There is no such thing as immortality. At least not as we know it. We die, plants die, eventually planets die and so do stars. I guess if you were to break things down to the atomic level, you could theoretically say we don’t die and that we just get reshaped.
As humans, the closest thing to immortality is to be written down in a book. It helps if the book goes on to be wildly successful and becomes a classic read by successive generations. Readers become so attached to characters that it becomes impossible for authors to kill them off. Can you imagine the uproar if J.K. Rowling had killed Harry Potter in the end? For good, not for that half/fake/temporary death thing she did there. Hell, killing Dumbledore was enough to almost get her lynched.
Sometimes, despite killing a character off, an author is forced to revive them in some way. Case in point, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Case of the Detective’s Resurrection. Okay, there’s no actual story by that title, but after throwing Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty off a cliff, readers were so angry that Holmes ended up miraculously surviving before eventually returning to London. Doyle killed him off in the first place because he was so sick of pandering to readers. Ironic, huh?
Sherlock Holmes has gone on to be one of the most recognizable characters in literary history (thanks in no small part to the film industry and a certain deerstalker cap), and numerous sequels and adaptations have been written about him by other authors, including The Final Solution, an early book by literary superstar Michael Chabon.
More often than not, books about the famous detective focus on the logic behind uncovering “whodunnit” as it relates to a specific mystery. Despite two mysteries being presented in The Final Solution, Chabon’s story provides a subtle focus on Sherlock Holmes’s mortality. While he may live on through stories, as a man, Holmes is bound to die one day. Here he is not youthful or even sprightly middle-aged. Rather, he is an old man–one who is heavily alluded to but never named, 90-some-odd years old, ever closer to having one foot in the grave. The old man is well aware of his mortality and his encroaching end of days. He worries about having his body discovered in an undignified manner, a thought that dwells in his mind as his body–and mind–slowly falter a little more each day.
As pointed out elsewhere, Holmes only manages to solve one of the intertwined mysteries. It’s been such a long time since I’ve read any of his adventures, that I too missed the subtly suggested solution to the second. It’s somewhat easy to come to a general conclusion, having a solid background in Holmesian knowledge helps to see where Chabon makes references for the reader to draw upon.
I’m looking forward to return to my collection for a few re-reads and to compare notes on what Chabon hints at with what Doyle wrote. It’s exciting to see an author actively draw on the original mysteries rather than just on characterization when creating new mysteries for the detective whose death just never seems to come.
Related posts:
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon When I first learned about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier...
- Elementary, My Dear Watson I must admit, I have a crush on Sherlock Holmes. ...
- MoCCA Interview with Michael Blank Isn’t “Michael Blank” the best name for a comic artist?...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
