Elementary

Sherlock Holmes is culturally ubiquitous. Turning to other reading, as I do later in the evening, I find Inspector Montalbano reflecting on his girlfriend:

"When she put her mind to it, Livia was worse than Sherlock Holmes."

-Andrea Camilleri, The Paper Moon (London, 2008), 1, p. 4.

But I have just read:

"Powell regarded his partner closely. 'Once in a while you surprise me,' he confessed. 'Marvellous, my dear Holmes!'

"Donovan bowed. 'Elementary, my dear Watson.'

"'Holmes and Watson never said that,' Borup remarked aside."

-"Plato's Cave," pp. 259-260.

We need not revisit every Andersonian reference to Holmes although I will mention that somewhere Nicholas van Rijn coins or uses the term, "Sherlockery."

It does not matter that Holmes never said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." He did say, "Elementary." He did say, "My dear Watson." At one point, he says both in quick succession in the course of a single conversation. Thus, "Elementary...my dear Watson," would be a more accurate if also awkward quotation. It is legitimate to infer that Holmes would have said, "Elementary, my dear Watson," at some stage during his career. It is also valid for authors of sequels and new instalments to put that phrase into his mouth. This is certainly a valid exchange between Powell and Donovan. Anderson writes Asimov's characters mimicking Doyle's characters.