 

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? [The Sign of the Four]

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ["The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet"]

That is the case as it appears to the police, and improbable as it is, all other explanations are more improbable still. ["Silver Blaze"]

It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong. ["The Adventure of the Priory School"]

We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ["The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans"]

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ["The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier"]

What I would like to know is, how does Holmes propose to distinguish the impossible from the merely improbable? It seems to me that a good many "impossible" things merely represent ignorance on the part of the observer (and Holmes's ignorance is "remarkable" -- though apparently not "spectacular" -- according to Watson's observations in A Study in Scarlet).

 

Can someone please defend the poor man from my vicious attack? ;)

 

[joanneta1]

Brilliant little scavenging expedition there! What he makes clear from the very first, that is, A Study in Scarlet, is that he reasons analytically, thus backwards, so whatever is in the realm of the physically impossible is a probability. Simple, good old Aristotelian logic, inductive and deductive reasoning, although he does acknowledge that it is an axiom, which, by definition cannot be proven in any practical way. Anyway, he has a first-class brain and he could learn whatever he needed in less time than the average little us, as he proves in both the stories and in the series again and again. Logical fallacies are also something which can be used to eliminate impossible courses of action, impossible results, etc. Good luck with that, as JM would say.

[sittything]

"What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look."  (not Holmes)   ;)

 

 

[T.o.b.y]

 

Sherlock Holmes has long been noted for quotes such as these (thank you, Wikiquote!):

 

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? [The Sign of the Four]

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ["The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet"]

That is the case as it appears to the police, and improbable as it is, all other explanations are more improbable still. ["Silver Blaze"]

It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong. ["The Adventure of the Priory School"]

We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ["The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans"]

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ["The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier"]

What I would like to know is, how does Holmes propose to distinguish the impossible from the merely improbable? It seems to me that a good many "impossible" things merely represent ignorance on the part of the observer (and Holmes's ignorance is "remarkable" -- though apparently not "spectacular" -- according to Watson's observations in A Study in Scarlet).

 

Can someone please defend the poor man from my vicious attack? ;)

 

Well, how would I know. I'm not a genius. But I always understood that to mean you can get to the truth of a matter not just by proving your pet theory, but also by disproving alternative explanations. I get the impression that if there is a method at all to Sherlock's case-related thinking, then his first step seems to be the highly accurate, detailed and impartial collection of data. Then, based on this first input, he draws several possible conclusions. These he then narrows down by crossing off those explanations he can disprove using more data ("8 ideas... maybe 6 ideas... 4 ideas").

 

Sometimes finding evidence against something is easier than finding evidence for it. For example, imagine there is a murder with five possible murderers. There is no way to prove directly that one of them is the culprit, but if you can prove the other four were elsewhere at the time the victim was killed, then you can cross them off your list. They become "impossible", and the remaining fifth, no matter how improbable, is your prime suspect, simply because he's the only one left whose innocence has not been proven.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

But haven't we all seen mystery programs where someone's iron-clad alibi turns out to be false?  And in reply to this alibi scenario that I never addressed in that other thread,
 

If I was sitting in a movie holding hands with Fred for two hours and someone swears they saw Fred shoot some store clerk across town during that time, I know it's impossible for Fred to have done the shooting.

 
... yes, that proves to your satisfaction that Fred is innocent.  Your testimony may even hold up in a court of law.  But if there's an otherwise-strong case against Fred, I wouldn't blame a cop or district attorney for suspecting that you're lying.  And even if you're telling the truth as you know it, it's possible that you nodded off for a little while in the theater, during which time Fred snuck out and shot the clerk.
 
I still contend that you're all dealing with shades of improbability, not absolute impossibility.
 

... I always understood that to mean you can get to the truth of a matter not just by proving your pet theory, but also by disproving alternative explanations.

Quite true (as Sherlock pointed out to DI Dimwit). But most often, you're not dealing with "proof" or "disproof" in any absolute sense, just evidence -- shades of improbability.  I think that's all that's actually possible, like Holmes's criterion from Silver Blaze: "... improbable as it is, all other explanations are more improbable still."  Absolute proof is only a theoretical concept from mathematics and formal logic.

 

[Boton]

...when you are thrilled -- thrilled, I tell you -- to have figured out a legit way to work Sherlock Holmes into your history class lecture.

[T.o.b.y]

... when you really, really want to know whether when Sherlock told John he'd nearly been in contact so many times during the two years he was officially dead, he meant he'd made beginnings to e-mails or texts that were then deleted / not sent, and if so, what they said. "Not dead"? "Sorry"? "Don't touch my stuff and don't let Mrs Hudson sell anything"? Or did he consider contacting his friend under an alias? Maybe he even did so?

 

Did Sherlock continue to talk to John (or some disembodied mind palace voice of John's) while he was abroad, the way we see him do in The Empty Hearse? If so, about what? Did he feel he'd explained everything and said sorry already and so now they could just move on and solve the next case?

 

And what did Sherlock think John was doing all that time? How could he honestly believe John would still be at Baker Street? Did he imagine he just slept in a coffin until Sherlock's return? Human nature is really not his best subject...