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Carolina Rojas Professor Lynda Haas Writing 37 13 March 2014 Symptoms Similar pieces of literature are often grouped into categories called genres. Each different genre has some recurring aspects which have come to be expectedthese are called genre conventions. According to the Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories, some common conventions of the mystery/detective genre are that there must be a detective, there must be a major crime, the mystery must be solved using logic, the culprit must not be the detective himself or an unknown character, and the motive should be personal. Another central genre convention that began in the classical stage of the detective genre with Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories is that All clues must be plainly stated and described. (Van Dine). This became a key convention of detective stories because laying out all of the clues plainly allows the reader to follow along and take part in solving the mystery. In the present-day revisionist stage, many recent interpretations of Sherlock Holmes still include this convention but slightly changed. For example, in the BBC TV show Sherlock, the clues are labeled in white text that appear when the camera focuses on various objects in the crime scene. Another revisionist stage version of Conan Doyles stories is House M.D., a television show set in a 21st Century Hospital in New Jersey, California. In this modern-day take on the original Sherlock Holmes stories, the villain is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor. (Fox). In House M.D. the mystery genre convention of revealing all pieces of evidence to the audience is updated for its

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21st century audience by revealing vague symptoms instead of obvious clues and by presenting them through visual and auditory means instead of through descriptive language. This revision appeals more to a 21st century audience because they are less interested in solving the mystery themselves and more interested in the drama that unfolds as the detective tries to solve the mystery. An episode where the convention is clearly visible is Season 1 Episode 8: Poison. In this episode, a patient comes in after fainting at school. The episode begins at the hospital where one of the other doctors is walking with Dr. House and telling him about the patient and his symptoms; The kid was just taking his AP Calculus exam when all of a sudden he got nauseous and disorientedSevere bradycardia, heart rate's down to 48 and falling fastHis CAT scan was clean. There's no sign of infection. It's not diabetes. The action then cuts to a scene set in an office where House is holding a marker in his hand, listing all the known symptoms on a clear board while his team watches. The camera is first placed behind the clear board and through it, we are able to see a close-up of Houses face and serious expression as he scribbles the symptoms on the board. There is no music and the only thing we can hear is the squeak of the marker. Then the camera angle changes over to the other side of the board and we can see Houses back and the board behind him. The squeak of the marker is still the only sound. When the squeaking stops, the first thing we hear is one of the doctors stating a possible diagnosis. As she speaks the camera is focused on her face through the board again, but this time the words written on it are out of focus. While the doctors confer and make some inferences as to what the diagnosis could be, the camera keeps switching to different angles. Sometimes it shows the three doctors in one shot as one of them speaks, sometimes it shows Dr. House next to the board as he speaks, sometimes it shows the entire office, and sometimes it shows a close-up of the characters

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when they speak, but more than once it shows the characters through the board. The only things in focus in all of these shots are the characters and the board. The background and other objects are not in focus. This scene really underlines the importance of the symptoms; the sound of the marker on the board focuses the viewers attention on the source of the sound, the list of symptoms appears in the shot several times, and the dialogue between the characters is centered on the symptoms. The convention is portrayed both visuallythe list of symptoms on the board, and through auditory meansthe characters speech and the squeak of the marker. Although the original intention of revealing the clues during the classical stage was to allow the audience to try to solve the case, most viewers of House M.D. do not have the medical knowledge necessary to infer anything from the list of symptoms. Instead the symptoms are important for a different reason, they create drama and mystery. There is no mysterious death in House M.D. so the only mystery stems from an unknown disease which manifests itself in the form of seemingly random symptoms. They give the detective and his team a case to solve and the plot a dramatic element which the viewers can enjoy. In Arthur Conan Doyles stories the convention is also present and a comparable emphasis is placed on the clues. However, the emphasis is created though written text and for a different reason. For example, in The Sign of the Four, Sherlock Holmes and Watson are investigating the source of a mysterious letter when they stumble upon the scene of a murder. As they enter the crime scene, Watson describes the setting; it is a room filled with chemicals, various bottles, test tubes, and Bunsen burners. A set of steps stood at one side of the room, in the midst of a litter of lath and plaster, and above them there was an opening in the ceiling large enough for a man to pass through. At the foot of the steps a long coil of rope was thrown carelessly together. The dead man is seated in a chair and beside him a note that reads The

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Sign of the Four. Watson is very detailed in his explanation using many adjectives. Right away, through the description of the room the audience is able to make guesses based on clues like the opening in the ceiling and the rope. Holmes also uses descriptive language to lay out more clues as he examines the room, "Window is snibbed on the inner side. Framework is solid. No hinges at the side. Let us open it. No water-pipe near. Roof quite out of reach. Yet a man has mounted by the window. It rained a little last night. Here is the print of a foot in mould upon the sill. And here is a circular muddy mark, and here again upon the floor, and here again by the table. (TSOTF 36). Holmes gives the reader a list of symptoms similar to the list that House writes on the board in Poison. This scene, like the Poison scene, highlights all of the clues, both Watson and Holmes describe the clues with very detailed language and the description of the whole crime scene takes up many pages of the novel. It is important that the reader can know and understand all of the clues because part of what makes reading a mystery fun is being able to follow along and solve the mystery. In conclusion, Arthur Conan Doyle was the founder of many conventions of the detective genre, [He] wrote fifty-six short stories and four novels that followed Holmes and Watson on all of their adventures. These stories have since inspired hundreds of plays, movies, television series, and other adaptations. (Sundstrom). These modern adaptations, including House M.D. are derived the same formula but they get their uniqueness from the revisions they make to the formula. Although both Conan Doyles stories and House M.D. have the same convention of revealing the clues/symptoms as the detective learns of them, they go about it very differently. First of all, the original Sherlock Holmes stories were written stories, while House M.D. is a television show. This creates obvious differences in that House is more visual and the emphasis on the clues is created by elements of the scene that the viewer sees, whereas in The Sign of the

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Four, the reader has to imagine the scene based on the words chosen by the author through Watsons narration. Also, in The Sign of the Four, clues are described to make sure the audience understands them and can solve the mystery alongside the detective, whereas in House M.D., the audience does not necessarily need to understand the clues given they are only for the plot. This twist on the Holmes stories appeals more to modern audiences who would prefer watching medical mystery over reading a murder mystery.

Works Cited Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Sign of the Four. Egan, Doris, and David Foster. "Poison." House M.D. Prod. David Shore. Fox. 25 Jan. 2005. Television. "House." Fox.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. Van Dine, S. S. "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories." American Magazine 1928: n. pag. Mount Royal College Gaslight. Web. Sundstrom, Alison. "From Sherlock to SVU: The History of Detective Fiction." Breaking Character. N.p., 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.