If you read my previous mini-post, you’ll know I’m airborne right now. 8696 meter high to be exact. The plane has wifi so I could actually craft something pretty decent with all my usual resources but it costs like 8 bucks! Can you believe it? I think I’d rather wing it with my science brain.

Did you know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, believed in fairies? At no point was the detective intended to be an outlet for Doyle’s personal worldview. Quite the opposite in fact, Holmes was intended to be a critique of the hyper-rationalist attitude becoming prevalent in Victorian England. Holmes was made to be unlikeable, impossible to have a normal conversation with and arrogant in his intellectual superiority over others. Regardless of Doyle’s own feelings, Holmes was a hit and he was stuck writing him for decades. At one point Holmes actually dies and is brought back in a subsequent story after much public outcry. Reminds me of comics.

So why do people enjoy characters like Holmes? Director David Mamet said that people enjoy watching others do what they’re best at. I think there’s something to that. If you remember the Friday link post last week, I just started watching the West Wing and it’s the same principle. Not everyone is totally likeable but they’re also all really smart and good at what they do, which is why they work in the White House. Just watching intelligent people argue ad nauseum with each other about any variety of topics for 40 minutes a pop is awesome.

Holmes is relatable in his own way too. I’m sure you have a friend who is brilliant far beyond your own comprehension but still kind of a mess in their personal affairs. Holmes is no exception. He’s a drug addict several times over, and even in a time when his drugs of choice, cocaine, opium, etc were available and widely used his boswell (a biographer, I looked it up so you wouldn’t have to) Dr. Watson, tried with mixed results to get him to quit. So for all his brilliance Holmes had his own problems.

I also think the reader, much like Watson, is in contest with Holmes as much as we’re there to help him along. When Holmes is exploring a mystery, hunting down clues, I’m trying to beat him to the solution. It’s a staple of good detective fiction if the answer surprises you but then once you revisit the events it all becomes clear. It’s an out of fashion tradition in modern writing but there even used to be a scene at the end of a good mystery yarn called the “parlor scene” where the brilliant detective lays out how they put together the clues to find the solution. I so very much want a parlor scene and some point in my life. I imagine the closest I’m likely to come to that is my dissertation defense.

Those are my thoughts. I’ve climbed to 10,066 meters about Mississippi at this point and should be on the ground in about an hour or so. If I totally botched any of the history I’ve tried to recall here remember it came from my brain, the same brain that is shriveled up and atrophied from relying on nigh constant access to the internet. Be gentle.  Now don’t you think you should go pick up Season 1 of House? I love a good play on words.