A Mystery History

Guess what? It's NOT Doctor Who, or Disney, or the Scarlet Pimpernel, or any of the sort. I have other interests as well. The title should give you a hint if you know me at all. Any guesses? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Some might guess Nancy Drew. Well that's a good guess because I did read those an awful lot in my past, but that's not it. It's Sherlock Holmes.

Yeah, you probably thought of that as soon as you saw the word "mystery" (or maybe you didn't, what do I know?), but that's with good reason. He is, after all, the most well-known

detective in the world. I'm actually surprised at how many people don't know about Sherlock Holmes. They know he's a detective, but not much more than that. "Oh that guy with the weird hat and the pipe, right?" Well, allow me to enlighten you all.

First-- as it's a tradition in my posts-- I'll start by describing how I was introduced to Sherlock Holmes. Well, like most people, I just grew up hearing the name in pop culture. He's the

popular icon for detective. His magnifying glass and deerstalker cap= detective. Everybody

knows that, right? Anyways, I just knew that Sherlock Holmes was this great detective. Actually for the first probably about 8-10 years of my life I actually thought Sherlock Holmes was a real person. I had no idea he was a made up character in some books.

I found this out while I was in my dad's office and I found an extremely fat book entitled "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle". On the spine it said "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes/ The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes/ The Hounds of Baskerville/ A Study in Scarlet/ And others". Of course, I was a bit confused. I wondered if it was some sort of a biography or something. I flipped through a couple pages and gathered that they were stories. Despite what some people think, I am actually an intelligent person (and was even when I was a kid) and I deduced that Sherlock Holmes was in fact a fictional character. I attempted to read the book, but since I was only about 8-10 years old, it was waaaay beyond my level so I quickly gave it up and put it back on the shelf. I soon forgot about it.

Several years later, I was a sophomore in high school. I, being a picky teenager, was bored with my entertainment. My mom continuously suggested reading a book; advice which I always ignored. One day I was in my dad's office, scanning the bookshelf out of boredom, when I found the fat red book again. Well, I decided to give it another try. To make a long story short, I was hooked after the first couple short stories. I started taking it to school to read in between classes (despite its massive size). It didn't fit in my backpack, so I carried it. It took me a couple months to finish the entire thing. So I can proudly say that I have read every single Sherlock Holmes story ever written (at the least the ones told from Watson's POV).

Now that we've got my background, on with my post. So I've always had an interest in mysteries and intense/suspense plots. I like it when stuff ties together in elaborate ways that makes you go "OH!! That's brilliant!" at the end of the period where you're whacking yourself in the head because you want to know what the heck is going on so badly. (That's why I thoroughly enjoy Doctor Who [especially season 6, good golly!]). The Sherlock Holmes stories are particularly unique mysteries because Holmes is such a genius. In most stories the author tries to make the main character relatable (in other words, makes them like us. Makes them a real person). In mystery novels, the detective or the person solving the mystery often is a person with real emotions and average intelligence with an average thinking process. That way we can follow them and figure out the mystery along with them. Also if the character has these average emotions, other options such as hostage situations, romantic connections, and other suspense situations are available for the author to include in their story.

Sherlock Holmes is different. I don't remember where I read it... some website... where somebody had calculated Holmes's IQ. I don't remember the exact number, but it was abnormally high. He also lacks certain human characteristics that don't allow the reader to connect with him so easily. The point of the stories, however, are not to connect to Sherlock Holmes. The goal is simply to observe Holmes as he unravels the mysteries that fall at his door. Holmes's friend, Dr. Watson, kindly laid out a list rating Holmes' knowledge/talents: "Literature- nil.; Philosophy- nil.; Astronomy- nil.; Politics- feeble; Botany- variable; Geology- practical, but limited; Chemistry- profound; Anatomy- accurate, but unsystematic; Sensational literature- immense; Plays the violin well; Is an expert in single-stick player, boxer, and is a swordsman; Has good practical knowledge of British law." Watson was also shocked to learn that Holmes did not know simple facts such as that the earth went around the sun. Holmes explained that if he ever did know that fact, he erased it from his memory because he only stores information in his mind that is useful to his work... which is a consulting detective (where the police consult him when they are out of their depths).

My favorite mysteries off the top of my head are A Scandal in Bohemia, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, and The Red-Headed League. There's one more, I can remember the story, but I can't remember the title... oh well. What I like about the stories is that for a lot of them, Holmes doesn't even have to go investigate much. He just hears the story from the witness and draws a conclusion from the details. It's extremely fascinating. The stories are told from Watson's point of view for good reason because then we can follow HIS thought process and be amazed by Holmes's logic and abilities. Excellent writing choice on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's part.

One more thing I'd like to make a remark on: no where in any of the books does it mention a deerstalker cap. So I'd like to know where this tradition started. Who was the first to put him in one and why has it stuck? It does talk a lot about his pipe and I seem to recall him using a magnifying glass on occasion, but what's with the deerstalker cap and plaid coat?

That's one thing I liked about the recent movie with Robert Downey Jr. they didn't put him in the deerstalker hat. Despite what several people have said, I thought that RDJ did an excellent job of portraying Holmes and the story was very true to a Holmes adventure (even though it wasn't based off any specific one). The only difference was that it added a lot of action and violence, but I justified that by saying that the movie had to please today's audiences (also Watson specifically mentioned that Holmes was a boxer in the books). The portrayal of Watson was a refreshing take also. In the past, Watson was always Holmes's bumbling companion who happened to live with him. In the movie, he's younger, more athletic, and more capable of handling himself. Plus he seems more of a friend rather than a colleague to Holmes (as he should be. Although their friendship is a little more sassy in the movie than how it's described in the books). Of course they had to make Irene Adler a love interest to Holmes. I couldn't really justify it since the book specifically said that Holmes never looked at her romantically, but only remembered her because she was the only woman to ever outsmart him. But... it's a 21st century movie, there needs to be romance. However, I can't criticize it too much because the movie was very true to Sherlock Holmes, overall.

Sooo... what has rekindled my love for this detective lately, you might be wondering? Well, you will not be surprised that Doctor Who had something to do with it XD

Two Doctor Who writers came up with a modern-day Sherlock Holmes TV show called Sherlock. Being a Doctor Who fan, of course I heard of another show where the writers teamed up. Sadly, the next season doesn't come out until next year so I've been rewatching the three 90-minute episodes occasionally while up here at college. But maybe I'll make another post detailing the show some other time. Right now, I'm just going to leave this here. :)