Clive James remembering his childhood reading and how all of it – good, bad, and ugly - influenced him:
Conan Doyle's trick – a trick raised to the level of sorcery – was to make the reader identify with Holmes instead of Watson. Watson was the same well-meaning dumb-cluck as you were yourself, but Sherlock was your dream of yourself.
As an aid towards making the reader imagine himself striding along fogbound alleyways in Sherlock's shoes, Conan Doyle made the master sleuth a bit of a shambles in every department except deduction. Hence his appeal to generations of adolescent boys who couldn't keep their rooms tidy – a point reinforced by the large number of adult males who make a cult out of the Baker Street bohemian.
Read it all here.
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