The Sign of the Red Hair

I've had another English text book make reference to Sherlock Holmes at a junior high school here in Japan. Some kids do seem to be aware of him, mostly through the popular anime and manga Detective Conan. The character was named after Arthur Conan Doyle. This time, the text book specifically references "The Red-headed League". So I read it again to make it into a presentation for the class.

I love the slightly implausible strangeness of it. I don't think it's a story that could be translated to a modern setting. I think now someone setting up a bogus fund for red-headed men would draw too much attention, especially with a line of red-headed men lined down the block. But on the streets of Victorian London, I can picture it working.

It's fascinating seeing the description of the neighbourhood around Jabez Wilson's pawnshop. A vegetarian restaurant is mentioned. I suspect it would've been like the vegetarian menu options here in Japan which usually have chicken broth or bonito flakes.

I started reading the next story, "A Case of Identity", in my copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It starts with one of my favourite quotes from Holmes. It's part of a longer speech about how "fact is stranger than fiction", a sentiment I don't really agree with. But I love this comment from Holmes;

"If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable."

Twitter Sonnet #1572

Enshrined in carrot tubes, the golfers sleep.
With boredom, Holmes could seal a letter tight.
The camping kids were counting ghostly sheep.
Then something strange obscured the forest night.
The room could shake but not dislodge the song.
Emboldened pants would cut the flow of blood.
A sandy path would lead the river wrong.
But hardened salt could stand in rainy mud.
A Gremlin sat alone among the cars.
Electric sparks began the model storm.
A stamp sufficed to sign for absent Mars.
The nurse forgot to fax the patient's form.
A common fire burnt a shadow pan.
The field of metal wheat was made by man.