[nesfa-reading-group] FW: [nesfa-open] Book review--Holmes Entangled

[Wes Brodsky]

Zounds like another suggestion for the reading group.

 

From: nesfa-open [mailto:nesfa-open-bounces at lists.nesfa.org] On Behalf Of ANTHONY R LEWIS
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2018 2:31 PM
To: NESFA Open Mailing List
Subject: [nesfa-open] Book review--Holmes Entangled

 

I recently read Holmes Entangled by Gordon McAlpine. I can't go into too many details without spoiling the story but it is not a classical Holmesian mystery--it is a story about Sherlock Holmes as if written by Jorge Luis Borges. In fact, Borges is the instigator of the story presentation and is in the starting/finishing frame of the story. It is 1943 and Borges has found a manuscript in an Argentine library written by Holmes in 1928. As a result of this an attempt is made upon his life and he engages a private investigator to find out why. The mss. does not take place in the canonical Holmesian universe but in one where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote no detective stories. However, his life is threatened because of his belief in the existence of parallel universes--the perceived danger of the existence of these parallel universes is the weakest part of the story. The frame ends in a suitably Borgesian manner. Traditional Holmes fans may not find this to their liking, but I did.

If you'd like to read the philosophical underpinning of parallel universes, I refer you to On the Plurality of Worlds, Oxford: Blackwell 1986, by David Kellogg Lewis, one of the major philosophers of the second half of the 20th century [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lewis_(philosopher) <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDavid_Lewis_%28philosopher%29&h=ATNQzyw43MvpwQCCSMLNvIwDH6hTplmysTTEzfOT2HIbHOPbbToye_uD7LBJ8eRBd5bdRAgmAM0Jsxu8mp5ntAcgLTMMAEhpg3q9QaCP7ePlkBXh1kaumSbemT3XX3GFy73mHTsVf6exINtbanIabRiiqhAGUVg> ] and science fiction fan [see nesfa.org/boskone-history/b02/photos.html <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnesfa.org%2Fboskone-history%2Fb02%2Fphotos.html&h=ATNxXC-6bewL7Ln18cBXTyZd_3k_T5sXe3riIKwQ5ZFAx-jQKezNOrSbkbxQOcJBQzLYADb-rEsqBpKoOKUN-DcCchwVtHwRowpUjZ0CEkEPVPLD9bzHccmEnIdjOCSsvcLtrp9WyVTE4s-dtw>  for some photos] Disclaimer: although not a relative, I was a friend of David and of his wife Steffi.

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