REBELLING AT STAGNATION

"Now, we must make the best use of our time..."

"My mind,' he said, 'rebels at stagnation.  Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere."

"My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built."

"I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely."

 "Meanwhile we can thank our lucky fate which has rescued us for a few short hours from the insufferable fatigues of idleness."

The Sherlock Holmes invented by the young doctor Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to be working, preferably all the time. Much has been made over the years about Doyle modeling Holmes on his professor Joseph Bell and certainly Doyle said he had done so to obtain "the Sherlock Holmes method." 

However, the more time I spend with Doyle's work and letters, the more I see of Sherlock Holmes in him. Specifically, I see this desire to rebel at stagnation. He did so much work; he involved himself in so many areas of life. He truly lived on a global scale.

Even when I don't agree with him I am in awe of him--where did that drive, energy and interest come from? I tried to begin a count of his writing output and quickly gave up. I don't have the brain space nor the access to the materials/information.  As usual, I turned to the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia for some insight. (That site itself runs over 7,000 pages in an attempt to fully document Doyle's life.] 

The home page has a section titled HIS WORKS with quite a tally: 258 fictions, 1051 articles & essays, 106 poems, 21 plays, 211 lectures, and 1024 letters. And of course even this venerable site could not have access to everything Doyle wrote.

Doyle's rebelling at stagnation was evidently his inherent nature. I can't help but wonder, though, if he also rebelled at stagnation to avoid a need for artificial stimulus, a need he gave to Sherlock Holmes and a need that ultimately destroyed his father.

The more I learn about this fascinating man, the more I wish I could talk with him. I have many questions. If I follow Doyle to the spiritualist table, maybe I could ask a question, but that is a subject for another day.

I need to go idly spend some time with my dog. If I find a need for an artificial stimulus, I'll turn to my favorite: Twitter.