Here's to you ‘a handful of history’, my sharing of real-life stories from around the world. All the narratives I pick are rooted in history one way or another, yet most of them carry themes and happenings that we can easily reflect upon today.
Enjoy :-) - Majken xx
The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
I accidentally stumbled upon this webpage dedicated to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - famously known for the detective stories about Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion Dr. Watson. And oh my! Was he a productive fellow or what! “He wrote more than 300 fictions (including 24 novels) of all genres like history, fantasy, adventure, science-fiction, crimes, drama, war... and more than 1200 other works as essays, pamphlets, articles, letters to the press, poems, interviews, plays... on every subject such as politics, spiritualism, war, crimes, etc.” we are told.
On the page, you can dive into “His Life”, “His Works”, and “Adaptations” - there’s even a podcast, the “Doings of Doyle”. I picked an article to read, and it turned out rather interesting.
A journalist visits Doyle in his private house in August 1892 and gets to spend "A Day With Dr. Conan Doyle”. After explaining his daily activities - riding a bike with his wife being one of them - Doyle speaks about his writings. He reveals how he was inspired to create the character of Sherlock Holmes by a teacher he once had while studying medicine Mr. Joseph Bell.
His intuitive powers were simply marvellous, Doyle says. He gives a couple of examples of Mr. Bell in action, examining patients while Doyle and the other students stood by observing him.
"'I see,” said Mr. Bell, examining the first case, “you're suffering from drink. You even carry a flask in the inside breast pocket of your coat.”
Another case would come forward.
"'Cobbler, I see,” Bell concluded. He then turned to the students and pointed out that the inside of the knee of the man's trousers was worn. That was where the man had rested the lapstone — a peculiarity only found in cobblers.
"All this impressed me very much”, Conan Doyle says. “He was continually before me — his sharp, piercing grey eyes, eagle nose, and striking features. He would sit in his chair with fingers together — he was very dexterous with his hands — and just look at the man or woman before him.”
After the journalist had returned to his office, he contacted Dr. Joseph Bell, and he presented to him Mr. Doyle's praising words. Bell answered back. In his view, Doyle was giving him way too much credit for his work. Bell writes:
Dr. Conan Doyle has, by his imaginative genius, made a great deal out of very little, and his warm remembrance of one of his old teachers has coloured the picture.
In teaching the treatment of disease and accident, all careful teachers have first to show the student how to recognise accurately the case.
The recognition depends in great measure on the accurate rapid appreciation of small points in which the diseased differs from the healthy state. In fact, the student must be taught to observe. To interest him in this kind of work we teachers find it useful to show the student how much a trained use of the observation can discover in ordinary matters such as the previous history, nationality, and occupation of a patient.
And the whole trick is much easier than it appears at first. For instance, physiognomy helps you to nationality, accent to district, and, to an educated ear, almost to county. Nearly every handicraft writes its sign manual on the hands. The scars of the miner differ from those of the quarryman. The carpenter's callosities are not those of the mason. The shoemaker and the tailor are quite different.
Dr. Conan Doyle's genius and intense imagination has on this slender basis made his detective stories a distinctly new departure, but he owes much less than he thinks to yours truly,
Joseph Bell.
Photo of Mr. and Mrs. Conan Doyle: The Strand Magazine, August 1892.
“What I learned from 2.000 Obituaries”
In his day job, Lux Narayan runs a company that focuses on future insights that marketers can derive from past data - a kind of rearview-mirror analysis, as he calls it.
One day, sitting at breakfast with his scrambled eggs and coffee, going through the morning paper, he began to think: What if he held a rearview mirror to obituaries from the New York Times?
“And so, we looked at the data. 2,000 editorial, non-paid obituaries over a 20-month period between 2015 and 2016. What did these 2.000 deaths - or rather lives - teach us?”
Lux Narayan and his company analysed both famous and non-famous people’s obituaries, and the result…well, I encourage you to listen to his TED talk and see for yourself ;-) It’s very inspiring.
Setapa
And now on to something joyful and life-affirming. Umkhathi Theatre Works sing, clap and stomp their way through the rhythmic Setapa, a dance that the Ngwaketse tribe of Botswana originally used when entertaining guests at weddings and other large gatherings. Warning: it’s contagious. When you play the video, you might get an urge to turn up the volume, get out of your chair and join in - Whoop Whoop.
WHAT IS THIS? This is a blog post from me to you. I send it out once every fortnight - if you want to join my email list please go HERE.
In turn, you will receive ‘a handful of history’, which is me sharing real-life stories from around the world, narratives I’ve picked that are rooted in history one way or another.
Every other time, my latest act, ‘from my corner of the world’, will land in your email. These are texts in which I share with you thoughts and views about writing, researching and creating. All the doubts and wonders I come across, all the surprises and discovery of new roads I am lucky to experience when working with my non-fiction texts.
Thanks for reading. I’m happy and grateful to see you here! Majken xx
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