In class today we were discussing how Sherlock “A Study in Pink” uses words that appear on the screen to represent Sherlock’s though processes to the audience:

The text not only  makes cognitive processes visible and thus representable on a screen, it also aligns those processes to (alternately) a dictionary, an internet search engine, or a selection machine. The comparison advances Sherlock’s development as a character for the audience, suggesting that deduction is entirely rational, emotion-less, and machine-like, and providing further context for Sherlock’s relative difficulty with social interactions.

As you begin reading Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, look for evidence of Poirot’s investigative style: the types of observations he makes, the kind of evidence that he views as relevant (and the kinds that he does not), and the ultimate basis for the conclusions that he draws. Do you think that Christie had Sherlock Holmes in mind when she fashioned Hercule Poirot as her primary detective?

See you Monday.