I’ve always been fascinated with Sherlock Holmes. In fact I believe a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories (can’t remember the exact name) is one of the only books I’ve ever read from start to finish. Sadly that probably says more about me then the book but the point remains that there is something quite fascinating about a person who is so observant and intelligent that he can see things that others can’t and accurately predict future events with this information. Of course my wife and I had to go see the new movie, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” now that it is in theaters and we just as impressed with this film as we were with the previous Sherlock Holmes film. Apparently we aren’t the only ones as I’ve heard quite a bit of buzz about the movie. Rather than rehash the plot I’d like to take a few lines of text to ask what makes this film and really this fictional character so interesting to people.
I could save my conclusion to this question for the end but what’s the fun in that. In our modern day world we are a very immediate people. Google, Wikipedia and Youtube can tell us information about almost anything we can imagine. It’s truly the information age. I would argue that part of the Sherlock Holmes allure is that he is like a walking encyclopedia in an age where information was not so readily available. Being able to think and solve problems without a computer is kind of becoming a lost art. There is something attractive about that aspect. Could we survive in a Google-free world?
The other aspect that I enjoy however is how Holmes knowledge comes at the price of his ability to enjoy life. He analyzes everything to point where life seems to be a mere game or exercise that he is going through the motions for. While Dr. Watson respects Holmes’s intellectual gifts, it could easily be said that Watson has found a way to enjoy life more and thus possesses something that Holmes cannot grasp. Together they make for quite the dynamic duo that is as entertaining if not more than the overall plot.
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