Holmes binge

After seeing the Speckled Band, I have been struck with a desire to read Sherlock Holmes. I've plowed my way through fifteen or so stories since last night, and it's been long enough since I last read them that I'd forgotten how thoroughly I enjoy them. I also came across another story, Silver Blaze, about a missing racehorse and a murdered trainer, that I sort of half-solved-- I figured out who killed teh trainer, but not the rest of the plot. I've read all these at one point or other, but as I mentioned I was quite young for most of them, and it's been a long time since I last went through a good number of them.

I really like the character of Holmes. I love his detachment from the human race, his immunity to many foibles and weaknesses so that he can be a creature of purer logic. There's this fantastic dichotomy in the Sign of the Four, where they make a point of talking about how when Holmes is bored by the lack of a suitable problem against which to pit his intellect, he turns to cocaine to stimulate his brain. The mystery at the center of hte story occupies him for a time, but after he solves it of course it ends. By this point, Watson has made an enormous step forward in his life and is about to be married. For Homes, however, he is only back to where he began, and all that is left for him is to return to the cocaine bottle. There isn't relation to other people, or passion beyond the pursuit of solving the puzzle and bringing the criminal to justice.

I'm also amused by how the hardcore Holmes fans try to make sense of the sotries as if they actually happened. The trouble is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not very careful about the details of things like chronology, or making clear the course of Watson's personal life. For example there is a story where Watson's wife calls him James-- which is strange because we know his name to be John. The Holmes scholars say that this is because Watson's middle initial, H., actually stands for Hamish, and since this is the Scottish version of James his wife could reasonably call him this. I like their passion, especially since the casebooks as "recorded" by Watson are so rich and full of material. I think I'll go read some more!