Slow Learners

There's an episode of Boy Meets World in which they parody themselves and poke fun at some of the show's many idiosyncrasies, and which includes one of my favourite lines of the entire series, when the Cory-Matthews-like character asks, "How can I learn so much every week and still be so stupid?"

Source.

 Y'all, Dr. John Watson is the Cory Matthews of 19th-century popular literature.

Source: Goodreads.

I'm nearly finished reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes, years after my only exposure to the written works being the occasional short story in school (whoever was responsible for my 12 years of literature textbooks really loved "The Red-Headed League"). It's been my bus and treadmill read since around March, so it's been slow going, but it's delightful to recognize some of the stories I've seen in other adaptations.

And then there's Dr. Watson. Seriously, John. I don't know if Conan Doyle liked Watson being dimwitted, or if John is filling a particular literary role that he can't be moved from, or if it's just reflective of the writing conventions of the time that John never learns a freaking thing over the course of many years of friendship with Sherlock. The one that finally had me shouting, "Come on, you idiot!" at my iPad was "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax," when Sherlock sends John an offbeat telegram asking for a description of someone's ear, which John dismisses as a joke. John, listen, buddy. How have you known and worked with Sherlock this many years and still don't get that the weirder the question is, the more critical it is to the case? The more so considering that you once had a case that was all about ears, both attached and not. Dude. Use that head for something more than a hat rack, as my mother would say.

So I'm glad that the delightful Martin Freeman's John Watson on Sherlock does have some brains in his head and manages some learning and growth across the scant episodes we have to make do with. However (and with books this old, the "however" is inevitable), please be aware that Mr. Conan Doyle's works reflect some unfortunate attitudes of their time and place; that is to say, the racism, classism, and sexism are strong with this one. At times it's unreadably strong and I was knocked right out of the world of the story because of these uglier elements. If you're going to read this book, please know that before you go in.

And one more thing before I go: this Kindle version has formatting problems, punctuation problems, spelling problems that I'm almost certain were not in the originals, and no visuals in places where there should be visuals. (It reads "GRAPHIC" in those spots instead.) At least one Amazon reviewer says there are also missing paragraphs, which explains some weird shifts in the text if that's truly the case. So while the price is right (free), it's not without some issues, so proceed with fair warning.