Poe Stories

I definitely did not expect Poe and Doyle to be so different in writing style since they both write mystery stories. Reading these two authors alone has made me realize the variety of mystery stories out there; I personally prefer Doyle to Poe. For my three passages: 

1. "A novice in the game generally seeks to embarrass his opponents by giving them the most minutely lettered names; but the adept selects such words as stretch, in large characters, from one end of the chart to the other. These, like the over-largely lettered signs and placards of the street, escape observation by dint of being excessively obvious; and here the physical oversight is precisely analogous with the moral inapprehension by which the intellect suffers to pass unnoticed those considerations which are too obtrusively and too palpably self-evident. But this is a point, it appears, somewhat above or beneath the understanding of the Prefect. He never once thought it probable, or possible, that the Minister had deposited the letter immediately beneath the nose of the whole world, by way of best preventing any portion of that world from perceiving it" (376)

In this passage from The Purloined Letter, Dupin is talking about evidence and the way that the Parisian police are trained. He is explaining how when criminals hide evidence, the goal is for it to be so well placed that the police make fools of themselves, which is exactly what the minister did. Poe focuses a lot on the make-up of a crime and the workings behind it, while Doyle tends to focus on the fictional crime itself. It is truly impressive that Dupin was able to find the letter and it shows how uniquely his brain operates compared to trained professionals.

2. "'It is merely,' I said, 'an identification of the reasoner's intellect with that of his opponent'"(371)

This quote taken from The Purloined Letter deals with identification, but not in the way you would expect. As opposed to identifying clues and solutions, it touches on the idea of knowing your enemy and how that is the one true way to solving all mysteries,

3. "In short, I never yet encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out of equal roots, or one who did not clandestinely hold it as a point of his faith that x2+px was absolutely and unconditionally equal to q. Say to one of these gentlemen, by way of experiment, if you please, that you believe occasions may occur where x2+px is not altogether equal to q, and, having made him understand what you mean, get out of his reach as speedily as convenient, for, beyond doubt, he will endeavour to knock you down" (374)

This passage, yet again from The Purloined Letter, completely confused me. I hate math and did not know why they had to start talking about it in a mystery story, but it really just made me want to stop reading altogether. In fact, they later started talking about physics which was even worse.