Chapter 139 Summary

Christopher likes Sherlock Holmes because the famous detective does not believe in the supernatural. He does not, however, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock’s creator, because he does believe in the supernatural. Christopher believes the supernatural is stupid and that Sir Arthur was stupid. He explains The Case of the Cottingley Fairies, a 1917 hoax involving five photographs of purportedly real fairies, which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed were indeed real. It was later revealed that the fairy photos had been rigged. Christopher concludes that, “Sometimes people want to be stupid, and they do not want to know the truth.”

Chapter 139 Analysis

There is a seeming incongruity here. How is it that Christopher can look at the clouds and envision alien spacecraft and other imaginary forms but is so totally closed off to the notion of anything that is not observable in the...