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Peipei Nie
Professor Haas
Writing 39B
May 20, 2014

A Modern-day Interpretation of Sherlocks Mindfulness

Genius is a small portion of the population. Ordinary people naturally admire those
people who possess an eccentric mind. Their natural curiosity about the world stimulates their
explorative determination, and also influences the development of the detective stories, which
emerged at the Victoria Era, and was popularized by Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock
Holmes and became the significant character in detective stories, and Holmess stories was
revised by the modern-day media to fit the 21
st
century audience. One of the conventions
invented by Conan Doyle was the intelligent mind of Holmes. According to An Introduction to
the Detective Story, Leroy Panek argues, He [Holmes] also fleshes out in a practical way the
genius' mind Holmes knows everything and can do anything. The steady accretion of Holmes'
knowledge and abilities depends, of course, on Doyle's writing off the top of his head. It does
demonstrate genius, but it appeals only to the most naive part of our imaginations (92).
Although Holmess intelligence pervades both the classical convention and the modern-day text,
in Doyles text we can only follow the cases through John Watsons narration, whereas in the
BBCs Sherlock we are exposed to Holmess mind through the camera, and sometimes we are
exposed to the evidence and deduction earlier than any other characters. The abundant cinematic
elements involving in BBCs Sherlock also bring audience a sensational seeking tourism. In the
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first episode A Study of Pink, Holmes solves the case about the anomalous death of four
people in the centre of London. And in the final episode His Last Vow, Holmes takes the case
about stolen letters, and this leads him into a conflict with a tormenting villain, Charles
Magnussen. In these two scenes, Holmes displays his powerful and instant accessible mind map
and mind palace. Because of the abundant means of cinematic elements are applied in the
television show, it produces a visual stimulus to audience and better explains Holmess
mindfulness in the form of images than in the text. Also, this is one of the eccentricities of
Holmess intelligence.
BBCs Sherlock gains the greatest public favor among many other adaptations of
Sherlock Holmes, not only because of the popularity of Benedict Cumberbatch, who successfully
manifests Sherlock Holmes, but also because it takes the place of modern London, and details
from Conan Doyles stories are subtly integrated into the episodes. Lynnette Porter also mentions
this in Sherlock Holmes For The 21
st
Century, Move and television filming locations in the
U.K., as well as London-based museums, restaurants, and hotels offer Holmesians (or
Sherlockians) the opportunity to see where and how favorite characters (or the actors paying
them) live and work (5). Because the mystery atmosphere haunts in the streets of London,
BBCs Sherlock is closely attached to the historical context, and gives the audience a sense of
proximity, especially reveals the style of work of British detective who has different
characteristic than any other countrys actors. In A Study in Pink, four victims are abducted
from the center of the city to choose either deadly pill or sugar pill, but nobody notices the
potential threaten. Holmes infers that the murderer must be someone who we trust even though
they dont know them, who passes unnoticed whenever they go, who hunts in the middle of the
crowd. Holmes narrows the range of the suspects by filtering their personal characteristics and
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motivation. When he notices that a suspicious cab stops in one side of the street, he realizes that
cab is a clever way to do disguise itself from the crowd without causing people to suspect.
Chasing the cab is the representative scene in A Study in Pink which shows the mind map of
Holmess. According to Addiction, Empire, and Narrative in Arthur Conan Doyles The Sign of
Four, Keep Christopher and Don Randall argues, Holmes's cartographic memory, however,
allows him to trace their descent into the obscure nether regions of London. "I lost my bearings,"
Watson reports, but, "Holmes was never at fault ... he mut- tered the names [of the streets] as the
cab rattled through squares and in and out by tortuous by-streets (20-21). Holmes is thus able
to track, on the map of his mind, the precise geographical location of their destination (213)
When he aims at the target is the taxi driver, his mind map functions as navigation. In order to fit
the 21st century audience and the film media, Holmess mind map is joint by different elements
according to a certain sequence of traffic signs such as the turns, roadblocks, pedestrian crossing,
traffic lights, and bus lanes in the complex streets of London, so he can quickly locate the target
and find the shortest road to catch the criminal. As Konnikova mentions in How to Think Like
Sherlock Holmes, What Sherlock Holmes offers isnt just a way of solving crime. It is an entire
way of thinking, a mindset that can be applied to countless enterprises far removed from the
foggy streets of the London underworld (11). Holmes interacts with the world using his
mindfulness for most of the time in his life, and he also refers to it as a by-the-way
manifestation which shows his constantly active mind is an effortless habit (2). After mindful
inspecting the condition of the roads, Holmes chooses an alternative way that can avoid the
roadblock. As For the purpose of audience, the BBCs Sherlock uses some cinematic elements.
One of them is the transition editing. There are two lines which indicate the road selection
extended within the map. The green line stands for the route of Holmes and the red line stands
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for the route of the cab. It uses the parallel editing because it alternates the shots of Holmess line
and the cabs line of action in different place simultaneously, and it suggests the similarity
between situations, which are the movement of Holmes and the moving of the cab. Comparing
their status, audience are drawn into the strengthen atmosphere, and get the idea that how
Holmes manages to catch the cab with his instant accessible mind map. The green line and the
red line finally converge into a dot when Sherlock catches the driver. This is a good example to
illustrate how the detectives mind map is revised for the purpose of the media and the audience.
For the matches part, it uses the eyeline match, which is applied when the camera matches a
Sherlocks line of sight in order to follow what he sees. For example, when Holmes sees the sign
of roadblock, the camera is shifted to the block sign which uses close up shot, and indicates
Holmes will choose another road. It also uses action match, which is applied when matching of
an action between two scenes, which is the scene of the movement of Holmess action and the
scene of the moving of the taxi, to make it one continuous scene, such as different angel of a
chasing scene. For the sound editing, it uses non-diegetic sound such as the background music,
which is a classic soundtrack in BBC version of Sherlock. It provides a feeling of tension,
suspicion, excitement, and anticipation, leading audience to involve as if it is real.
Holmes can carry a map in his head and is never lost. But not only mind map can be
retrieved anytime when he needs navigation to deal with emergency and risk in his adventures,
but also Holmes has a powerful mind palace. He is a visionary. This type of intelligence typically
shows in the final episode of BBCs Sherlock which is called His Last Vow. Holmes is
shocked to find Mary Morstan, who is the Watsons wife, holding him at gunpoint. Morstan
shoots Holmes, who harnesses all his mental powers to stay conscious. This is the time when
Holmess mind palace functions as an exit to help him recognize the threatening situation and
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save his life. First, he identifies Mrs. Morstan is a liar from some words that can represent her
personality. Then, Holmes recollects that Molly Hooper and Microft Holmes analyze the impact
of the bullet, clarify the wound in Holmess body and decide which direction Holmes should fall.
When Holmes identifies which gun the Morstan uses to shoot him that can help him to recognize
if the bullet is still in his body, the audience see many types of guns are stored in Holmess mind
palace. This shoot is revised for the purpose of media because the audience expects to see what
specific things are stored in Holmess mind. Audience now knows Holmes has certain
recognition of guns. Then, it uses a reverse shoot. Microft appears to Holmes mind and correct
Holmess thinking. In the next scene, the shoot alternates between the childhood Holmes and the
grow-up Holmes in order to show a higher level of Microft. The transition between two shots,
which one of the shots is the situation of Holmes and the other shot is his conversation with
Molly and Microft, during which the first imagine gradually disappear while the second image
gradually appears a dissolve transition. Its the hallucinatory states of Holmess when he struggle
to stay conscious. This method of recording is also applied to the scene when the dog runs to the
childhood Holmes and the grow-up Holmes in a slow motion camera and Holmess crave for the
dog to come to his arms to express Holmess feeling of despair because all the people wants to
kill him. This shoot is also in a high key light, which uses for happier brighter scene compared to
Holmess present situation. For the sound editing, it uses internal sound, which happens when
the sound only exists in Holmess mind, and nobody actually speaking. The reason why Holmes
can still retrieve piece of knowledge from his mind palace in this extreme circumstance is
because his mindfulness is the secret to Holmess enduring, overwhelming, and ubiquitous
appeal (Konnikova 11).
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Modern-day audience expects to see realness in Sherlock Holmes. They will anticipate
more when they are exposed to the visual shock that triggered by abundant cinematic elements.
Modern technology certainly captures and zooms in the mindfulness of Sherlock and makes it
easier for its audience to love him.



















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Works Cited:

Lloyd, Robert. Television review: Sherlock makes a mad dash for the 21st century. Los
Angeles Times. 23 Oct. 2010. Web. 21 May 2014.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1987. Print.
Konnikova, Maria. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. New York: Viking, 2013.
Print.
Keep, Christopher and Don Randall. Addiction, Empire, and Narrative in Arthur Conan Doyles
The Sign of Four. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 32:2 (1999): 207-221. JSTOR. Web.
01/15/2014.