The detective analogy exposes a critic’s detective role also misfires comically
Evidence
In The Constitution of Conscience, the detective is not Basil Rathbone’s Holmes,4’ but rather Michael Caine’s, not David Suchet’s Hercule Poirot, or even Peter Ustinov’s, but rather Peter Sellars’s. Where else does one find the exquisite examples of aggressive blunderingquotations deployed as rapiers that turn out to be spring-loaded umbrellas,4’ aerosol cans of mace fired only to reveal the nozzle has been reversed, spraying the person holding down the button, obtuse characterizations of great authors, opaque and delphic quotations from lesser ones, all expressed with a sublime tenacity and a rigid smile, and then, the dramatic unmasking that discloses… a misquotation, a misunderstanding, the detective’s own (dare I say?) parapraxis. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 818
Categorization
- SEED: The extended metaphor of the critic-as-bungling-detective could anchor a review-essay or a piece on how hostility shapes interpretation.
- XREF: connects to: Analogical reasoning fails when negative factual resemblances outweigh positive resemblances — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 593; Every analogy relies on contested judgments of which similarities are relevant — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 176
Related
- A critic’s argument can be structured as a detective story (similarity 0.82)
Broader Connections
- Analogical reasoning fails when negative factual resemblances outweigh positive resemblances
#expands(0.70) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 593 - Every analogy relies on contested judgments of which similarities are relevant
#expands(0.60) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 176