The Valley of Fear: The Dynamics of Intimidation

[sanguinity]

Canon Story: The Valley of Fear
Title: The Dynamics of Intimidation
Author: sanguinity
Rating: G
Author's Notes: "Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it?"

 

"He's a made a laughingstock of us! I told you he would, he never earned that chair."

"Not with a schoolboy's essay on Pascal's triangle, no." The dons exchanged grim glances.

"How am I meant to review this gibberish?"

"Exactly as I intend to. 'To my deepest sorrow, my esteemed colleague's latest opus flies far beyond my ability to comprehend...'"

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Quite, do not upset the Professor, flannel, flannel, flannel.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Ah and so we delve into the Byzantine world of acadaemia.

[debriswoman]

Neatly turned around:-)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Moriarty must be truly all-powerful if he can get a bunch of academics to hold their tongues. I'm not sure even the threat of having said tongues wiggling out their necks would deter some.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

What a fine and original 60, and well ambigued. Thank you.

[sanguinity]

There are professors who are petty and unforgiving about perceived sleights, and then there is Prof. James Moriarty.

[sanguinity]

There's more than one way to secure an academic position.

[sanguinity]

It is not perhaps the most parsimonious explanation for the data (that, as always, is that something was misreported), but it does resolve the apparent discrepancy in the sophistication of the two works.

[sanguinity]

It was a truly ruthless reign of terror. Nor was it confined to his own department, but conducted among all the universities and observatories of Europe. Those who would not be silent were silenced. The resulting chill on academic discourse -- which lingered long after 'Professor' James Moriarty's death -- not to mention the extinguishment of academia's brightest minds, set back scientific progress by a full generation.

Of course, one wonders why academic honours were so important to the man as to be worth such carnage, but that, as they say, is another story...

[sanguinity]

Thank you! I might have spent a bit too much time over the years considering the blatant inconsistencies in the alleged mathematical career of 'Professor' James Moriarty...

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

(Moriarty is the last person you'd want reviewing your journal article....)

[sanguinity]

Academics still speak in reverent voices of those who received withering journal reviews from the man and yet lived to tell the tale...

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It is an interesting aspect of Moriarty's life to consider - what his contemporaries thought of him before he resigned. After all, he must have been surrounded with intelligent and inquisitive people.

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

This goes to show why so many super villains were once professors. If only they hadn't been jealous, perhaps Moriarty would never have been evil.