MY MIND REBELS

Sherlock Holmes famously told Dr. Watson "My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere." Lucky Holmes. I have found that my mind tends to rebel against its proper function at times and seemingly enjoys a nice long period of stagnation. I've been struggling to get back in to a pattern of studying and writing everyday after taking a couple of months away. Not only has my mind failed to fully cooperate, it has taken me on several unnecessary side excursions. A good example:

My twice-monthly library writer's group met in my home library this week as our usual library meeting room is being refurbished. During a long discussion about short story structure, I mentioned Leslie Klinger's excellent anthology, In The Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Horror, 1816-1914, and one of the short stories included in it that is so well written I can't get it out of my mind weeks later.

In the spirit of full disclosure, that is not exactly what happened. I told the group that I read the unforgettable story, "The Spider" in a wonderful anthology. I could not remember exactly which anthology nor the editor or author name at the moment. But I could remember "The Spider." Google was not much use. "The Spider" brought up many, many hits and pages and not one immediately right.

The story has it all: structure, tension, wry humor, a very surprising ending. And now it lives, as the saying goes, "rent free in my brain." After being embarrassed by my on-the-spot failure to remember which book, editor or author, I followed up with an email to the group once my head finally cooperated and I found the right information. 

(You know, the right information right there in my Books Read 2023 spreadsheet that I fumbled around with for ten minutes at the meeting and yet never saw the correct entry.) Once I sorted it out, I thought I would not forget any of the three again. Well, I was wrong as the author's name has already left my thinking as I sit here typing only forty-eight hours later. (Hanns Heinz Ewers)  If you haven't read it, treat yourself to the book and specifically the story.

My brain wasn't finished with me quite yet. One person asked me if Doyle had a short story in the anthology. I remembered that he did. I did not immediately remember which one. My brain then helpfully said, "Lot No.249." As I said it, I realized I do not remember the details of Doyle's mummy story like I remember the details of "The Spider." I thought about that for awhile and I think the forgetting is because of the mummy movies I've seen over and over so many times. The over saturation has stolen from me the joy of discovering and rediscovering Doyle's story. His first readers must have felt about "Lot No.249" like I feel about the surprising spider. I decided I might want to reread Klinger's book and see how I would compare all the stories to "The Spider" and to "Lot No.249."

Except--you've already guessed it--"Lot No.249" is not in the Klinger anthology with "The Spider." The wise Mr. Klinger chose Doyle's  excellent "The Leather Funnel" for the book. I'm going to read "Lot No.249" again anyway. And "The Leather Funnel" and a stack more of them before all is done. 

I've decided to forgive my brain because, hey, even Sherlock Holmes had his days. You might remember in The Sign of the Four, after Holmes and Watson find the small footprint at the murder scene, Watson reports this about Holmes: "I was staggered for the moment," he said, "but the thing is quite natural. My memory failed me, or I should have been able to foretell it. There is nothing more to be learned here."

There is a little more to be remembered here. During my weeks of non-Doyle reading, I discovered two other new-to-me short stories my brain has kindly let me remember and reconsider often:  "Désirée's Baby" by Kate Chopin and "The Cross-Roads" by Amy Lowell. They, too, are worth a little rent free space.