Does the sound of a barking dog ever bother you? Is it even unworthy for notice? Perhaps, but sadly persons writing articles on-line—and even academick papers—seem to devote energy, to sounds that are not present. You must understand that including allusions of the literary sort seems clever to many readers. Therefore, why not try to seem truly cleverer, than by referring to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story, “Silver Blaze” from the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes that is more famous for Reichenbach Falls. (True fans of the detective know what I mean.) This introduction generally has a phrase about listen for the dogs that are not barking; sadly this attempt at English mastery misses the point of that Holmes mystery.
The title refers towards an eponymous horse, which has gone missing. Not to mention the fact that the groomer, John Straker, has died mysteriously. Through much walking and some train riding Sherlock solves the case. “Silver Blaze” is in mine opinion, one of the few mysteries (concerning the residents of 221B Bakers Street,) where anyone can crack the case. To then answer the mystery, Silver Blaze in fact killed Straker to save his—the horse’s—life. The dog in question knew Straker; so the dog made no noise. But people miss the point of the story, the Scotland Yard detectives can collect evidence, but they lack imagination to catch the perpetrator. The same is with writers, trying to sound well-read, who use a common declaration about sounds not made by canine animals, thus making themselves the same champs that Holmes had to correct.
My friend Brian likes to defend this method of introduction. I however grow weary with trying to not-so-cleverly proceeding with attaching ones self to Sherlock’s brilliance. Doctor Doyle may have done us a service my introducing the concept of smoking guns at crime scenes as metaphors for irrefutable evidence into the language of English, but I start to wish that “Silver Blaze” were less-cleverly written piece of detective fiction.
