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More than a century after first emerging
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into the fog-bound,
gas-lit streets of Victorian London,
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Sherlock Holmes
is universally recognizable.
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Even his wardrobe and accessories
are iconic:
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the Inverness cape,
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deerstalker hat,
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and calabash pipe,
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and figures such as his best friend
and housemate Doctor Watson,
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arch-nemesis Moriarty,
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and housekeeper Mrs. Hudson
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have become part of the popular
consciousness,
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as have his extraordinary,
infallible powers of deducation
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utilized in the name of the law,
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his notorious drug use,
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and his popular catchphrase,
"Elementary, my dear Watson."
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And yet many of these most recognizable
features of Holmes
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don't appear in Arthur Conan Doyle's
original stories.
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Doyle's great detective solves
crimes in all sorts of ways,
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not just using deduction.
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He speculates, and at times even guesses,
and regularly makes false assumptions.
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Furthermore, Mrs. Hudson
is barely mentioned,
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no one says, "Elementary, my dear Watson,"
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and the detective and his sidekick
live apart for much of the time.
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Moriarty, the grand villain,
only appears in two stories,
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the detective's drug use is infrequent
after the first two novels,
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and Holmes is rarely enthralled
to the English legal system;
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He much prefers enacting his own form
of natural justice
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to sticking to the letter of the law.
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Finally, many of the most iconic
of the Holmesian legend
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aren't Doyle's either.
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The deerstalker cap and cape
were fist imagined by Sidney Paget,
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the story's initial illustrator.
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the curved pipe was chosen by
American actor William Gillette
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so that audiences could more clearly see
his face on stage,
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and the phrase,
"Elementary, my dear Watson,"
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was coined by author and humorist
P.G. Wodehouse.
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So who exactly is Sherlock Holmes?
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Who's the real great detective,
and where do we find him?
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Purists might answer
that the original Sherlock
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inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's
university mentor Dr. Joseph Bell
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is the real one.
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But the fact remains that that version
of Sherlock has been largely eclipsed
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by the sheer volume of interpretation,
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leaving Doyle's detective
largely unrecognizable.
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So there's another, more complex,
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but perhaps more satisfying
answer to the question,
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but to get there, we must first consider
the vast body of interpretations
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of the great detective.
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Since Conan Doyle's first story in 1887,
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there have been thousands
of adaptations of Holmes,
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making him perhaps the most adapted
fictional character in the world.
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That process began with Victorian
stage adaptations,
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and accelerated
with the emergence of film.
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There were more than 100 film adaptations
of Holmes
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in the first two decades
of the 20th century alone.
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And since then, there have many thousands
more in print,
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and on film,
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television,
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stage,
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and radio.
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Holmes has been reinterpreted
by people everywhere,
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in remarkably different,
and often contradictory ways.
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These adaptations demonstrate
both Holmes's popularity
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and his malleability.
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For instance, he featured in a number
of allied anti-Nazi propaganda films
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during World War II.
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And both Winston Churchill
and Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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were avid enthusiasts,
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the latter even joining
the Baker Street Irregulars,
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a Holmesian appreciation society,
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and nicknaming one secret service
hideout Baker Street.
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And yet, at the very same time,
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Holmes also appeared in various
German-language film adaptations,
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some of which were said to have been
much loved favorites of Adolf Hitler.
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So let's return to our question.
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Would the real Sherlock Holmes
please stand up?
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The truth is that this world of adaptation
has made him into a palimpsest.
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Sherlock is a cultural text,
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repeatedly altered over time as each new
interpretation becomes super imposed
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over those that proceed it.
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This means that Sherlock
continually evolves,
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embodying ideas and values
often far removed
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from those found in Conan Doyle.
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And after each particular story ends,
Sherlock rises again,
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a little changed, perhaps,
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with a new face and fresh mannerisms
or turns of phrase,
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but still essentially Sherlock,
our Sherlock.