Sherlock Holmes

I favour trails more than city rides. Not only do they bring me face to face with challenging odds, they take me away from a calculating city, and show me an entirely different face of life, so close(geographically) to mine and yet so different. Being closer to greenery, away from the clutter is an inspiration too. But sadly, I wasn't able to predict the path chalked out by the riders and woke up too late to join them. Perhaps the next weekend shall make amends.

I needed a new book and I turned to the Complete collection of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It was introduced by another author called Loren D. Estleman. For me, a book is a companion, and getting it over with defeats my point. Finishing a good book therefore, can be something of a sad event. I read the Introduction slowly, in fact, I was compelled to be slow, because the language was tougher and more brilliant than any I had encountered in recent times. The words were like a wand in a magician's hand, or a violin in a musician's weaving up a compelling fabric. Another important quality of the Introuction was the bias and the persuasiveness, which for a moment, made me think it was a woman's voice. There were passages when the author berated allegations against Dr. Watson and Holmes rather defensively. But what shone through the pile of difficult language was the unmistakable love the author felt towards the characters. The words barely concealed how, they were more a part of his life than so many real people are of ours.

There is a paragraph that begins with:

"The reader who holds this volume in his hands, and who also is about to experience for the first time the adventures contained herein, occupies an enviable position...."

And ends with:

"...Once met, these tales are never banished, and the reader will come away changed."

Simple words, with none of the shallow sensationalism that hounds the media these days. I understand those words. I had known them ever since I was young. But hearing them from someone else, especially when I hardly encounter any who subscribe to thoughts like these felt most reassuring. I was excited. I needed a book I could lose myself in, and this held much promise.

A Study in Scarlet did in no way disappoint. I walked into the 221B Baker Street apartment, and as if for the first time met Sherlock Holmes and proceeded to follow him like little else mattered. This is what good writing can do. Sometimes, when a book comes and goes, I wonder, if it's me who's lost my anchor, or if I have simply made the wrong choice under the circumstances.

There is one bit, I will to quote from the text since I would like to remember it. When Watson finds it more than incredulous that Holmes isn't aware that the Earth rotates round the sun, this is what Holmes has to say:

"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

I knew this once, and though I remember it still, I fear I am gradually beginning to forget it. Rejecting fact, has nothing to do with whim, but to do with a deeper understanding, so that we can distinguish between cause and effect. I could blame my dwindling talent for it upon the excesses of the Information age, but then I would be fooling myself alone.