The Solution To Doyle's Problem

        I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Chabon titled his book The Final Solution and that the last Sherlock Holmes story written by Conan Doyle is titled The Final Problem. Within the novel, ‘the final solution’ is the fact that the mystery of the missing parrot is most likely the old man’s last case that he will solve. But outside the novel, ‘the final solution’ Chabon is offering is the solution to the death of Sherlock Holmes. Although the old man is never given a name, I think that he is supposed to be the legendary detective that supposedly died falling off a cliff. Chabon writes Sherlock back to life and has him living out his old age in a cottage in the English countryside. The old man has the same skills Sherlock does. He uses deductive reasoning and is able to infer theories from obscure details he manages to pick up. Also, throughout the novel there are references to the old man’s past as a famous detective.

I always like when other authors take an existing story and extend it, making it their own in a way. Even though Sherlock is Doyle’s character, Chabon crafts an 'epilogue' of sorts for the Sherlock Holmes series. It’s fascinating to me how a story written so long ago can still be told today in so many different ways. For instance, there are multiple TV shows and movies about Sherlock Holmes. I like that these characters never really die and that multiple people can give the stories their own twist.

Spring Break Epiphanies

During spring break I had plenty of time to catch up on my favorite television shows.  I found myself analyzing the perspective of the narrator in the Game of Thrones show.  The way the producer presents characters controls the way the audience feels about those characters.  For example, the way Arya Stark is presented forces the audience to empathize with her.  Also, Jamie Lannister is initially presented as a pompous nobleman causing the audience to hate him, but after his hand is cut off he grows modest and humble.  The change in Jamie Lannister’s morale pushes the audience to grow fond of him after being urged to despise him.  The drastic change of heart in Jamie Lannister that influences the audience’s perception of his character demonstrates how the producer manipulates the audience.
The first time I saw the first four seasons of Game of Thrones I had not taken this class, and did not notice the manipulation occurring.  I fell into the emotion-wrenching manipulation the producers and writers staged.  After having taken this class for half of a semester, I found myself critiquing the fact that way the characters are presented is done in an effort to make us feel a particular way about them. This class has already influenced me to contextualize the way characters and plots unfold.
Post Scriptum - This show is still one of the greatest of all time.  The twists and turns are always unexpected and the extreme detail makes it seem realistic.  I would compare the detail of this show to that of the movies Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.  The show can also be captivating through its presentation of the civilization of Westeros, which seems like it could be a representation of feudal Europe.

Punished for the truth?

I recently read an article (here), in which researches discovered through a series of tests performed on children, that children respond to positive incentives for honesty at a higher rate than negative punishments for dishonesty. While the article states that the test was performed on children, I wondered whether or not the same was true of adults. From all of the examples that came into my mind, it seemed pretty clear that our society, or at the very least our school, prioritizes punishment for dishonesty rather than promoting honesty.

People who come clean after being found out are often looked down upon as merely performing “damage control”, rather than commended for their honesty. While there is some truth to those accusations, the fact that those who come clean are viewed with a similar disdain to those who try to cover their actions up makes it difficult to choose coming clean over trying to get away with it. As long as the punishment for any sort of transgression is the same whether or not the person comes clean, it seems obvious that the person will try to go unnoticed.

Consider the various authors we have spoken about in class already who lied in one way or another in order to garner a larger readership. In a way, many people want the lie, they simply don’t want to know they are being lied to. In this way, punishment against dishonesty instead of a promotion of honesty is the best method of ensuring that the various illusions we embrace in day to day life are not dismantled in any way.

Anomalies

              This probably has no significance at all, but I noticed that just within the first two pages of the book, Chabon mentions anomalies twice. So, I looked up the definition of an anomaly. An anomaly, according to Dictionary.com, is “a deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form” or “an incongruity or inconsistency”.

The first instance is when Chabon says that the sight of Linus walking along the railway tracks “charmed [the old man], or aroused his sense…of promising anomaly” (Chabon, 1). The second instance is when the old man realizes the oddness of the silence between the young boy and his parrot. “This the old man—though he had once made his fortune and his reputation through a long and brilliant series of extrapolations from unlikely groupings of facts—could not, could never, have begun to foretell” (Chabon, 2). The second quote made me think that if the old man is really this so called great detective, why was that particular instance something he felt he could not have begun to foretell?

When I read this, it made me think that there will probably be many more anomalies in this book. I mean, after all it is a mystery book. However, at this point, having only read half the book, there is not much more I feel like I can say about this. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I noticed the anomalies, and I wonder if there is a significance to it and what that may be. I guess I’ll just have to read the rest and find out!

Who Do We Trust?

In Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution, there are limitations for both reader and characters. A prominent limitation is the distribution of silence. Characters such a Mrs. Panicker determine that the “mute” boy’s silence reveals his apparent lack of intelligence. I believe that the young boy’s silence is not indicative of his lack of wits, but rather a testament to his unparalleled understanding of the artificial world around him. The young boy is much more intelligent than the fellow characters give him credit. I believe the other characters will eagerly dismiss his interpretation of the missing bird, and come to realize he was closer than any of them to the truth. There is a lot of room for the reader to manipulate situations to one’s own thoughts, because there is a lack of proof and a constant thread of ambiguity in the novel. Both the dominance of silence, but also the power of words cannot be taken as true or false. It comes down to trust: however, that could harm us in the end. Trust can be obliterated in the end of the novel, when we discover the truth, if there is any. We are as clueless and powerless as the investigators trying to solve the murder of Mr. Shane. Parkins said, “ I assure you that I had nothing to do with the death of Shane… I have either been in my bed or in the library here for the past two days, though I can offer no proof of that statement, I am afraid.” (Chabon, 60) We have yet to discover evidence for who committed the crime, so who do we trust?

Let's start with page one...

Since our first days of discussion C.C. and T.T.T.C. revolved around the first pages each novel I decided I would warm up for class tomorrow by writing about, well, the first page.

In the second and third sentences of the text Chabon describes the boy’s manner of walking in seemingly contradictory ways. He call’s the boy’s gait “dreamy” but then writes, “With each step the boy dragged his toes in the rail bed, as if measure out his journey with careful ruled marks of his shoetops in the gravel” (1). When I read the word “dreamy,” I imagined a rather imprecise way of walking, certainly not one “that measures out his journey.” This strange juxtaposition continues as Chabon describes the boy’s “black hair and pale face…against the green unfurling flag of the downs beyond” (1). Chabon seems to thoughtfully select each word in this first paragraph, giving great care to the order in which each description of the scene is presented. Towards the end of the paragraph he mentions “the old man” in passing as if we should already know who he is and we started reading midway through the story. This sense of familiarity continues throughout the novel.

To be honest, I don’t know what to make of the novel thus far. I wrote about the first pages simply because I didn’t know what else to write about. The novel has made me feel things more than think them. Hopefully class tomorrow will help me turn those feelings into thoughts.

Verbal Mandalas

Chabon’s prose is meticulously crafted and playful. A page would jolt with phrasings so visual, often times original, that I would stop and read the lines over again. It got to the point where I didn’t care what became of the codes Bruno kept singing. The plot didn’t really matter, and I gave in to that ‘doomed contentment’ that had similarly tranquilized the bees as the old man came and dispossessed what was rightfully theirs (75). Chabon had a choice, really. He could make the plot more intricate, fill it with more twists and turns, and amp up the stakes. But he decided on what I think a surrealist approach, which was possible because most of the time he wrote in third person, although there was this one time he changed it to first person abruptly and quickly. It interrupted the flow for me, and I felt the confusion could have been intentional, but the intention was lost on me regardless.

This surrealist approach, evident in the way Chabon recorded the psyches, the vulnerabilities, the convictions, the hopes and dreams, and the changes, too, of the characters as the story went on, played itself out like a live play-by-play analysis of a sport commentator who just happened to smoke a lot of weed two hours before. It’s effortlessly nuanced, constructed to sound quick-witted, it’s experimental, and it’s definitely mellow. If it were, for instance, commonplace for the unblazed to make an allegory to a “city sleeping it off on the day after carnival, contemplated from a hilltop by an army of Huns” when describing a beehive, then for sure I was over the line (75). Whatever is the case, his prose makes for an interesting juxtaposition and complementation with the genre that one would normally classify this novel. Its maze-like verbal construction both complicates the common demystifying, problem-solving ideals of mystery novels (like those by Conan Doyle or, if you’re  a fan of all things manga, Gosho Aoyama, who gave the former a nod by naming one of his most popular characters after Doyle) and at the same time hints at itself as being a mystery in its own rights, thereby honoring the essence of this fictional genre in quite a metatextual way.

 But what’s the point? Take the imagery of the stoned soccer commentator, for instance. Audience will definitely notice the unusual verbal ticks, the uncommon word choice, the off-tangent existential rhetorical questions that came out of nowhere as the man in all his wisdom ponders on why thousands of men pay money to watch and celebrate as a group of men do monkey tricks with another group of men while they can just watch monkeys do what they know best. Some will get mad. Others will enjoy. But for sure there will be something to talk about. The same thing happens here. It keeps the mystery going even long after the novel ends, just in a different form.

Parallel Passions

Although the old man’s love for beekeeping and passion for inspecting murders initially seem completely different in The Final Solution, I think that they are actually quite similar. His love for beekeeping is one that provokes both darkness and satisfaction. While the old man is beekeeping, his thoughts often meander to death, and he begins to lose sense of himself, like when he said “Morning, ladies”, and then didn’t know if he had actually thought it instead. This idea of losing himself, however, shows just how much passion he has for the activity. He’s able to help the bees, and even help Linus learn how to bee-keep, even though it sparks both physical and emotional pain sometimes. Similarly, his passion for murder investigation brings on hard emotions, but also a sense of accomplishment. Just like he would think about death in murder cases, he thinks about the value of life while beekeeping, as he “feared dying in some undignified way” (77).  His goal, in specific circumstance presented in The Final Solution, is not only to solve the murder, but to simply help Linus find his comfort (Bruno) again. Even while retired, the old man finds the energy he used in cases when he was young, all in an effort to help someone. Although there are hard moments and conversation throughout the process, he has a goal: to better the world.

It's All Relative

What’s the point? The age old question, why are we even here? I’m sure there’s a ton of philosophical answers to this, but in the end I think it’s different for everyone and depends on what’s important to them. In The Final Solution the old man says “the world will continue to roll blindly on its way through the void, and in the end Mr. Shane will still be dead. But in the meantime, Inspector, Number 4 must be re-queened” (p. 24). For the old man the most important thing to him at that point in his life was his bees. It didn’t matter that Mr. Shane had been killed because it was over with. What happened, happened and he was going to move on with what he deemed important. To Linus the most important thing was Bruno. He was so upset, not because a man died but because his bird was stolen. Linus probably knew that Bruno held important information, but to him ending the war wasn’t that important. It’s all relative for each person. For a stressed Hamilton student, the entire world is riding on their next test grade. For a leader of a country their world is relying on how well their peace talks go with another leader. It just shows how we all, especially here at Hamilton, live in our own little bubble. Our problems become more important than what’s going on in the rest of the world. We seem to loose sight of the important things and become so obsessed with our own problems. People can begin to think that thing like grades are the most important thing in their life, forgetting about their friends and family. We have to be careful that we don’t loose sight of the things that are actually important in our lives as we become obsessed with the things that seem to control our lives.  

Just My Opinion

I enjoyed the workshop with Sarah Jillings, but I don’t know if I got anything out of it. I thought it was really well-planned out and was thought-provoking, and I appreciate the time she took out of her day to come and talk to us. That being said, I don’t know if she mentioned stuff that I hadn’t heard before, and that is most definitely not her fault or whatever.

When I was 13, my dad made me spend the entire summer reading Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People” (please feel bad for me). I don’t know if many of you are familiar with it, but the book covers how to establish a strong relationship with people and how to make yourself a better, more effective and overall more influential person in society. Additionally, I took a Health Science and Psychology course in high school that focused on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Both of those experiences combined basically encompass everything she touched on about self-actualization and social relationships. That being said, I still really enjoyed the workshop. I’m borderline obsessed with social psych and introspection in psychology and it’s always interesting to see how others react to different experiences, and I thought this this was a good bonding activity for us as a class because I learned a little bit more about everyone on a more personal and sincere level. So even though I wasn't challenged to think in a way that I haven’t before, I liked how I got to observe others and discuss personal details.

(Edit: After thinking about this for a few minutes, I realized that I am glad that my dad made me read that book. As an eighth grader, I didn't see why finding a passion was necessary for a fulfilling life. I was just into skinny jeans and eyeliner and didn't think that I needed to worry about how my social relationships affected my lifestyle or whether or not I was happy going along with my daily routine. I now see that ever since reading that book, everything I do impacts my life in some way even if it isn't immediately noticeable. My pre-med class only  furthered that mindset, and Sarah Jilling's workshop made it more realistic because now, more than ever, I have ultimate control over what I really want to spend my time doing, and how I want it to affect my lifestyle. So I retract what I said earlier about not getting anything out of the workshop, that was stupid.)

Friday Workshop

Wow! That was my initial reaction when i first listened to what Sarah Jillings had to say to us. First off, the pyramid that she showed us was very very very relatable to my life (In my opinion). Without any thing below the pyramid, everything would fall apart. After hearing it, my brain immediately correlated how my life related to the pyramid. In the end, as humans we have existential dilemmas with ourselves almost everyday of our life. Without self-actualization, it would be hard to come to peace with yourself. Surviving everyday would be a struggle when you have to think about why and for what you live for. On the same note, I came to think about how I could relate what she told us to what we learned in class. Just like how humans need self-actualization, the Bokononist in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle had no true way to find their self-actualization with themselves. So instead of trying to find their meaning to life, the Bokononist persuaded themselves into putting all their faith into the religion of Bokonon. To them, that was their self-actualization, to formidably lie to themselves to believe that they are happy. The seminar we had was extremely mind blowing and had me thinking on different cylinders. Although we think our lives are really that special, in the end we all exist in this world together and the meaning of our lives basically comes down to what we want our lives to mean. As Sarah Jillings told us, our lives are led in this pursuit for self-actualization.

What Makes Me Happy

I really enjoyed Sarah Jilling's self-actualization workshop last week. It made me really think about what my happiness is and if I have achieved it. I realized that I am very happy and mostly grateful to be at Hamilton College. I didn't expect to come to Hamilton at all, but after being here for a semester now, I am so glad I ended up here at Hamilton.

I think it was interesting that most of our class said one of the most important factors that contribute to happiness was relationships. I strongly agree with this because I have had an amazing experience here at Hamilton thanks to the great friends I have met and the great professors I have had as well. Although I have never had such a tough schedule with classes, jobs and clubs, I feel a positive stress as opposed to the negative stress I experienced at my competitive high school. I think having a solid groups of friends is really important. My days are significantly better from just being around them all the time. I really liked the marbles in the jar analogy that Sarah Jillings mentioned. I realized that my friends truly get so excited for each other's successes all the time and I am so glad to have that support here. At home, I have an amazing support system as well, but it is much different. I have to worry more about the bills, my loans, taxes, etc. and at Hamilton (although I do worry about that), it is not constantly on my mind.

I am not really sure what I want to do with my life at all. I am pre-med but not because my parents told me to be. My parents have never suggested I go pre-med and have always supported me in whatever I did. The only thing they really stressed growing up was sports. Although I started sports due to my brother and parents, I am really glad they pushed me down that direction. I loved having a sports-oriented family. I learned so much from team sports, made amazing friends and it really brought my family close together through constant tournament traveling. I bring this up because sometimes things are forced, but I end up truly enjoying them. After the workshop, I realized I am not sure what I really like. I like a lot of things, I laugh at almost everything, and I find happiness from very small things. I like being outdoors, community service, food, sleeping, puppies, but I feel as if I haven't found my real "passion." This is why I am glad Sarah Jillings told us that she was a business major at Hamilton and has completely changed her mind since then. I still don't know what I want to do or what makes me truly happy but now I am more aware about where I am. Like this workshop, this class has made me more aware about what I am reading and what I chose to believe and why.

I am a pretty big Sherlock Holmes fan. Sherlock is one of my favorite TV shows, and both of the Robert Downey Jr. movies, in my opinion, are awesome (Game of Shadows ties in to this story). To me, Sherlock Holmes and audience manipulation go hand in hand.

I think that the whole idea of a mystery story, whether it is in movie, book, TV or some other form, is to make the reader try to outsmart whoever is solving it. I know this is something that I do, and the constant attempts at not just following along, but getting ahead, makes the story that much more gripping to me.

There is a delicate balance here though because if a story is too easy to follow, it ceases to be riveting. And I also know I feel cheated if the answer to the mystery appears out of thin air; when I go back, knowing what to look for, and it still isn’t there. This is, I think, the heart of good mystery stories and the real challenge in writing one: burying the clues needed to solve it deep enough that I notice them but think nothing of them, and then throwing them all in my face at the conclusion. Manipulating me to pay close attention to every detail and still be surprised at which ones are important. There is an innate genius that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle certainly possessed, one that cannot be replicated just by taking his characters and trying to write new stories for them (although I definitely think Sherlock the TV show does).

A ode for a friend

For a long period of my life, I believed that happiness was measured by the number of friends I had, so I took on the role of shape-shifter. It wasn't until my sophomore year of high school (when I became slightly less introverted) that I formed my first genuine friendship. Of course I had friends growing up, but I never felt as at ease or as confident as I did with KB. KB spoke with her own unique set of mannerisms, was witty, serious when appropriate, and ridiculous in private. I wanted her to like me more than anything, so (without realizing it at the time) I tried to be KB. Now, when I think back to my high school years, it is clear that I lost part of myself in trying to be KB's self-pronounced best friend. After listening to the lecture in our last class, I initially felt disappointed in myself for having let my idolization of someone mold my personality. But now I believe that Sarah Jillings' statement that you have to be yourself before you can form true friendships is incorrect. KB's confidence, sense of humor and loyalty rubbed off on me, and allowed me to feel comfortable enough with myself to not care about what others thought.
KB and I are still great friends, but our friendship has changed. Once I felt confident enough to be myself, KB began to disagree with some of my decisions and started to question some of my actions. It was uncomfortable for a few months, with a few lapses in communication, but eventually we found our way back to each other with a new found sense of gratitude for what each of us brought to the friendship. In my opinion, we are not as close as we used to be (probably because I am no longer her carbon copy and we are at separate schools), but I value her friendship most of all because she helped me find myself and, more importantly, stuck around when I did.

Shitty 2nd Drafts

I have been looking at this paper for weeks. The closer we get to this deadline, the more frightened I become. What if it is not good enough? What if I don't get an A? It is hard to prioritize work during stressful weeks such as this one. How much time should I allow for Econ studying while still working on my paper for this, and a problem set for my energy class? Well if I get "this high" of a grade on my econ test, I can probably get an A in the class, so I should study more for the test.... But if I don't do well on this paper, I could be sacrificing this grade. I wish we lived in a society that did not bear so much weight on grades. I went to the career center last Friday and the first thing the counselor said to me was, "GPA is the first indicator employers look at". I think that people have much more to offer than a number. If I could do something incredible for a weekend, like go on a two day adventure to the Adirondacks with some friends, I would definitely sacrifice studying. College is all about making experiences that will last a lifetime, and learning about how the world works, so you can become a productive and engaged member of society. I know people that study for hours for tests and get B-'s and people who look over their notes for 10 minutes and get A's. I think there are better ways to test knowledge than written tests. Weeks like these, where every teacher assigns some huge assignment, are so shitty for pretty much every student. Are tests (and grades) for teachers to evaluate their student's progress, or for the administration to evaluate teachers? Happy studying.

The Not So Final Problem

I do not watch the t.v. series featuring Benedict Cumberbatch (who I must say has an incredible last name),  but as a fan of Robert Downey Jr. and his Sherlock Holmes films, I already knew that Conan Doyle did not, or should I say could not, kill off Sherlock Holmes through his chapter "The Final Problem." Though most of the Sherlock Holmes' series are written in the perspective of his close friend and partner Dr. John H. Watson, I think the narration in this chapter specifically allowed the reader to empathize with Watson from his starting words, "it is with a heavy heart." After doing a little online research, it turns out that Doyle's original purpose in writing this was to end his Sherlock series, but he eventually resurrects him in subsequent stories.

After I finished reading, it seemed to me that Doyle's feelings could be matched with Watson's in this short story. Both having been with Sherlock and worked with him for a long period of time, I can presume that both would have felt very sorrowful about his death. There was an obvious melancholic tone to the narration that I feel like was not subject to just Watson. There are small parts of the story that stuck out to me as analogous to a plausible reaction of readers and fans . For example, when Watson writes "it will be within the public how completely... how heavily the hand of the dead man weighed," I see it as an implication of the strong effect this story may have on the readers. I think Doyle, intentional or not, incorporated his feelings and the reader's potential reaction in this chapter as a result of its original intention being "The Final Problem."