tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564401252924117747.comments2022-10-03T21:12:33.734+01:00My Uncommercial TravellerMichael Uhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103606889308003732noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564401252924117747.post-36172351043691628152022-10-03T21:12:33.734+01:002022-10-03T21:12:33.734+01:00Postscript
The day after uploading this post, I re...Postscript<br />The day after uploading this post, I read a Sherlock Holmes story (“The Adventure of the Abbey Grange”, 1897) that put the point another way. In a wonderful post-modernist moment, Holmes is criticizing Watson for the way he retells their stories of detection: “Your fatal habit of looking at everything from the point of view of a story instead of as a scientific exercise has ruined what might have been an instructive and even classical series of demonstrations … You […] dwell upon sensational details which may excite, but cannot possibly instruct, the reader.” Holmes reveals he plans to write his own textbook of crime-solving when he retires; no doubt such a book would be highly instructive, but it would lack, we feel, any kind of narrative. Far better to read Watson’s stories than Holmes’s “demonstrations”. <br />Michael Uhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12103606889308003732noreply@blogger.com