[HPforGrownups] Re: I'm presenting "Snape's Appeal in Canon: Severus, Meet Sherlock" at this fall's Harry Potter Symposium in Salem!!!

[Katherine Coble]

No: HPFGUIDX 130885


On Jun 17, 2005, at 12:39 AM, Kathryn Jones wrote:

> unicorn_72 wrote:
>  > --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "vivienne_davalon"
>  > <vivienne_davalon at y...> wrote:
>  > <snipped>
>  >
>  >  >
>  >  > 1) The paper I am presenting is called "Snape's Appeal in Canon:
>  >  > Severus, Meet Sherlock"  and the summary follows:
>
>
>      Kathy writes:
>
>        You made some very good comparisons and have some very good 
> points.  I
>  think there are some interesting differences in the writing of the
>  characters.
>
>  1.  Holmes himself wasn't the most interesting part of the stories.  
> He
>  was merely the vehicle used to demonstrate the use of logic and the 
> "use
>  of the brain".

>       Snape on the other hand is not a vehicle so much as an enigma.

Katherine:
     As an ardent Holmesophile (my screen name and business name is 
Mycropht), I take issue with this.  Holmes is very much the most 
interesting part of the stories, because he not only serves as the 
vehicle for clean logic and deduction but also was an enigmatic 
character in his own right, with super abilities and intensely 
crippling flaws.

>
>  2.  Holmes was not a cruel person.  He was simply not involved in the
>  lives of anyone including Watson. He appeared to have no discernible
>  need for anyone in his life, including his twin brother.

Katherine:

Moriarty had a twin.  Mycroft (my most beloved character, obviously) 
was NOT Sherlock's twin.  We first meet him in "The Greek Interpreter"

<I>
Holmes laughed at my suggestion. "My dear Watson," said he, "I cannot 
agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician 
all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate 
one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own 
powers. When I say, therefore, that Mycroft has better powers of 
observation than I, you may take it that I am speaking the exact and 
literal truth."
        "Is he your junior?"
        "Seven years my senior."
        "How comes it that he is unknown?"
        "Oh, he is very well known in his own circle."
        "Where, then?"
        "Well, in the Diogenes Club, for example." </I>

>
>
>  3.  Having read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, I don't recall 
> ever
>  wondering what his home life was like, or what his family was like.  
> It
>  was as if he was dropped fully formed on the earth.  He was very much 
> a
>  two dimensional character.  Watson had more humanity than did Holmes.
>

K:  That was the point of Holmes, and a large measure of his success.  
He was coming to the page fully formed, without all of the traumatic 
orphanhood that had been so popular in recent literature (i.e. Dickens)

His home life and relationships are broached in some degree through 
several stories.  Especially through the lens of Mycroft.


Katherine

http://mycropht.blogspot.com

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