The other person who's birthday it is has been dead for many years now. Actually, he never existed. But he continues to make my life better, more interesting and just plain happier. Today is the birthday of my absolute favorite fictional character of all time, Sherlock Holmes.
I feel obliged to say that I have built my life on a foundation of fiction. More often than not the real world doesn't satisfy my crave for the exciting, the intriguing, the exceptional. Not to say that I don't love my friends in the real world. I love them very much indeed. But I still often find myself searching restlessly for adventure. It's like really bad senioritis only halfway through junior year. So as I said before, I have built my life around fictional stories.
I love fiction. Whether sci-fi, historical fiction or pretty much anything, a good story with good characters will take me all the way. That's why I read so much, it's why I love to watch movies and listen to musicals like Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. It's why I love Marvel and Christopher Nolan and Disney and especially Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit) and most especially why I love to write on my own. I love my characters. I'm not very good at writing them yet, but every once in the while I'll create one that makes itself in a wonderful way I never would have imagined.
I love fictional characters to death. It is my favorite to come across a female that I like, because I could make a list longer than anyone would care to read on the fictional men I want to marry. Seriously. I have high expectations for whoever I marry and no one I know has ever hit the bar except fictional characters. Of course that's my fault and I won't get into it. But I get that unexplained attachment to characters in movies, books and musical that leave me either imploding or going into withdrawals or crying. When I get into something, I get into it.
Yes, yes, thank you. But I went off on a tangent, and this is a birthday post. Sherlock Holmes has been amazing to me ever since I read The Speckled Band and didn't sleep all night because my dad had dislodged the smoke alarm and there was a cord hanging down near my bed. I decided I wanted to start from the beginning, and I got my brothers big book and opened to the first page and I started reading "Sign of the Four".
"Hooked" is probably too mild a word. My entire sophomore fall semester was devoted to homework and curling up by the fire with Sherlock Holmes. It wasn't so much the stories that I loved - it was the character. The cases spanned from Sherlock's first few years out of college to when he was about 60, maybe even older. It didn't matter. He was eccentric, weird, ruthless and indifferent to the point of cold, but somehow he still cared and had some semblance of a heart, especially for Watson. His friendship with him made me cry more than once, and in all of his adventures there was something new about him, with his dry sense of humor and his love for the queer and exemplary.
Then of course seeing it on screen was amazing. From Jeremy Brett to Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch, there has been incredible talent portraying the worlds most famous detective. They all have their different ways of doing it but I can in no way compare them, because all 3 are so good. There are others of course but I have never seen their portrayal so I can't judge. Since RDJ was the first one I saw I am slightly inclined and biased for him, especially because he captures Holmes' eccentric nature impeccably. But then, so do the other two. In any case, Sherlock Holmes has captivated the imagination of generations, and with Benybatch's most recent portrayal fandom has been renewed; of course, I like to be able to say that I liked Sherlock Holmes before Benedict Cumberbatch played him *nerd glasses*.
This is all a very strange post. It's hard for me to put in words how much this character has meant to me. When I finished reading the stories I felt an ache inside me for weeks, like a family member was missing. That's the power of words, folks, and a glorious imagination.
Now this is Sherlock Holmes we are talking about. He's never 'done', there's never an 'end' to what he does.
Yup, that pretty much sums it up.
Did I say he wasn't real? Well, he's real for me. He's always been real for me, along with a thousand other characters I have grown to love over my entire lifetime. It's one of my life's ambitions to go to London and see 221b Baker Street. He's almost as real as any flesh and blood person I come in contact with in day to day life, because of the ingenuity and humanity sewn into him by his author. So here's a big hand to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and to all those writers who make fiction what it is, who complete the lives of nerds like me. Happy Birthday to Sherlock Holmes!!
-Rhian
"When you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." -Sherlock Holmes
