Fandom Friday: The Norwood Builder
“The Adventure of the Norwood Builder” is one of the 13 stories contained in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. It’s also the name of an outstanding Sherlockian Tumblr account.
While many accounts contain wonderful collections of photos and interesting information, The Norwood Builder takes things a step further by including serious Holmesian scholarship. But don’t be afraid — the info is interesting, accessible, and helps to round out the Holmesian experience.
Take this post, for instance, which unpacks Sherlock Holmes’s attitudes toward justice throughout the Doyle canon.
“Several readers and scholars of the Canon have noticed – and are often attracted to – the ‘superhuman’ aspects of the Sherlock Holmes character – not only his intellectual brilliance, but, for instance, his incredible (for such a slender, even skinny, man) strenght (he bends an iron pocket with his bare hands in SPEC), or his cat-like ability to see into darkness (CHAS). Umberto Eco even compares him to the Count of Montecristo, with whom Holmes certainly shares the great ability at disguising himself, and – according to Eco – the attitude for taking justice into his hands, to achieve what law and tribunals could not.
But here, I think, we find the great difference, not only between these two fictional characters, but between Holmes and many other epigones of his, both in detective stories and amongst other fictional popular characters: Holmes is NOT an avenger, on the whole.”
(Read the full post here)
The Norwood Builder uses unique and original charts, graphs, and clear verbal explanation to illuminate and broaden the Sherlockian fan experience. Fortunately for all of us, more posts that explore the statistics of Sherlock Holmes in interesting ways have been promised in the near future.
Follow The Norwood Builder on Tumblr
Check out standout posts featuring Sherlock Holmes’s attitude toward justice and Sherlock Holmes’s case outcomes.
Note: Images and information reproduced by permission from The Norwood Builder.
