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From: showard@udenva.UUCP (showard)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Sherlock Holmes
Message-ID: <552@udenva.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Apr-85 15:35:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: udenva.552
Posted: Fri Apr 26 15:35:08 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Apr-85 07:36:59 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Denver
Lines: 20

[It's not a bug; it's a feature!]

   I haven't been flamed in awhile, so here goes:  Why do you all have this
fascination with Sherlock Holmes??  I can't imagine, unless you're fans of
bad writing, incredibly bad dialogue, inhuman characters, and unbelievable
plots.  Is it because you haven't read any of the Doyle stories since you
were twelve and this is just nostalgia?  

   Don't start telling me about "the first mysteries" or "the first detective
stories" because Poe did those.  (He even did the first "open" mystery--almost
never seen--"The Man of the Crowd")  And don't tell me how brilliant Holmes is,
because the man does nothing but make wild guesses that turn out to be right
and pull rabbits out of his hat (Do you really believe that it is possible to
identify a brand of tobacco by the ashes?  In heaven's name, how?).

   I think you should all go and read some modern mysteries, or if you must
live in the past some vintage Christies and Queens.  Leave Holmes for the
twelve-year-olds.   

--Steve Blore, in-house detective, KAOS Radio, U of Denver