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How Sherlock Pulled the Trick : Spiritualism and the Pseudoscientific Method / Brian McCuskey.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: University Park, PA : Penn State University Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2021Description: 1 online resource (208 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780271090467
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 823/.8 23
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction The Book of Life -- Chapter 1 Reason and Revelation, 1887 -- Chapter 2 Reasoning Backward, 1881–1887 -- Chapter 3 Theory and Preaching, 1887–1930 -- Chapter 4 Wonderful Literature, 1930–2020 -- Chapter 5 Negation at Any Cost, 2001–2020 -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: A masterful combination of literary study and author biography, How Sherlock Pulled the Trick guides us through the parallel careers of two inseparable men: Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Reconsidering Holmes in light of Doyle’s well-known belief in Victorian spiritualism, Brian McCuskey argues that the so-called scientific detective follows the same circular logic, along the same trail of questionable evidence, that led Doyle to the séance room.Holmes’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887, when natural scientists and religious apologists were hotly debating their differences in the London press. In this environment, Doyle became convinced that spiritualism, as a universal faith based on material evidence, resolved the conflict between science and religion. The character of Holmes, with his infallible logic, was Doyle’s good faith solution to the cultural conflicts of his day. Yet this solution has evolved into a new problem. Sherlock Holmes now authorizes the pseudoscience that corrupts our public sphere, defying logic, revising history, and promoting conspiracy theories. As this book demonstrates, wearing a deerstalker does not make you a mastermind—more likely, it marks you as a crackpot.Fascinating and highly readable, How Sherlock Pulled the Trick returns the iconic Holmes to his mystical origins.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780271090467

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction The Book of Life -- Chapter 1 Reason and Revelation, 1887 -- Chapter 2 Reasoning Backward, 1881–1887 -- Chapter 3 Theory and Preaching, 1887–1930 -- Chapter 4 Wonderful Literature, 1930–2020 -- Chapter 5 Negation at Any Cost, 2001–2020 -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

A masterful combination of literary study and author biography, How Sherlock Pulled the Trick guides us through the parallel careers of two inseparable men: Sherlock Holmes and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Reconsidering Holmes in light of Doyle’s well-known belief in Victorian spiritualism, Brian McCuskey argues that the so-called scientific detective follows the same circular logic, along the same trail of questionable evidence, that led Doyle to the séance room.Holmes’s first case, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887, when natural scientists and religious apologists were hotly debating their differences in the London press. In this environment, Doyle became convinced that spiritualism, as a universal faith based on material evidence, resolved the conflict between science and religion. The character of Holmes, with his infallible logic, was Doyle’s good faith solution to the cultural conflicts of his day. Yet this solution has evolved into a new problem. Sherlock Holmes now authorizes the pseudoscience that corrupts our public sphere, defying logic, revising history, and promoting conspiracy theories. As this book demonstrates, wearing a deerstalker does not make you a mastermind—more likely, it marks you as a crackpot.Fascinating and highly readable, How Sherlock Pulled the Trick returns the iconic Holmes to his mystical origins.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 25. Jun 2024)