FINDING THE GENIUS LOCI

"I shall sit in that room and see if its atmosphere brings me inspiration. I'm a believer in the genius loci."

I admit I've mixed an illustration from "The Man with the Twisted Lip" and a quote from The Valley of Fear but the match was irresistible. Sherlock Holmes liked to sit and think and he did believe in the genius loci.  

The Oxford Reference defines the genius loci in this way:

Latin term meaning ‘the genius of the place’, referring to the presiding deity or spirit. Every place has its own unique qualities, not only in terms of its physical makeup, but of how it is perceived, so it ought to be (but far too often is not) the responsibilities of the architect or landscape-designer to be sensitive to those unique qualities, to enhance them rather than to destroy them. Alexander Pope, in Epistle IV (1731) of his Moral Essays, addressed to Lord Burlington, states in his Argument that, ‘instanced in architecture and gardening,… all must be adapted to the genius of the place, and… beauties not forced into it, but resulting from it’.

Sherlock Holmes understood how to be sensitive to the unique qualities of his surroundings and how those qualities might be perceived. It is one of the first things we and John Watson learn about him: "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive."

I have mulled over this idea of Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle and genius loci for months now since reading this part of Pope's argument:

Consult the genius of the place in all;
That tells the waters to rise, or fall;
Or helps th' ambitious hill the heav'ns to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;
Calls in the country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades,
Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines;
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.

In fact, it is the inspiration for a book I'm working on. The time I've spent this year immersed in Doyle's work, his letters, and biography has led me to think of him as the genius loci in the literature of the late Victorian era, the Edwardian era, and a bit beyond.

As I've worked this week on a fiction piece inspired by Doyle's "The Story of B 24," the idea of genius loci has been very much on my mind. Each piece of Doyle's writing has "...its own unique qualities, not only in terms of its physical makeup, but of how it is perceived..." and it is my duty to be like Pope's architect and honor those qualities. 

The inspiration piece must not be a sad imitation; it must not be an oddly shaped narrative without an echo of the unique qualities of Doyle's text; it must be beautiful in its own right but yet have a beauty that results from the piece that inspired it. It is a lot to think about for a simple 6,000 word short story. Many a writer can easily knock out 6,000 words.

It doesn't come easily for me. I have to follow Holmes's example. I have to sit and think. I have to sort out how to "Consult the genius of the place in all."

I'm fortunate to have a comfortable chair and a good teacher.