heads up next week's video is already out waiting to be watched over on nebula stay tuned for more
details Sherlock Holmes is an icon an eternal character who we all know and love Maura's
symbol to most of us than a person he is a brain a logical reasoning machine a man who's dedicated
himself more fully to his life's work than almost any other he lives to unravel puzzles plots
conundrums intrigues he sniffs out the diamond Thief he deciphers the Sinister message written
in a code of dancing stick figures he foils the elaborate plans of the thieves tunneling into the
bank right under the noses of the police more than once he outsmarts the cunning schemes of
his own would-be assassins I am a brain Watson he says to his friend the rest of me is mere appendix
even his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said in an 1892 interview Sherlock Holmes is utterly inhuman
no heart but with a beautifully logical intellect but after wearing down my own home's collection to
a stack of dog ears rounded corners and yellowed pages I have to wonder is that really true is
Sherlock Holmes really just a brain was it really only the beauty of his pure logical intellect that
made Holmes one of the most enduring characters of the last century is it his unchanging static
familiar nature that makes us love him so much I'm not so sure I know him too well at this point
to just accept that idea I can't help but think there's something else here another deeper mystery
perhaps the longest running most important most interesting question in all of Sherlock Holmes's
Adventures is something a bit less spectacular maybe it isn't the ominous puzzle of the Hound of
the Baskervilles or the search for the scandalous photo of the king of bohemia or the race against
the malevolent schemes of his greatest opponent the criminal mastermind Moriarty maybe Holmes's
greatest mystery is himself the mystery of this man who is only a brain of the life
that is mere appendix the mystery of character and how much of it lies within us the readers
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called worldsmiths we talk a lot about art on this channel but worldsmiths is where we peel
back the pages and enter the worlds of the artists themselves their influences their methods their
lives in fact just earlier today we released a video about Arthur Conan Doyle the author behind
Sherlock Holmes it'll honestly give a lot of context on this video that you're watching right
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Watson's first impression of Holmes Really forms the foundation for everyone's impression of the
character how are you he said gripping my hand with a strength for which I should have hardly
given him credit you have been in Afghanistan I perceive how on Earth did you know that I asked
an astonishment Holmes chuckled his powers of deduction are clear right from the start it's
the first thing we know about him and the most obvious thing about him forever after over the
years Watson comes to no homes as a man of habits narrow and concentrated habits chances are if it
isn't somehow related to the art of detection he isn't concerned with it in fact Holmes
himself is known to refer to anything outside his occupation as mere extras appendixes trivialities
you see he explains I consider that a man's brain is originally 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 sword he
comes across her skillful Workman is very careful indeed it is a mistake to think that that little
room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent it is of the highest importance therefore
not to have useful facts elbowing out the useful ones to Watson and I'm sure to every reader
in the audience the revelation of how little Holmes knows outside his incredible skill set
was at least as profound as the discovery of his expertise what a shock to learn that Holmes the
inimitable sleuth one of the cleverest characters in all fiction doesn't even know that the Earth
travels around the Sun but the deuce is it to me says Holmes you say that we go around the Sun if
we went round the Moon it would not make a penny worth a difference to me or my work and it's not
just information home sees this way emotional attachments and all forms of society are also
just extras to Holmes the emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning he says
in Watson's words grit in a sensitive instrument or a crack in one of his high power lenses
would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his and I suppose
somewhat predictably following all of that he's especially averse to the Grand emotion of love
you really are an automaton a calculating machine Watson cries one day at his flatmate
flabbergasted by Holmes's indifference to a visit from the most Charming young lady he'd ever seen
there is something positively inhuman in you at times
according to Holmes he is his mind and his mind is detective work I am a brain Watson the rest of
me is mere appendix honestly that's kind of what he looks like to the Casual reader that's what I
thought of him at first that's what I thought of him before I ever picked up one of his stories
through second-hand Impressions and pop culture osmosis I know Holmes as the brain the icon the
Paragon of all genius detective characters I went into page one expecting a plot-driven adventure
about a two-dimensional simple monolithic character with a single face but as I made
my way through the stories I began to recognize a subtle Force driving me forward something distinct
from all the individual mystery plots that deeper mystery I mentioned at the video start
I was drawn in and rather than getting stale it was getting more and more fun the further I went
I very quickly began to realize that homes cannot just be a brain he is a brain but there's too much
Nuance there too much depth too much complexity he was rapidly becoming more than this archetypal
greatest detective without Ever Changing going through a character Revelation or Arc he was
evolving before my very eyes although Holmes declares no room in his mental attic for useless
Pursuits he makes a striking exception for the violin oftentimes Watson hears him scraping away
with the instrument on his knee lost in thought he recalls one seeing Holmes in a concert hall
wrapped in the most perfect happiness gently waving his long thin fingers in time to the
music his gently smiling face and his languid dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes the
sleuth Hound Holmes the Relentless keen-witted ready-handed criminal agent as it was possible
to conceive despite his proclamation of strict indifference to anything outside his field of work
Holmes clearly has a flair for the artistic the dramatic and the performative according to Watson
Holmes is as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty
at times when his friends applaud a particularly brilliant deduction or solution he even blushes
and gives a bow like the master dramatist who receives the homage of his audience it was at
such moments that for an instant he ceased to be a reasoning machine and betrayed his human love for
admiration and Applause and that's not the only place we see him making a little extra room in his
carefully arranged mental attic at times Holmes has been known to take the law into his own hands
yes he's largely on the side of the police but his sense of right and wrong is less a matter of Law
and more like a code of chivalry he's kept secrets that would have served as really good evidence
just to protect the reputation and happiness of the families involved in the crimes he's
investigated he's allowed criminals to walk free when he believed that the expected punishment was
undeserved more than once he stepped outside the bounds of what would strictly be considered legal
where's your warrant asks the man home suspects of kidnapping
Holmes half draws a revolver from his pocket this will have to serve till a better one comes
why you're a common burglar so you might describe me says Holmes cheerfully my
companion is also a dangerous Ruffian and together we are going through your house
so despite his buttoned up psyche The Selective space of his mind we know he's a bit of a thespian
and we know he's a bit of a rogue but more shocking than either of these he's also according
to Watson the very worst tenant in London although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and
most methodical of mankind he was nonetheless in his personal habits one of the most untidy men
that ever drove a fellow lodger to distraction Holmes keeps his cigars in the call settle his
tobacco at the toe end of a Persian slipper and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a
jackknife into the very center of his wooden mantelpiece he plays music at strange hours
conducts malodorous scientific experiments he even to Watson's grief decorates the wall opposite his
armchair with an array of aesthetic bullet pox it's not just his home he's untidy with either
it's his habits his health his social life all of these things exist in a shocking state of disarray
he's a cocaine addict he operates at a hyperactive Pace punctuated by periods of catatonic laziness
he's possessed of a certain insensitivity and a sardonic lack of patience with any intellect
lesser than his own which is most of them in one story he remarks to Watson I cannot at the
moment recall any possible blunder which you have omitted even with all of that perhaps the most
telling thing of all is that he has friends at all Watson and the long-suffering landlady Mrs Hudson
do genuinely love him and they're among those who mourn his death in the Fatal confrontation with
Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls they're also the ones who Rejoice upon his miraculous return they
see just as the reader comes to see that Holmes is more than just a brain that there is something
within him Beyond his work beyond the archetype we all know that is worthy of admiration and love
make no mistake Holmes is everything he claims he is a brain he is an automaton he is narrow and
mechanical and calculating but I'm not convinced that those are the things which have entrenched
him in our minds and our hearts as readers I'm not sure that his status is world's greatest detective
is what makes you read all four novels and all 58 short stories I think the mystery of Holmes is the
human being that lurks beneath those things and it's our task as readers to detect and uncover it
Holmes himself whose scoffs at all things of the heart would probably mock this sentiment however
there is a single moment late in the series where he reveals himself as a definite hypocrite
he and Watson have cornered their suspect the infamous criminal killer Evans stands at the
end of their pistols trapped then suddenly Evans fires off two shots one grazing Watson's leg I
felt a sudden hot sear as if a red Iron had been pressed to my thigh recounts Watson there was a
crash as Holmes's pistol came down on the man's head then my friend's wiry arms were around me
and he was leading me to a chair you're not hurt Watson for God's sake say that you are not hurt
it was worth a wound it was worth many wounds to know the depth of loyalty and love which
lay behind that cold mask the clear hard eyes were dimmed for a moment and the firm lips were
shaking for the one and only time I cut a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a Great Brain all
my years of humble but single-minded service had culminated in that moment of Revelation
it's nothing Holmes a mere scratch a glimpse of a great heart as well as a great brain
when I first read that I myself felt like a patient detective whose long-abiding suspicion
had finally been confirmed by hard evidence aha I thought to myself I've got you Holmes you do
have a heart you are more than a brain for one time and one time only we see that last piece
of Holmes's puzzle revealed the true depth of his capability for loyalty feeling and love we
see The Man Behind the icon the brain and the Heart [Music] what a lovely thing a rose is
Sherlock Holmes once said in a poetic mood our highest Assurance of the goodness of Providence
seems to me to rest in flowers all other things our powers our desires our food are all really
necessary for our existence in the first instance but this Rose is an extra its smell and its color
are an embellishment of life not a condition of it it is only goodness which gives us extras and
so I say again that we have much to Hope from the flowers Holmes's brain his intellect is the
only element of his character that's really necessary to the main plot of his stories
detectives solve crimes the rest of him his many quirks and complexities are by his own admission
extra Amir appendix and as he says it is only goodness which gives him these qualities they
color and embellish him not merely functional but lovely he is an icon he is that Eternal character
we've all seen countless times before in countless incarnations he is the brain the crime-solving
automaton those things stay the same over the course of all his stories unlike in so much
media we as readers aren't drawn in and compelled to read further by the changes he undergoes as a
person along his journey or compelled by the change in our own perspective as we watch him
by the secret Dimensions within this apparently flat iconic symbol of a character his heart is a
mystery left up to the audience to solve and that detective is the most interesting investigation
in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes but it's not everything there's another dimension to Holmes we
didn't touch on here at all Holmes is basically just his author Arthur Conan Doyle and boy is
that man interesting as writers and creatives I think we have a lot to learn from looking at how
he lived his life how he found the inspiration for his art the surprising places from which he
drew these some of the most iconic of all Tales so we made a whole video about it it's actually part
of a series we make outside of YouTube called worldsmiths We tend to focus more on the art
than the artist here on tail Foundry this show is really about encouraging you to go out and make
your own art to take the ideas and techniques of great artists and find new things to do with
them but worldsmiths is where we peel back the pages and enter the world of the artist behind
the art see how and why they do the things that they do you'll be surprised how much you learn
about yourself in the process we've already done a video on Clive Barker and we've got plans to cover
plenty of other authors and artists too like Terry Pratchett Neil Gaiman Ursula caliguin and so much
more you can watch all of it over on our streaming platform nebula if you're not familiar nebula is
just a paradise for video creators YouTube is kind of a crazy place to make content don't get
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