Comments on: John Seavey’s Storytelling Engines: Sherlock Holmes

By: Eric Michael

Eric Michael — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:05:11 +0000

My first introduction to Sherlock Holmes was through the TV series with Jeremy Brett, that was being aired weekly on PBS’s Mystery. The word “fascinated” does not do justice to the state that I found myself in. When the short stories that comprised the first season got their own collection (with a painted likeness of Brett on the cover), my mother wisely snatched it up and brought it home for me. Up until that point, I only read comic books, but Sherlock Holmes would turn me into a lifelong reader of fiction and literature.

Of course, in addition to those original, faded paperbacks, I now own at least four different collector’s editions of annotated Holmes collections, as anyone in my life who is stumped for a Christmas present eventually falls back on that option. Not a complaint mind you, just sharing.

By: Stu Shiffman

Stu Shiffman — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:26:29 +0000

Nice to see “Erasing Sherlock” cited here. It was an interesting take. As a Sherlockian, I see an awful lot of very bad pastiches, so appreciate the few novels that use the characters in interesting way from the viewpoint of different characters. A interesting contrast to “Erasing Sherlock” is the relatively recent “Jack Knife” by Virginia Baker with time travelers in Victorian London trying to track another researcher driven mad and amnesiac by the experience and becoming both Jack the Ripper and a Moriarty-like/Rupert Murdoch-like criminal and press lord.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:55:07 +0000

“(Which reminds me, as long as I’m plugging non-canonical Holmes, if you can track down the sadly out-of-print ‘All-Consuming Fire’, by Andy Lane, you’ll get an excellent Holmes/Doctor team-up.)”

Or the Talons of Weng-Chang, which was an unapologetic Holmes pastiche.

And I think part of the reason House hasn’t been as fun this season is that they’ve de-emphasized Wilson’s role as House’s Watson without finding an adequate substitute (Foreman’s too busy hitting on 13, Kumar isn’t given the screen time to fill the role and no one really likes Taub).

“having “A Study in Scarlet” sent to me in installments each morning to read. Good way to start each day!”

Trust me on this if you haven’t read it before: it actually does all make sense in the end, so don’t be too thrown by the drastic change in tone / setting halfway through.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:44:37 +0000

My introduction to Holmes were the 1939-1946 films starring Basil Rathbone, which I would watch as part of the Friday night schedule on Boston’s UHF 56 during the 60′s. I was in elementary school, and Fridays I could stay up to watch Creature Double Feature (from 8:00 PM to 11:30), Flash Gordon starring Buster Crabbe (11:30 to midnight) and Sherlock Holmes at 12:00.

Although the time period was reset to WWII, Rathbone had the character down pat (Nigel Bruce’s Watson and Inspector Lestrade were played as idiots, however). I remember my first viewing and the scene that enamored me to Holmes (and later) Arthur Conan Doyles’s other works forever. Holmes & Watson were in the apartrment and Holmes was staring out the window down the street. He turned around and told Watson they should be expecting a visitor. Watson huffed and laughed at Holmes, suggesting there’s no way he could tell a visitor was coming to his apartment just by looking at the crowd below. Holmes admonished Watson and pointed out a young woman below who wasn’t wearing gloves. His explanation was that any young woman would have to be in quite a hurry to forget to put on gloves before leaving her house. As the importance of coming to see him would be the most logical reason someone was in such a hurry, it was a simple deduction. Of course minutes later, there was a knock on the door and the young woman entered. Arrogance and brilliance. The classic Sherlock Holmes.

By: Wings

Wings — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:10:23 +0000

Love both characters and the stories are awesome. Always a good read.

In fact, I just signed up for dailylit.com – having “A Study in Scarlet” sent to me in installments each morning to read. Good way to start each day!

By: Chris McAree

Chris McAree — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:41:59 +0000

The Holmes canon was my favourite reading material as a child, and I still dip my toe from time to time. With respect to the importance of Watson, I couldn’t agree more, which is why the two or three stories told directly by Holmes work considerably less well.

Actually, come to think of it, it’s also why Batman needs a Robin. Stories telling of super-human prowess rapidly become tiring when told from the perspective of the hero. Filter them through an ancillary characters eyes however, and by virtue of not revealing everything to an audience instantaneously , you confer on them a much greater longevity.

By: Tiffany Korta

Tiffany Korta — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:23:48 +0000

Wow, I thought I was the only person who ever read any of the Faction Paradox series (which Erasing Sherlock is part off).