4.0287 Holmes' Brain (4/137)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 16 Jul 90 18:41:16 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0287. Monday, 16 Jul 1990.
(1) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 90 09:38 CDT (19 lines)
From: A10PRR1@NIU
Subject: A.C. Doyle & Knowledge
(2) Date: Sat, 14 Jul 90 03:24:27 EDT (68 lines)
From: Sarah L. Higley <slhi@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>
Subject: knowledge and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(3) Date: Saturday, 14 July 1990 0009-EST (33 lines)
From: TREAT@PENNDRLS (Jay Treat, Religious Studies, Penn)
Subject: Sherlock Holmes and the Brain
(4) Date: Mon, 16 Jul 90 09:30 EDT (17 lines)
From: "Ed. Harris, Academic Affairs, SCSU" <HARRIS@CTSTATEU>
Subject: Holmes' brain
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 90 09:38 CDT
From: A10PRR1@NIU
Subject: A.C. Doyle & Knowledge
It's been a while since I've read the Holmes stories, but I don't
recall Holmes ever commenting on the notion that old information has
to leave the brain before new information can be acquired. What we
are told (via Watson) is that Holmes has no use for knowledge that
is not directly relevant to his line of work (sounds like some of
our students!). Thus, he doesn't know or care whether the sun
revolves around the earth or vice versa, but he does care about the
appearance of various types of tobacco ash. The ash may help him
identify a criminal; astronomy will not.
Watson's explanation of this is in the opening pages of the first
Holmes story, "A Study in Scarlet".
Phil Rider
Northern Illinois University
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------79----
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 90 03:24:27 EDT
From: Sarah L. Higley <slhi@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>
Subject: knowledge and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Along with about seventeen other humanists, I'm sure, I write now to
respond to Joel Goldfield's impression that Sherlock Holmes inveighs
against an overloaded brain. Mr. Goldfield is correct. It's in _A Study
in Scarlet_, the first of the Sherlock Holmes Cases. Not only does
Holmes fear packing his brain too full of irrelevancies, he describes it
as an attic that can be crammed too full of junk. He doesn't even know
(or care) that the earth revolves around the sun, or who Carlyle is. I
must say I find this a little inconsonant with his other many claims
that one never knows when a bit of trivia will come in handy. Despite
the ungodly lateness of the hour which combined with my eyestrain made
me hit control D and send my incomplete posting to the editors, I've
trudged out into the living room and retrieved my copy of the Doubleday
Complete Sherlock Holmes where the passage in question is to be found on
page 21:
"His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary
literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing.
Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he
might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however,
when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory
and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human
being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth
travelled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary fact
that I could hardly realize it.
`You appear to be astonished,' he said, smiling at my expression of
surprise. `Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.'
`Forget it!'
`You see,' he explained, `I consider that a 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 of every sort that he
comes across, so that the knowledge 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. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls
and can distend to any extent. 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.'
`But the Solar System!' I protested.
I am too tired to trudge back out into the living room and find the
story in Borge's _Labyrinths_ where the man goes insane because he
can remember every blade of grass he sees, the number of bricks on every
wall. I believe that it has been said (or it should be if it hasn't)
that knowledge-- or at least "consciousness"-- is everybit as much what
one forgets as it is what one remembers. Forgetting and coherence.
Holmes has a point there. But I think that somewhere along the line,
knowing something about astronomy might help him solve a case. I think
Doyle modified this portrait of Holmes as ignoramus-savant... or at
least film versions have done so. I can't imagine Jeremy Brett
admitting to not knowing Copernicus or Sartor Resartus.
Isn't there a koan somewhere which, along with the sound of one hand
clapping, challenges you to "not think of a monkey"? How does one "do
one's best to forget" something?
Sarah Higley
The University of Rochester
slhi@uhura.cc.rochester
slhi%uhura.cc.rochester.edu@uorvm
rutgers!rochester!ur-cc!slhi
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------40----
Date: Saturday, 14 July 1990 0009-EST
From: TREAT@PENNDRLS (Jay Treat, Religious Studies, Penn)
Subject: Sherlock Holmes and the Brain
Joel D. Goldfield's memory serves him well. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does
indeed have Sherlock Holmes express the theory that the brain can get
too full.
The reference is in the very first Sherlock Holmes story, "A Study in
Scarlet." In Chapter 2, Watson explains the composition of the solar
system to Holmes, whom he has just met and found to be ignorant of the
Copernican Theory. Holmes promptly decides to forget this information.
On the assumption that the material is now public domain, I will
quote Holmes' justification.
"You see," he explained, "I consider that a 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 of every sort
that he comes across, so that the knowledge 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. It is a mistake to think that that little room has
elastic walls and can distend to any extent. 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."
There you have it, another piece of lumber for your attic.
Regards, Jay
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 90 09:30 EDT
From: "Ed. Harris, Academic Affairs, SCSU" <HARRIS@CTSTATEU>
Subject: Holmes' brain
I think Joel Goldfield is referring to an early conversation between
Holmes and Watson, just after they've taken rooms together and begun to
chat and Holmes has demonstrated his remarkable powers of observation
and deduction. Watson is surprised that Holmes knows so much about some
very esoteric things and nothing about some things that Watson considers
commonplace. Holmes explains his strategy of study by likening the
brain to a desk which contains a limited number of cubbyholes, which one
can choose to fill any way one wishes. But a cubby once full of data on
cigar ash, say, cannot then be used for something else.
Ed <HARRIS@CTSTATEU.BITNET>
Southern Connecticut State U, New Haven, CT 06515 USA
Tel: 1 (203) 397-4322 / Fax: 1 (203) 397-4207