Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson

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Was Sherlock Holmes a private detective? Or was he just a smack-addled violin player? He certainly wasn't a copper. Perhaps he was a scientist of some description?

And what about that Dr Watson? Didn't he have a day job? Was he really the brains of the outfit? What was he a "doctor" of? And what was he doing hanging round dark, gangly, right-place-at-right-time dope addicts? Were they having an affair?

And didn't that Inspector Lestraad have some sort of juristiction to tell Holmes to naff orf? Or was Holmes under the pay of the cops?

Please, any information to clear up this argument is most welcome.

― GG Marquez (Huey), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually reading the Sherlock Holmes books to thread.

― M Carty (mj_c), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Reading? I don't have time for that. Crimes to solve etc.

― GG Marquez (Huey), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Holmes was into coke not smack

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Sherlock used to be quite a good detective until he became a coke fiend; he knew my friend Mrs Hudson but used to keep her awake all the time with his violin playing and coming and going all hours.

― Soozy, Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:34 (twenty-one years ago)

But was he a police detective or a private one?

I thought he was an opium addict?

― GG Marquez (Huey), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Sherlock won a Premiership medal with Blackburn in 1995.

No, wait, that was Matty Holmes.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Private detective, private coke habit

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Being a private dick in the Victorian (?) era, did he only therefore work for the rich? And so were all his cases concerned with the comings and goings of the landed gentry?

Just how much was coke in those days?

― GG Marquez (Huey), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:49 (twenty-one years ago)

There's websites for those sorts of questions - I'mm not sure this is one of them

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

www.victoriancharlieprices.com?

― Huey (Huey), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember reading somewhere abt how someone had written a book or play which has Holmes as Jack the Ripper - the idea being that Holmes would certainly have investigated the murders and found out who was responsible unless *he himself* was the moiderer.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Deductive reasoning, that depends on a finite number of possibilities to explain a given outcome, is a particularly dreary way to figure out a crime. Very polite Victorian stuff, where all you have to do is point the accusing finger at a well-attired gentlemen and he confesses. No evidence testing, no hot pursuit, no death threats mailed to Baker St.? Sherlock Holmes was a fraud!

― andrew l. r. (allocryptic), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:53 (twenty-one years ago)

There's websites for those sorts of questions - I'mm not sure this is one of them

mebbe this is!

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Also jesus christ, it's not like his adventures are only available in sumatran: read one.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:55 (twenty-one years ago)

What, readin' 'n stuff, innit?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

he is a fictional character, therefore was not addicted to anything. however, in the books he smoked opium and did cocaine. he wasn't so much a private detective as a monied gent fascinated by problem-solving, which led him to be asked to solve crimes.

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

as I should've suspected, there appears to be a whole canon of works linking Holmes w/ Jack the Ripper!

http://www.sherlockian.net/england/ripper.html.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

He could handle the opium smoking tho (honest) but was a fiend for the old showbiz sherbert

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, and Watson was a medical doctor, originally a field medic in India or somewhere in the Empire, I can't remember. Holmes first deduces his profession by the stitch Watson used to repair a torn jacket cuff.

I'm g00gling and I'm surprised to find people think Holmes was a real person.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msherlock.html

Damn. Like I said, Holmes was not only fictional, but a total fraud. Ha. The prospect of Holmes and Freud meeting is also a riot.

― andrew l. r. (allocryptic), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I should of course endeavour to read one of Mr. Conan Doyle's adventures if I wanted to know all the facts.

I was just asking a few minor background questions as my colleagues and I are discussing it at work, that's all.

― GG Marquez (Huey), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn. Like I said, Holmes was not only fictional, but a total fraud. Ha. The prospect of Holmes and Freud meeting is also a riot.

They did in that Billy Wilder film, non?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Non. The Seven-Percent Solution, written by Nick Meyer, who directed star trek films later on.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Watson returned from military service in Afghanistan. Holmes deduced this from the fact he was trying to blow a plane up by lighting his shoes.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Holmes was the Victorian rational embodiment of the sprezzatura prised within the aristocracy! </wank>

― andrew l. r. (allocryptic), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Non. The Seven-Percent Solution, written by Nick Meyer, who directed star trek films later on.

Ah right! Silly me!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

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