(no subject)

[darchildre]

Along with Raffles, I have been trying out the Arsène Lupin stories. I read the first collection of short stories, which was fun if not entirely satisfying. I enjoy Lupin as a character, but he's a cartoon rather than a person - the first book is a bit like "What if Bugs Bunny was a jewel thief?" in that Lupin does impossible things just because he wants to with very little realistic explanation of how they're done, and no consequences have the slightest chance of sticking to him. But I decided to try the second book in the series since it wasn't short stories, to see if Lupin works better in long form for me.

The second book presents a new and different problem. Going into reading the Lupin stories, I knew about the author's conflict with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For those who may not have previous encountered this story: Maurice Leblanc, who writes the Lupin stories, wrote a crossover where Lupin meets and outwits Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle wasn't happy about this to the point of getting lawyers involved, so Leblanc wasn't allowed to use Holmes as a character anymore. Whereupon, in an honestly very Lupin-like move, Leblanc shrugged and continued writing crossovers but changed the character's name to "Herlock Sholmes".

This is a delightful and hilarious piece of audacity and I love everything about it. However. I did not anticipate how ridiculous it was going to be every time a character in the book uses the name "Herlock Sholmes". I am incapable of taking the character seriously, even though the book clearly wants me to treat the character as, y'know, a serious and credible threat to Lupin. I keep picturing him as Holmes in Groucho Marx glasses and big fake mustache.

This is not helping at all with my "Arsène Lupin is a cartoon fox in a top hat" problem.




ETA - On the plus side, at least the "everyone is an absurd cartoon" problem is staving off some of my rage about the portrayal of the not!Watson character. Watson deserves better, Maurice Leblanc!

Comments

[silveradept]

I had assumed, with the need for the name change, that Sholmes was going to be more of a caricature of Holmes and someone that Lupin could essentially be a cartoon character around, just to spite Conan Doyle.

[darchildre]

That very much seems to be true. He felt more in character in the story where he appeared under his own name (though there was no Watson analogue in that one and most of the egregiously ooc stuff is in relation to the not!Watson).