Attic Theory (2024)

The More You Holmes:

Attic Theory

I’ve long found the Attic Speech to be one of the more interesting that Sherlock Holmes utters in all of canon, with his explanation of why he takes cocaine in close second place. It’s not that he doesn’t do a lot of talking throughout the originals—on the contrary, even though Watson 1st-person-narrates nearly all of the stories in canon, Holmes talks aloud quite a bit more than Watson does. This is what makes adaptations so challenging—how do we get that Watson-POV voice in a piece of cinema, when all he does is tag along, observe, and listen to Holmes talk everyone’s ear off?

But. Back to this particular monologue: the reason I find this speech so fascinating is that withal, we get a clear idea of not only how Holmes’ brain works (or at least, how he *thinks* it works), but we learn a lot about his personal intellectual philosophy. Anyone who knows anything about the brain will tell you that this is not at all how the brain actually works—even Watson debunks this Attic Theory of the brain at some point (though I can’t be bothered to look up when, sorry), but that’s not the point. The point is: this is how Holmes thinks, how he functions, and is a rare candid glimpse into exactly how he disciplines his extraordinary gift of observation into what seems like a superhuman level.

Of course, both Elementary and Sherlock are excellent TV adaptations, though both do their adapting in very different ways. But it’s obvious that the writers for each are well versed in canon and love Sherlock Holmes well. Holmes’ Attic Theory is included early on in each respective series, just as Watson-as-narrator includes it early for his readers in canon.

Here’s a gathering and a musing-over of these Attic Speeches, from a More You Holmes entry on me ol’ blog from back in 2014. In each, Holmes is talking to Watson, and you can see how Watson responds nearly verbatim from the original in the Sherlock version.

From: Sherlock ep. 1.3, Elementary ep. 1.2

Line: the Attic Speech

E!Sherlock: “Attic theory. I’ve always believed the human brain is like an attic: storage space, facts, but because that space is finite, it must be filled only with things one needs to be the best version of oneself. It’s important, therefore, not to have useless facts: the natterings that comprised your support meeting, for example, crowding out useful ones.”

S!Sherlock: Listen. (pointing to his head with one finger) This is my hard drive, and it only makes sense to put things in there that are useful … really useful. Ordinary people fill their heads with all kinds of rubbish, and that makes it hard to get at the stuff that matters. Do you see?

JOHN: But it’s the solar system!

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SHERLOCK: Oh, hell! What does that matter? So we go round the Sun! If we went round the Moon, or round and round the garden like a teddy bear, it wouldn’t make any difference. All that matters to me is the work. Without that, my brain rots.

Reference: The original Attic Theory speech is from the very first Holmes story, novel-length A Study in Scarlet. Here it is from the horse’s mouth, as it were:

“You see,” [Holmes] explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

“But the Solar System!” I protested.

“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently; “you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.”

I find it interesting that in the Elementary Sherlock’s speech, he still thinks of it as an attic—a physical storage space, but then the modern aspect is his discussion of the distractions of an addiction recovery meeting. But the Sherlock Sherlock refers to his “attic” not as a room, but as a computer hard drive. Both these modern versions of the original speech are shortened and updated, but both are centered around the same vital concept from canon—the Attic Theory of the brain.

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Thanks to Ariane for the Sherlock transcripts, and thanks to you for subscribing!