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Sherlock

The BBC’s new Sherlock Holmes series Sherlock (co-created by Doctor Who head writer Steven Moffat) had its American debut last night. I actually watched it over the summer, having acquired it through quasi-legal means, and if it’s running in your market, then you should make every effort to watch it. It may be my new favorite thing.

I knew who Sherlock Holmes was before I ever learned to read, and one of the first “chapter books” I ever read was a collection of Sherlock Homes short stories. I’ve made the pilgrimage to 221B Baker street, and I’m pretty certain I’ve written Sherlock Holmes fan fiction at some point (at the very least, I’ve dreamed it). I love Holmes.

Other than Hamlet, there’s no character in English literature that’s so much larger than the stories that (seek to) contain him, and this new series of BBC films, which updates the character (and his near-equal companion Watson) to 21st century London, captures the spirit of Holmes and in some ways improves on the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle.

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The first of the films finds Dr. John Watson returning to London from military service in Afghanistan after being wounded (just like the original). Depressed and bored with civilian life, and also short on money, he takes rooms with an acquaintance of a friend, Sherlock Holmes. 

The Holmes of the new series isn’t a hero. He’s a borderline psychopath, similar to the Holmes-inspired physician Dr. Gregory House but not weighed down by the cliché formula of a medical procedural. 

There was always this subtext in the original stories. The conventions of the mystery story required Holmes to keep Watson (and therefore the reader) in the dark about a number of details, even if it annoyed or endangered his companion. In the new series, Holmes constantly abandons his companion, or sends him on sometimes pointless errands, because he has almost no regard for other people. They exist only when they interest him., and the people that interest him most are criminals, especially murderers. 

The link between Holmes and the killers he hunts is made explicit when a minor character remarks that one day it will be Holmes that they’re investigating. at the same time, his fascination with the criminal mind almost brings him to an untimely end. 

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If I’ve ever steered you right with a recommendation, then heed my advice and watch Sherlock now. There are two more films in the first series, and they’re every bit as good.

Pit Bull Awareness Day

It’s National Pit Bull Awareness Day.

I never thought much about pit bulls before I began dating Dr. Chapman. The first night I spent at her house, I woke up to find a massive head with two beady brown eyes resting on my lap. That was my introduction to Major, and he’s been my buddy ever since.

Others have done a good job of debunking the many myths about pit bulls, so I’ll just say that I wouldn’t want to live without mine. He’s everything you’d ever want in a friend.

So, if you see a pit bull today, give it a hug.

A Conversation on Principles

A snippet of conversation (as I remember it).

Me: Not every situation demands that you stand upon your principles.

My Friend: That’s the same advice you always give me.

Me: It’s how I live my life.

Thanks

I’ve received a lot of nice comments* about yesterday’s post, and I just wanted to say thanks. It can be difficult being so far from so many of my friends, but you guys make it work.

Thanks!

*In case you didn’t see it, one of the nicest responses came from time-traveling superblogger Sophistpundit.

I’m not finished.

I didn’t get the best education. My college wasn’t the greatest, but even there I could have gotten a better education if I’d really wanted it. I didn’t try very hard because I’d never had to, and I didn’t have any real end goals to try for anyway, and so I just slid by. My grades were good enough to keep my scholarships, but I didn’t learn much of anything.

I didn’t realize how uneducated I was until much later when I left the comfortable hell of the food service industry and myself in a working world populated by truly educated people. Over the years, I’ve made friends with people that are truly educated. They speak multiple languages, they can talk about art and mathematics with authority. It’s humbling. 

So I’ve decided to go back to school.

——-

I have a job that most people would kill me for, a perfect family, and all of the other things that a college degree is supposed to buy for you, so why bother?

Because I can do more. 

A couple of years ago, I sought some therapy. I was unhappy, and I didn’t understand why or what to do about it. At first I thought it was because I’d always been unhappy, that it was just another personality trait of mine, but my unhappiness was poisonous to my new family, and I needed to deal with it if I was ever going to be a good father and husband, so I sought help.

Therapy taught me that there was a disconnect between who I was and who I thought I was supposed to be, and I could never be happy until I reconciled those two people. The liberty that came with the realization that I could leave behind the idea of who I was supposed to be and define myself by who I was, a financially successful man with a family that I loved, allowed me to be truly and desperately happy for the first time in my life. You have no idea how good it felt to learn that, if I wanted to, I could leave behind all of the aspirations in my life that never materialized, but continued to hang around my neck like an albatross.

At the end of my final session with the therapist, he shook my hand and said, “You’re not finished becoming you.” 

“I’m not finished” has become my personal mantra.

——-

A few weeks ago, I looked into a program at the University of Texas that has always interested me. It’s an interdisciplinary graduate program that plays to pretty much all of my interests, but I’m not ready for it. Even if I could get into it (no sure thing), my time there would be wasted without a better grounding in the basics.

So I’m starting over. First at community college, and hopefully at UT after that.

The prospect of another decade or so in school is daunting when I think about it. I suspect I’ll be in my mid-forties before I complete the course of study, and who knows what career prospects will be there for me, but it doesn’t matter. The purpose is bigger than the goal anyway.

BBC Fall/Winter Preview

Allow me to ask again. Dammit, why am I not British?

If you watch the whole thing, there’s about 3 seconds of new Doctor Who footage.