badseed1980 | The game is afoot! (Reply)

I just watched the recent Sherlock Holmes movie, having received it as my first Netflix rental. Now, my familiarity with the series is limited to a few condensed-and-cleaned-up-for-kids stories I read when I was a young'un, and some general knowledge of the characters gleaned from other pieces of culture that were influenced by the stories (House, for example). In other words, I was not a knowledgeable reader who'd know where they went wrong, plot-wise or otherwise. With that disclaimer out of the way, I enjoyed the hell out of the movie. Irene Adler annoyed me a little, mostly for the way she talked. Everything else was pretty much awesome. And I thought Robert Downey Jr. was incredibly hot during the boxing match scene, for some reason. Um. Anyway.

I'm also reading Shadows Over Baker Street, an anthology of short stories involving the juxtaposition of Sherlock Holmes and the creations of H.P. Lovecraft. I decided to get it after reading one of the stories in it, Neil Gaiman's Hugo winner "A Study in Emerald," which is phenomenal, and which I probably would have better understood if I'd known more about the original stories when I read it. By now, I've read some stuff about the story that explains the twist I didn't get.

What all this boils down to, of course, is that I am going to have to read the actual Holmes stories. Fortunately,

leenah was kind enough to send me a number of links to the stories where they're available in their entirety online. I'm eager to dive in. But now, I will NOT sit up and get started on "A Study in Scarlet." I will get my ass to bed, because that is where it belongs right now.