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SPOILER comment: The BBC:s latest Sherlock with Cumberbatch ("The abominable bride") made it explicit that in the show Sherlocks's mind palace 'technique' is a

by fsloth 11y ago

SPOILER comment: The BBC:s latest Sherlock with Cumberbatch ("The abominable bride") made it explicit that in the show Sherlocks's mind palace 'technique' is actually just a drug trip :)

smcl 11y ago
You may want to prefix that with a hefty "SPOILER" alert, since that's a pretty substantial and significant twist in the episode and indeed the whole series
- bhaak 11y ago
  Interesting. I haven't seen that episode yet (so consider me spoiled :-) and I wonder how that is going to play out. Instead of a visualization of a memory recollection technique it's retconned(?) into something different. Retconned might be too strong a word if you know that the original Sherlock Holmes was using lots of different drugs. All legal in Victorian times but some of them are now illegal.
  - qohen 11y ago
    I haven't seen that episode yet For anyone who hasn't seen the Sherlock special, "Sherlock: The Abominable Bride" yet, it's being streamed by PBS online till Jan. 24 @ 11:59PM Eastern Time (i.e. New York time) here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/full-episodes/sherlock-abominable-bride/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/full-episod... This special is largely enjoyable on its own, I think, i.e. even if you haven't watched any of the regular episodes, though the fullest effect will be felt by those who've watched the show.
qohen 11y ago
made it explicit that in the show Sherlocks's mind palace 'technique' is actually just a drug trip This isn't really so. Sherlock uses the memory palace technique, without drugs, throughout the entire series. SPOILER-Y STUFF: The immersion Sherlock goes through in "The Abominable Bride" is of a different nature -- usually he is focused and in control, driving the search, but in this instance he is looking to go deeper, to dream his way to an answer by letting go of external reality. The drugs are an expedient to get him into that state. It's analogous to the difference between searching a database/knowledgebase and losing oneself in a fully immersive VR scenario. SPOILER: (It is true that Sherlock told Mycroft that he was doing the mind palace thing, and Mycroft points out that the mind palace is merely a memory technique and this is beyond that, i.e. a drug trip, but given Sherlock's relationship with Mycroft, it isn't surprising that he'd underplay the drugs, is it? Also, I don't think Mycroft knows Sherlock deeply enough to know what Sherlock can do in his mind palace -- may not even know he had one, given how he reacts to Sherlock's mention of it.) EPISODE SPOILERS FOLLOW: And, just a few quick reminders: remember, in the regular series, Sherlock's not the only one with a mind palace -- said character refers to his own and says, "You know about Mind Palaces, don’t you, Sherlock?" And, in that same episode, we also see an active (i.e. non-drugged) Sherlock thinking his way out of a jam -- in his mind, various characters show up to guide him. As one of them says, "It's all well and clever having a Mind Palace but you've only three seconds...to use it.". Another character later on says, "Must be something in this ridiculous memory palace of yours that can calm you down." (The above examples are on YouTube, but would really spoil some things, so I won't link to them here; there's also a transcript out there, if you want to look it up.)
- codeulike 11y ago
  Correct.
- fsloth 11y ago
  I may have overreached a bit in my comment above. I agree with you about the presentation of narrative facts in the past of the series, but hold my final opinion in reserve as Moffat and Gatiss work drama first and then come up with ways to knit the story back together in a way that appeals to the viewer to suspend their disbelief. I.e. if they think it's more interesting that Sherlock has been stoned the whole time, then they will probably work that in.

by fsloth 11y ago

SPOILER comment: The BBC:s latest Sherlock with Cumberbatch ("The abominable bride") made it explicit that in the show Sherlocks's mind palace 'technique' is actually just a drug trip :)

smcl 11y ago

You may want to prefix that with a hefty "SPOILER" alert, since that's a pretty substantial and significant twist in the episode and indeed the whole series

bhaak 11y ago
Interesting. I haven't seen that episode yet (so consider me spoiled :-) and I wonder how that is going to play out. Instead of a visualization of a memory recollection technique it's retconned(?) into something different. Retconned might be too strong a word if you know that the original Sherlock Holmes was using lots of different drugs. All legal in Victorian times but some of them are now illegal.
- qohen 11y ago
  I haven't seen that episode yet For anyone who hasn't seen the Sherlock special, "Sherlock: The Abominable Bride" yet, it's being streamed by PBS online till Jan. 24 @ 11:59PM Eastern Time (i.e. New York time) here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/full-episodes/sherlock-abominable-bride/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/full-episod... This special is largely enjoyable on its own, I think, i.e. even if you haven't watched any of the regular episodes, though the fullest effect will be felt by those who've watched the show.

qohen 11y ago

made it explicit that in the show Sherlocks's mind palace 'technique' is actually just a drug trip This isn't really so. Sherlock uses the memory palace technique, without drugs, throughout the entire series. SPOILER-Y STUFF: The immersion Sherlock goes through in "The Abominable Bride" is of a different nature -- usually he is focused and in control, driving the search, but in this instance he is looking to go deeper, to dream his way to an answer by letting go of external reality. The drugs are an expedient to get him into that state. It's analogous to the difference between searching a database/knowledgebase and losing oneself in a fully immersive VR scenario. SPOILER: (It is true that Sherlock told Mycroft that he was doing the mind palace thing, and Mycroft points out that the mind palace is merely a memory technique and this is beyond that, i.e. a drug trip, but given Sherlock's relationship with Mycroft, it isn't surprising that he'd underplay the drugs, is it? Also, I don't think Mycroft knows Sherlock deeply enough to know what Sherlock can do in his mind palace -- may not even know he had one, given how he reacts to Sherlock's mention of it.) EPISODE SPOILERS FOLLOW: And, just a few quick reminders: remember, in the regular series, Sherlock's not the only one with a mind palace -- said character refers to his own and says, "You know about Mind Palaces, don’t you, Sherlock?" And, in that same episode, we also see an active (i.e. non-drugged) Sherlock thinking his way out of a jam -- in his mind, various characters show up to guide him. As one of them says, "It's all well and clever having a Mind Palace but you've only three seconds...to use it.". Another character later on says, "Must be something in this ridiculous memory palace of yours that can calm you down." (The above examples are on YouTube, but would really spoil some things, so I won't link to them here; there's also a transcript out there, if you want to look it up.)

codeulike 11y ago
Correct.
fsloth 11y ago
I may have overreached a bit in my comment above. I agree with you about the presentation of narrative facts in the past of the series, but hold my final opinion in reserve as Moffat and Gatiss work drama first and then come up with ways to knit the story back together in a way that appeals to the viewer to suspend their disbelief. I.e. if they think it's more interesting that Sherlock has been stoned the whole time, then they will probably work that in.