Sherlock Holmes- Robert Downey Jr. vs. Benedict Cumberbatch and other such comparisons

In English, we have been watching the Sherlock Holmes film starring Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes. As we have watched the movie, I cannot help but to make comparisons with the BBC Sherlock, a short but sweet version of Sherlock Holmes. Each are starring a bored Sherlock, a frustrated John, and an Antsy Mrs. Hudson, however the portrayals done by these actors and actresses are very different.

Firstly, the BBC Sherlock is set in Modern times while the film is set in Victorian era England. Although the house address is the same, the difference in the insides of the sets are extraordinary. In the film, we see a large, macabre room in which only Sherlock and occasionally his test subject, Gladstone the dog, seem to reside. We know that John is moving out in this film, as compared to the series where he is moving in. However, the rooms in the show are shared extenstively by John and Sherlock. In the modern version of Sherlock, we see a lot more texting, catching taxis and a lot less running after suspects. That doesn't mean that we don't see them chase suspects, in fact in a Study In Pink, the first episode, we see them sprint after a taxi down the streets of London.

The Sherlocks, Johns, and even Mrs. Hudsons are very different. The Sherlock of the film attempts to invent when he is bored while the Sherlock of the show only shoots the wall with no pretense of attempting any good. Sherlock as portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. has a different style of thinking and tends to get more physical than the Sherlock portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but the film Sherlock seems much more aggressive and quick to anger than the show Sherlock. John in the film is someone who, for the most part, berates Holmes. He doesn't quite seem to have too much to do with the investigations done by Sherlock except to fight with him. In the show, John is a vital part of Sherlock's investigations, someone who gets him out of binds all the time and who offers a professional and unproffesional opinion. The caretaker, Mrs. Hudson, is also quite different in the film versus the show. The film Mrs. Hudson and Sherlock argue frequently, but she takes care of him more than the show Mrs. Hudson. In the show, she and Sherlock get along almost famously, even if she insists time after time that she is not their caretaker, only their landlady.

Even if both are Sherlock Holmes, there are many differences in the show and the film. It's up to you to watch and decide which you think is best, but I will always hold a larger, if only slightly, place in my heart for the show version.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

With a title cleverly taken from the Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, this novel is one with a character with a personality parallel to Sherlock Holmes. Christopher John Francis Boone, the main character of the novel, can tell you all of the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Christopher is very logical and extremely good at maths, all of which may be a result of his autism. He could not tell you what these meant:

and if you talked to him in metaphors, he wouldn't understand you, but if you talked to him about numbers, he could help you instantly.

In this book, Christopher encounters a mystery. His neighbour, Mrs. Shears, had a large black poodle named Wellington. One night, Christopher is out in the garden when he sees Wellington dead. He decides, after a long night filled with yelling, fighting, and jail, that he is going to solve the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? To do this, he emulates his favourite character, Sherlock Holmes, a creation from the mind of one Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Although he dislikes the author, he idolizes Sherlock, because Sherlock is so like him. He states

"I also like The Hound of the Baskervilles because I like Sherlock Holmes and I think that if I were a proper detective he is the kind of detective I would be. He is very intelligent and he solves the mysteries and he says
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
But he notices them, like I do. (73)

However, this book is not only about solving the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? It is also a story about finding his mother, who, even after she "died" was writing him letters. He decides to live with her after finding out a shocking truth about his father and embarks on a long, tough journey from Swindon to London on his own, along the way escaping police, almost getting hit by trains and arguing with a rude man over something as simple as an A to Zed.

This book has captivated myself and many of my fellow classmates. To me, it was interesting not because of its portrayal of an autistic kid, but because of the way the author shows us the world. The fact that Christopher is autistic is merely another tool that Mark Haddon uses to build a wonderful story filled with mundane tasks that flow together in a way that compels us to read the novel and empathize with a character who doesn't know what empathy is himself.

Henry David Thoreau DIN

Henry David Thoreau believed that in order to live well, we must reduce the number of material goods we have. Otherwise, these things begin to dominate us. Take a position on this and explain.

 I do agree with this idea. One of the most common reasons for dissonance between people is greed. One person might be jealous of what another has and therefore they become angry with the other. The friendship that those two people would have had would be destroyed by one's want for what the other has. This shows us that jealousy can dominate someone's life, and usually it's for something material.

Especially in this era, we are dominated by a need for material things. Each of us is caught up in who has the best phone, or the best computer, or the most electronics. All of these things sometimes take more precedence than spending time with people, and it can often be seen that two people, when out together, will be texting others who aren't there. The material things in our lives have taken over us and it seems, at times, that they control us.

Bellringer/Do It Now- Prime Numbers

Christopher Boone, says"Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the numbers away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical, but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them." (Haddon 12)

I agree with this quote. Prime numbers are something that occur when you don't appear to have any rules. Life, too, really has no rules that it  follows that we can figure out. I don't know of anyone who has figured out how to live life to its absolute, scientific maximum, nor do I know of anyone who knows what that limit is. There are many people who have tried to figure it out, but no one really has, which is why we search for things such as the Holy Grail and the Fountain of Life.

In theory, though, life is logical. We know what we should do to live a longer life and to have our bodies in great condition. However, we find it hard to deny ourselves the thrills that we could live through, such as bungee jumping or sky diving or other "risky" activities that we do purely to get the adrenaline rush. Prime numbers, too are logical. There is a way to get them, but it takes a long time, just like life. Both take a long time to figure out, and we are still figuring both out to this day and we will be for years to come.