Holmes ReRead Project & Two Recs
Thursday, March 15th, 2012 11:26 amIn the books department:
Thanks to![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
figgy_newton's kind gift of a Kindle, I've been rereading all of the Sherlock Holmes stories that I can get for free. (Oddly enough, the short stories are all free, but I have yet to find the longer novellas in a free edition--slightly annoying.) I'm about 85% percent of the way through The Adventures of... after which I'll get right to the Memoirs of.... My Mom read me these stories when I was a kid and we watched the Jeremy Brett versions on Mystery!* As I reread the stories now as an adult, I'm struck by Conan Doyle's penchant for melodrama that sometimes takes a turn for the ridiculous. For example, in my most recent adventure, "The Noble Bachelor", Holmes kept insisting that the simplest explanation was the most obvious and that Lestrade was (typically) making a mistake focusing on some minor part of the issue at hand. (Honestly, I feel a little sorry for Lestrade in these stories; he never has all the information that Holmes does and even though he does dumb things, his heart is in the right place.) Of course, it's up to Holmes to do the thinking Lestrade can't or won't, but does he really have to be such a misanthrope about it? Oh wait, I think I'm missing the whole point of the stories. Anyway, these are very entertaining rereads, and I like hearing Watson's steady voice do the narration. Of the "neither here nor there" variety is Conan Doyle's random remarks about how women are flighty, emotional creatures who cannot be relied upon. I usually zone out during those sentences.
In the non-flighty women category, I've had the good fortune to see three amazing female characters recently, who are truly "strong", in the best sense of the word (and not stereotypically Strong Female Characters, as pop culture appears to have embraced lately.) One of them is the title character of the movie "Hanna" and the other two are the female leads of the show "Burn Notice." ( Spoilers for both ahead. )
* Funny side note: the Mystery! opening sequence was my first introduction to Edward Gorey's work. It was a great pleasure to see the set for Vincent Price and Diana Rigg at Edward Gorey's house in Massachusetts a few summers ago.
Thanks to
figgy_newton's kind gift of a Kindle, I've been rereading all of the Sherlock Holmes stories that I can get for free. (Oddly enough, the short stories are all free, but I have yet to find the longer novellas in a free edition--slightly annoying.) I'm about 85% percent of the way through The Adventures of... after which I'll get right to the Memoirs of.... My Mom read me these stories when I was a kid and we watched the Jeremy Brett versions on Mystery!* As I reread the stories now as an adult, I'm struck by Conan Doyle's penchant for melodrama that sometimes takes a turn for the ridiculous. For example, in my most recent adventure, "The Noble Bachelor", Holmes kept insisting that the simplest explanation was the most obvious and that Lestrade was (typically) making a mistake focusing on some minor part of the issue at hand. (Honestly, I feel a little sorry for Lestrade in these stories; he never has all the information that Holmes does and even though he does dumb things, his heart is in the right place.) Of course, it's up to Holmes to do the thinking Lestrade can't or won't, but does he really have to be such a misanthrope about it? Oh wait, I think I'm missing the whole point of the stories. Anyway, these are very entertaining rereads, and I like hearing Watson's steady voice do the narration. Of the "neither here nor there" variety is Conan Doyle's random remarks about how women are flighty, emotional creatures who cannot be relied upon. I usually zone out during those sentences.In the non-flighty women category, I've had the good fortune to see three amazing female characters recently, who are truly "strong", in the best sense of the word (and not stereotypically Strong Female Characters, as pop culture appears to have embraced lately.) One of them is the title character of the movie "Hanna" and the other two are the female leads of the show "Burn Notice." ( Spoilers for both ahead. )
* Funny side note: the Mystery! opening sequence was my first introduction to Edward Gorey's work. It was a great pleasure to see the set for Vincent Price and Diana Rigg at Edward Gorey's house in Massachusetts a few summers ago.
