Sherlock Holmes & The Case of the Inflated Ego

So I mentioned last time- I think probably in a comment- that the first couple Sherlock stories didn't quite fit with what I knew about Holmes because they weren't full fledged mystery cases. Having read all four of these pieces now, I can say with 100% certainty that this was exactly what I expected. And as I read The Dancing Men, I realized I've definitely read it before, though I can't say for certain when I did.

My number one comment about Mr. Holmes, as the title of this post should imply, is that the man has got one hell of an ego. At the start of The Dancing Men, Holmes says, "Now Watson, say you are utterly taken aback." Before essentially gloating about how smart he is and how Watson will be forced to confess how utterly simple his deductions are when you get right down to it. The man's a showoff, he thinks he's hot shit, and y'know what? He's not wrong. He can come off as obnoxious and cocky, but his ego is something he's definitely earned through his cleverness. I commented during the outside of class assignment we did today that this aspect of Holmes makes it hard to decide whether you love or hate the man- in my case, at least, I like him for being an incredibly smart person who always cracks the case, which is pretty cool. But I also dislike him for being so damn egotistical. He's so full of himself. That's essentially why I said it's best that the stories are told from the perspective of Watson; Watson's a more likable fellow, and were we forced to listen to Sherlock's own internal monologue, it would likely be full of self-praise and lengthy thought processes as he attempts to solve the mystery, which would get old quick.

There's also another thing I wanted to comment on that is unrelated to the actual plot of these stories- and that is the fact that quite a few of these lines are utterly hilarious in a modern context. Sentences that seemed completely innocuous back when these were written (or at least, they probably did? Maybe not!) make for excellent childish jokes in our time. Case in point, the stuff I've been sending people on SnapChat as I read these:

And this wasn't even a FRACTION of the snaps I sent.

Frankly, that made reading this soooo much more enjoyable. It was killing me. I've heard people say there's homoeroticism in Sherlock Holmes before, but this was ridiculous. I love it.