Sherlock motherfucking Holmes, or: This is not a primer. Well, not really.
Sherlock motherfucking Holmes!
(or: This is not a primer. Well, not really. Maybe a little.)
So, maybe you are like me and vaguely remember Sherlock Holmes from your childhood or early teens. If that is the case, you probably remember him as this genius detective, very precise, more than a little conceited yet rightfully so, and maybe you ( Read more... )
A lot of the movie plot seems to be a rehash (albeit something of a strange one, since in the books, Watson is married fairly early on) of the plots from the Holmes novels up to The Final Problem. I have never read or watched any interpretation of that particular short story, even though I've even gone beyond the original canon into the Adrian Conan Doyle stories, and such offshoots as the Seven Percent Solution - I just do not have the heart for it.
As to the vacations, they are in, if I correctly recall, the Musgrave Ritual as I mentioned, and also in the Devil's foot, set in 1897 though written well after The Empty House. Basically, when Holmes' health begins to fail, a doctor insists that he is overstressed and must put down all work and take a vacation. Watson also doubly insists, and they away to a cottage on the seaside together. Not entirely unheard of for the time, I suppose, but even in most period literature I have read one steals away to the seaside for a romantic getaway with a member of the opposite gender rather than even a very close friend. Of course this is interrupted by a case, or else Watson would never have taken it down at all, but his defensiveness in light of Holmes being sick and attempting to ward off the people who come to him with a mystery to solve is pretty... cute, I would call it.
I glared at the intrusive vicar with no friendly eyes; but Holmes took his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like an old hound who hears the view-halloa. [...]
I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into the quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one glance at his intense face and contracted eyebrows told me how vain was now the expectation.
Watson really is a Mother Hen in a lot of ways, but not to the point of smothering Holmes. He understands the man, in a very unique way. Of course the case concludes with Holmes managing to talk Watson into experimenting with a dangerous powder that seems to cause complete insanity or death - Holmes intends to test the effects of the evidence he's found on himself, but Watson refuses to let him do it alone. They both wind up tripping off their asses, with Watson managing to save them both when he sees how badly Holmes is suffering.
"Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady voice, "I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry."
"You know," I answered with some emotion, for I had never seen so much of Holmes's heart before, "That it is my greatest joy and privilege to help you."
In fact what they seemed to add for the movie was just a single serious flaw to Watson - his gambling, which was only very vaguely touched upon in the texts, possibly due to his narration of them - so that Holmes would have equally some way to support his friend and add an area where Watson was not the sole provider of a manner of stability to the relationship. It was more of a mutual partnership with that flaw added, and not just that Watson was the sane, stable one who actually remembered to eat food all the time and spent many hours attempting to keep Holmes from self destructing - here, Holmes too has some manner of helping his friend. It's mutually beneficial, a real partnership of the sort that tends to happen when two people of great strengths find a way to help each other with their weaknesses.
Next time on Cognomen talks too much...
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment