Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > BotM Feb 2018: SHERLOCK HOLMES in THE SIGN OF FOUR by Arthur Conan Doyle
 
  • Locked thread
Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

One of my personal pet theories is that Doyle didn't so much invent the detective as invent the superhero. Holmes has all the hallmarks -- he's got a superpower (observation and deduction), he fights crime, he has a sidekick (Watson) and a nemesis (Moriarty), he "dies" and returns from the dead, he was published in a monthly illustrated magazine (the Strand), he had a distinctive costume (pipe and deerstalker), etc. & so forth.

There were detective and mystery stories before Holmes came along, but Holmes is the first returning-character-serial crime fighter, and all the elements of the formula are right there.

I recall Isaac Asimov writing something similar. He pointed out that Holmes even has a certain degree of superhuman strength -- in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," a visitor tries to intimidate Holmes by bending a fireplace poker double, and Holmes just picks it up and "with a sudden effort, straightened it out again."

* # ¿ Feb 13, 2018 19:54
  • Quote
Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 16, 2024 20:56
  • Quote
  • Locked thread
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > BotM Feb 2018: SHERLOCK HOLMES in THE SIGN OF FOUR by Arthur Conan Doyle