"He used the story as a metaphor to decry the press, which had allowed itself to be misled by false information about a supposed defeat of Napoleon," Quinion writes in a blog. He elaborated on this anecdote and used it to criticize some of his fellow journalists. Around this time, English journalist William Cobbett wrote a presumably fictional story about how he had used red herring as a boy to throw hounds off the scent of a hare. The actual origin of the figurative sense of the phrase can be traced back to the early 1800s. The idea was that the horses would get used to following the scent trail, which in turn would make them less likely to get spooked while "following the hounds amid the noise and bustle of a fox hunt," notes British etymologist and writer Michael Quinion, who researched the origin of the phrase red herring. However, io9 notes that red herring were actually used to train horses rather than dogs, and only if the preferred choice-a dead cat-wasn't available. Another theory was that escaped prisoners used the fish to cover their tracks and confuse the dogs that tailed them. As Gizmodo's io9 blog points out, it was believed that red herring were dragged against the ground to help train hounds to sniff out prey in the 17th century. Long before refrigerators were invented, this was done to preserve the fish for months at a time. Perhaps most blatantly, a character in the cartoon A Pup Named Scooby-Doo who was constantly being blamed for myriad crimes was named-you guessed it-Red Herring.īut where does this literary device come from, and why is it named after a fish? For a bit of background: herring are naturally a silvery hue, but they turn reddish-brown when they're smoked. Agatha Christie's murder mystery And Then There Were None directly mentions red herring in reference to a character's death, and a statue of a red herring appears in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. That endearing plot twist about the nature of Snape's character, for example, is likely one of the longest-running red herrings ever written. If you've seen or read the Harry Potter series-and really, who hasn’t?-then you may recall some of the many instances where J.K. These misleading clues are designed to trick you into drawing an incorrect conclusion, and they're a popular ploy among storytellers of all stripes. Here are some popular examples.You may have seen a red herring in a recent book or movie, but you probably only realized it after the fact. Cobbett was accusing the press of intentionally using a fallacy to distract the public.Īuthors frequently use red herrings to confuse and surprise readers, or to create suspense. Cobbett criticized the press for prematurely reporting Napoleon’s defeat, and compared that act to using strong-smelling, smoked red herrings to distract dogs from another scent. All red herrings are examples of irrelevant distractions-not examples of flawed logic.The journalist William Cobbett is credited with originating the term “red herring” in an 1807 story. An informal fallacy means that an argument has a flaw in reasoning rather than logic. Red herrings are examples of informal fallacies, rather than formal fallacies. Red herrings are introduced to divert and deceive readers. Done well, the reader will feel surprised by the truth and will enjoy the misdirection, having learned something useful about the setting or the characters along the way. This technique involves getting the reader to believe a false conclusion about the plot. A red herring can also be a powerful way to engage a reader’s interest, by hinting at explanations that may not be true.
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