Me For Sherlock

[poliphilo]

There's a game they play on the Book Show, where they ask their writerly guests which character in fiction they'd most like to be. Last night I caught an episode where Ben Elton opted for Bertie Wooster because he is so sunny. Apparently in an earlier episode Seamus Heaney chose Jeeves.

So who would I like to be? The answer that immediately pops into my head is Sherlock Holmes. Really? Yes, really. Most of the people in books who aren't Mary Sues are sorry and suffering individuals- victims or one thing or another, or forced to jump through hoops in order to learn Life's Big Lesson. Holmes, it further occurs to me, is the only fully convincing portrait of a genius in fiction. I can't think of another. Can you?

Comments

[mamadar.livejournal.com]

One character who occurs to me is Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan, but I'm not sure he'd meet your definition of genius. Miles is a highly intelligent and charismatic man who overcomes severe physical handicaps in a culture far more "able-ist" than ours; he's a brilliant military tactician/strategist, but his real gift may be for making people fall for him and turning them loose to do what they're good at.

He's also, at times, a neurotic mess. *g*

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. I must look him up on Wikipedia.

[mamadar.livejournal.com]

The earlier M.V. books are military space opera, but the later ones, as Miles's relationship predicaments come to the fore, are really comedy of manners. Identity, IMO, is the over-arching theme of the series.