<\/p>\n
\u201cA dim line of ancestors, in every variety of dress, from the Elizabethan knight to the buck of the Regency, stared down upon us and daunted us by their silent company. We talked little, and I for one was glad when the meal was over and we were able to retire into the modern billiard-room and smoke a cigarette.\u201d Pg 61<\/p>\n
The Hounds of Baskervilles takes place during a time of innovation and progress; Wednesday\u2019s discussion emphasized this period as marked by inventions that greatly improved the standard of living. As discussed, technologies like the camera and advent of skyscrapers demonstrated the unlimited potential that scientific research could bring. Thus there was a focus on scientific explanations for various phenomenon and a transition away from the traditional reliance on legends and the supernatural.<\/p>\n
Sherlock Holmes embodies this cultural shift as an expert detective who surrounds himself with individuals of high calliber such as doctors and naturalists, people who study the natural world. His sidekick Watson is likeminded in this regard and views the Baskervilles hound legend with a great deal of skepticism, opting for a more worldy explanation. This skepticism is carried over to his impression of Baskervilles hall where he repeatedly describes the hall with its \u201cweather-bitten pillars \u2026 blotched with lichen \u2026 a ruin of black granite\u201d (58). From a bio major perspective, lichen are considered pioneer species that transform bare rock into soil. This implies an ancient, unkempt image of Baskervilles hall that itself is situated within a primordial moor that may have once been home to primitive humans.<\/p>\n
Referring back to the passage I chose, which until now I\u2019ve barely remarked on, such an image of the hall is paired with an interior lined with old paintings of the Baskervilles line, which portray ancestors as early as an \u201cElizabethan knight\u201d who would have been around in the 17th<\/sup> century, nearly 200 years prior to the novel. Watson is apprehensive of these overbearing paintings and the general aire surrounding the moor and Baskervilles hall, being happy to return to his more modern room and an area reminiscent of London and civilization. London possibly representing the more developed realm of science and innovation that he\u2019s so accustomed too, whereas the moor is an unexplored and secretive environment.<\/p>\n Exactly what Doyle is attempting to convey with this duality remains obscure as the moor vs. London isn\u2019t so black and white when there exists characters like Mr. Stapleton, a naturalist who respects and appreciates the moor due to its many species undescribed by science, whether they be orchids for his sister or a Cyclopid for his butterfly collection. His character, being a man of science in an area where superstition reins above all may reveal Doyles opinion that there is reason to explore and knowledge to be gained from primitive areas seemingly abandoned by modern humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cA dim line of ancestors, in every variety of dress, from the Elizabethan knight to the buck of the Regency, stared down upon us and daunted us by their silent company. We talked little, and I for one was glad when the meal was over and we were able to retire into the modern … Continue reading Science vs. Superstition<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1374,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}