The Case Study of Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Scholarly Commons ...

of his success, shunning Watson‟s tales and ignorant audience: “What do the public, the
great unobservant public . . . care about the finer shades of analysis and deduction”
(Doyle, 1892/2005b, p. 353). In a way, both Holmes and Doyle are questioning our
taste:
To the man who loves art for its own sake . . . it is frequently in its least
important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived
. . . It is pleasant for me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this
truth. (Doyle, 1892/2005b, p. 351)
Cultivation analysis: Original product: Novels
After viewing Sherlock Holmes (2009), popular opinion directed me towards purchasing
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902/2003). This small investment sparked my
commitment to read all of Doyle‟s original Holmes works. As I read the short stories, I
simultaneously worked through The Sign of Four (1890/2001), A Study in Scarlet
(1887/2006a) and The Valley of Fear (1927/2006b). These four novels, as mentioned
above, were not read in order. Therefore, my cultivation analysis of these works follows
suit and is examined in ethnographic order. The consistent imagery portrayed in The
Hound of the Baskervilles (1902/2003) is centred on the novel‟s gothic genre, while the
novels literary and contextual ideology speaks of modern myths and legends. The Sign
of Four (1890/2001) bears relatively un-stereotypical images of Holmes‟s drug abuse
and within stark contradiction, bears the ideologies of prevailing justice and logic over
emotion. A Study in Scarlet (1887/2006a) offers a rare glimpse into Holmes at the
beginning of his career, an image defying all stereotypes, and ideologically suggests
that man himself is the mystery. Lastly, with The Valley of Fear (1927/2006b), the
image and ideology of violence, and Holmes‟s reaction to it, coincide with one another,
cultivating controversy and modern commercialism.
Original product: The Hound of the Baskervilles images
Redmond (2009) believes “the best-known case of Sherlock Holmes is certainly The
Hound of the Baskervilles, which is also the most often mentioned by non-Sherlockian
authors” (p. 306). Due to Western culture‟s widespread acknowledgement of The
Hound of the Baskervilles (1902/2003) being the classic Holmes story, it was the first
book I chose to read from the canon, irrespective of the order in which the canon was
published. Reflexively, what also contributed to my choice was the book‟s accessibility;
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