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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Holmes the Psychopath?

一千个人心里有一千个 Sherlock Holmes,MoffGat 脑子里的 Holmes 跟我的脑子里的 Holmes 也有显著的不同,It's a safe bet that even Moffat and Gatiss have some differences between them.

不是说,我想象中的 Holmes 一定比他们想象得更接近 The Canon。只不过他们定位 Holmes 冷酷无情傲慢粗鲁等等特征,甚至需要 Watson 来暖化和人性化,在我看来是个不大不小的误解。

Doyle 自己是医生,Holmes 原型是外科医生,Sherlock Holmes 的221B Baker Street办公室更象私人诊所,他的工作性质也显然是建立在 consulting diagnostician 的模型之上 --- 普通医生遇到疑难杂症而把病人转到专家医生那里去诊治。专家或者外科医生常常自视甚高,瞧不起普通医生,且背后跟同行称病人为“那个肝脏”或“那个脑瘤”,以及经常需要居高临下扮上帝角色,这都是普遍现象,被民众(例如,电视作者)看见了说不定会被吓到,混熟了便知道他们大多热爱救死扶伤的工作。

实际上,Holmes 与前来求助的顾客们之间的微妙的 paternalistic 关系完全是照着专家医生跟病人之间的关系描绘的。当医生轻描淡写地说“我们得把你的胃切除一半”或者“你的存活率超过六个月的可能性是10%”的时候,或者在某个程度决定停止抢救心脏停跳或者癌症晚期的病人的时候,可不比 Sherlock Holmes 显得生硬冷酷得多了?

Anyone who have hung out in a hospital lounge or cafeteria, especially with surgeons, would think Holmes perfectly normal. Compared with an average surgeon, Holmes is as warm and fuzzy, with total TLC, as Mrs. Hudson.

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I really need to stop watching the DVDs!

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