NPPF - Canto One - Sherlock Holmes

[Jasper Fidget]

Some more on the Holmes reference to add to what Charles posted:

ln 27-28: "Was he in _Sherlock Holmes_, the fellow whose / Tracks pointed
back when he reversed his shoes?"

A manifestation of an important theme in PF, the commingling of art and
life, specifically the intrusion of one into the other.  Here a character
from literature leaves a trail across Shade's image; the footprints left by
a pheasant are elevated into art: "Torquated beauty, sublimated grouse" (ln
25), and preserved in literature.

There is no "Case of the Reversed Footprints" from Arthur Conan Doyle, but
in "The Final Problem" (1893), intended to be the last Holmes story, Watson
discovers evidence at the top of Reichenbach Falls indicating that Holmes
and Moriarty had struggled there and fallen over the edge together,
presumably to die at the bottom.  In describing the scene where the struggle
took place, Watson writes: 

"The blackish soil is kept forever soft by the incessant drift of spray, and
a bird would leave its tread upon it. Two lines of footmarks were clearly
marked along the farther end of the path, both leading away from me. There
were none returning." (Doyle, "The Final Problem")

http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/memoirs/final.problem.txt

Note the contrast between Shade's white snow and Doyle's blackish soil; note
also of course the bird's tread across it.

In 1903 Doyle decided to resurrect Holmes for a new series of stories, the
first of which appeared in Collier's as "The Adventure of the Empty House".
In order to explain his return, Sherlock says to Watson, "Well, then, about
that chasm. I had no serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the very
simple reason that I never was in it."  He goes on to explain:

"I had little doubt that I had come to the end of my career when I perceived
the somewhat sinister figure of the late Professor Moriarty standing upon
the narrow pathway which led to safety. I read an inexorable purpose in his
gray eyes. I exchanged some remarks with him, therefore, and obtained his
courteous permission to write the short note which you afterwards received.
I left it with my cigarette-box and my stick, and I walked along the
pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached the end I stood at bay.
He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He
knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon
me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge,
however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more
than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a
horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds, and clawed the air with both
his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he
went. With my face over the brink, I saw him fall for a long way. Then he
struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water."

Watson is incredulous, and says, "But the tracks! [...] I saw, with my own
eyes, that two went down the path and none returned."  Holmes then describes
how it had occurred to him that it would be useful to fake his death and
plot to destroy his enemies in secret.  In order to leave the scene and
create that illusion, he says:

"The cliff is so high that to climb it all was an obvious impossibility, and
it was equally impossible to make my way along the wet path without leaving
some tracks. I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I have done on
similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracks in one direction
would certainly have suggested a deception. On the whole, then, it was best
that I should risk the climb. It was not a pleasant business, Watson."
(Doyle, "The Adventure of the Empty House")

http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/return/empty.house.txt
 
Obviously much of this serves the Shadean internal author theory....  Note
also the "inexorable purpose in [Moriarty's] gray eyes."  See line 29: "All
colors made me happy: even gray."  Gray is the color associated with Gradus.

akaJasperFidget