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anamardoll · 07-19-2011, 09:16 AM

Unutterably silly thread time.

I've been listening to the Sherlock Holmes complete colllection from Audible lately because I loved SH as a kid but haven't had time to re-read him lately. I was SHOCKED in the beginning of "A Study in Scarlet" when Watson notes that SH doesn't know the heliocentric theory (i.e., the theory that the earth orbits the sun instead of vice versa). Watson educates SH and SH is dismissive and insists he will forget the information deliberately and immediately because he doesn't want to clutter his mind with unnecessary details. He is claiming that a proper understanding of the solar system isn't necessary for solving crime, so I suppose it's a good thing SH never had an astronomy-based case.

I knew SH wasn't infallibly smart (I was always tickled in one story -- the Five Orange Pips? -- when Watson was the one who knew that "The Lone Star" was a reference to Texas and SH only knew it was something vaguely American), but I was amused by this recent revelation because he's usually considered in modern legend to know EVERYTHING -- a Renaissance man who absorbs knowledge like a sponge; here the reality is that he was written as a man with very narrow interests and deliberately remaining ignorant on all other subjects. Huh!

What other "classics" have you gone back and re-read recently only to find that the *actual* characterization/plot/whatever didn't fit with your recollection or the cultural memory of the work?

07-19-2011, 09:16 AM	#1
anamardoll Chasing Butterflies Posts: 3,132 Karma: 5074169 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: American Southwest Device: Uses batteries.	Reality and Legends Unutterably silly thread time. I've been listening to the Sherlock Holmes complete colllection from Audible lately because I loved SH as a kid but haven't had time to re-read him lately. I was SHOCKED in the beginning of "A Study in Scarlet" when Watson notes that SH doesn't know the heliocentric theory (i.e., the theory that the earth orbits the sun instead of vice versa). Watson educates SH and SH is dismissive and insists he will forget the information deliberately and immediately because he doesn't want to clutter his mind with unnecessary details. He is claiming that a proper understanding of the solar system isn't necessary for solving crime, so I suppose it's a good thing SH never had an astronomy-based case. I knew SH wasn't infallibly smart (I was always tickled in one story -- the Five Orange Pips? -- when Watson was the one who knew that "The Lone Star" was a reference to Texas and SH only knew it was something vaguely American), but I was amused by this recent revelation because he's usually considered in modern legend to know EVERYTHING -- a Renaissance man who absorbs knowledge like a sponge; here the reality is that he was written as a man with very narrow interests and deliberately remaining ignorant on all other subjects. Huh! What other "classics" have you gone back and re-read recently only to find that the actual characterization/plot/whatever didn't fit with your recollection or the cultural memory of the work?