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| Explanation may be aided by illustration
Some types of information are easier to understand (that is, to explain to yourself) using images rather than words. Watson used images throughout the canon - a scrap of paper found grasped in the hand of a corpse [REIG], messages in the code of the dancing men [DANC], maps of various scenes of crimes - of the office of Percy Phelps [NAVA]. of the district around the Priory School [PRIO], and of the house and garden of Professor Coram [GOLD]. Whereas the illustrations of Sidney Paget help in the creation of the atmosphere, the images mentioned above serve as clues.1 The former relate to the meta-story of the relationship between Watson and I, whereas the latter relate to the story of each case, which I "tell" with the help of the drafts written by my good friend and colleague, Dr. John B. Watson.
1 In the thousands of detective cases since those of Sherlock Holmes, there has been little use of such images. However, in scientific cases, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of images (See Edward R Tufte, Envisioning Information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press, 1990). Holmes, with his interest in the larger cases, involving the laws of nature, seems to have anticipated this development. Since the time of Holmes, we have learned that the brain consists of left and right hemispheres, which could be considered as making conceptual and perceptual maps of the world, and could be identified respectively with print and image media. Multimedia, which integrates print and image, could be considered as the corpus callosum, the structure joining the two hemispheres. Holmes would have appreciated the fact that we are learning to use our whole brain. |