A Soldier, A Detective, Puzzles & Plans

This book sits upon my desk at home, the ribbon bookmark ever changing. To say I like Sherlock Holmes is a bit of an understatement. I first came across his stories when I was a child, my first of his adventures being The Hounds of Baskervilles. I've read and re-read the stories many times, so many that as my first Escape Room adventure, we chose the Sherlock Holmes adventures over Edgar Allen Poe's (I also have The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe, right next to Sherlock). If you had asked me why I like Sherlock Holmes when I was small, I was rather drawn in by detective stories. I read every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys adventure story ever written, and then my grandmother told me about Sherlock. That dear readers, is all she wrote.

By the time we reached middle school, I questioned why the great sleuth wasn't taught in my particular English classes. I took great pains to hide my thick book under my desk, reading the stories when I was supposed to be focused elsewhere.

To go back a bit, I was ecstatic to discover that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle celebrated Edgar Allen Poe as being "the supreme original short story writer of all time" and I share his sentiment that once a great detective has been written, its hard to get away from that mold. Most detective stories I read now, all remind me in some ways of Sherlock, and by extension Dupin. As I mentioned, I read a lot of detective stories in my youth, and still read a lot more in my adult life, all of them bearing ties to the the great Detective and his Poe basis.

One of my favorite parts of Sherlock's stories, is that they are all written by Dr. Watson, and we see the world of Sherlock from his perspective. Dr. Watson is a very smart man in his own right, and Sherlock would not be Sherlock without his Dr. Watson. I start seeing this in how Watson begins to take life by the reins in his mission to figure out Sherlock, and the particular words Doyle chooses for Dr. Watson to describe and talk about Sherlock with (seized with a keen desire to see Holmes, he is certainly very conceited, how much this man stimulated my curiosity). Plus, the stories had to be written from Dr. Watson's perspective, otherwise they wouldn't be the approachable stories that they are. Imagine if all the stories were in Sherlock's perspective. It would be a bit like the BBC and Netflix series Sherlock. I wouldn't want to always have the thoughts in Sherlock's head narrating the story, always calculating and always analytical. It would ruin the mystery. Instead we follow Dr. Watson as Sherlock leads him to the end of the mystery. Plus it can't hurt that Sherlock even admits Dr. Watson chronicles their adventures better than he could.

'The ideas of my friend Watson, though limited, are exceedingly pertinacious. For a long time he has worried me to write an experience of my own. Perhaps I have rather invited this persecution, since I have often had occasion to point out to him how superficial are his own accounts and to accuse him of pandering to popular taste instead of confining himself rigidly to facts and figures. “Try it yourself, Holmes!” he has retorted, and I am compelled to admit that, having taken my pen in my hand, I do begin to realize that the matter must be presented in such a way as may interest the reader…' -Sherlock Holmes The Blanched Soldier

On talking about other works though, at some point we started seeing movies, and television series about Sherlock Holmes, the great detective. As a fan of Robert Downey Jr. I enjoyed his movies of Sherlock.I mean, what actor is better suited for the quirky detective? Who is brave enough to take on learning the disguising techniques?

Plus, who can't think of seeing Robert Downey Jr. in a dress?

The only discrepency I found with RDJ's Sherlock Holmes were that his disguises weren't quite as natural as is described in the book.

"Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers

 in the use of disguises, I had to look three times 

before I was certain that it was indeed he."

 It's pretty easy to tell that Robert Downey Jr. is Robert Downey Jr., and the disguises certainly don't hold up to the imagery you get from Dr. Watson's words.

Then there's works such as the series Elementary, which I appreciate, and the Sherlock on BBC and Netflix, which I don't appreciate as much. But those, are best left for another post.

My only qualm with the two Sherlock stories we have read so far is at the end of A Scandal in Bohemia, I wanted to shake the King by the shoulders and shout something along the lines of "You shouldn't just be okay with her leaving with the picture! She still has it!" but I know it is all in the story. If not, we wouldn't have the run ins with Irene Adler later. She in my eyes, is a good foil for Sherlock, as she is what he could be if he exploited people the way she does. Instead, he chooses to thwart crime, solving puzzles no one else can solve. If not for his love of solving said puzzles, he would be a rather large threat to London and the greater European community with his powers of observation and deduction.

Much like Shakespeare's work, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes will definitely survive the ages, because really, who doesn't like a good puzzle to solve?