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Jenny-My Tran
Professor Lynda Haas
Writing 39B
18 August 2014

The Development of Modern Day Holmes
Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective was historys first creation of detective genre
developedcreated by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle developed the character
Sherlock Holmes during the Victorian Era, in order to attract readers and introduce them to a
new type of genre,made the detective genre wildly popular with a growing number of readers.
After several years, eventually, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had officially killed off Sherlock
Holmes by creating characteristics that turned the fictional character horrific, no longer attracting
readers.<<This is not trueDoyle killed Holmes and brought him back because readers begged
him to. Holmes was very popular and never was horrific or not popular. From that moment on,
many other writers had begun to redevelop Holmes into a modern day character, which fit
societies views in the 21
st
century.<<what you want to say here is that Doyle established many
conventions of Holmes and of the genre in general that reflected his Victorian time and
audiencebut somehow even though he is a Victorian character, he has remained very popular.
One reason why is that new writers and filmmakers have kept many of Holmes most important
characteristics while updating them to appeal to a new audience and time period, and even to
work in a different medium rather than the written story.
During the 21
st
century, Sherlock Holmes has been produced into cinematic movies and
television shows which allowed Holmes to become modernized for the society to portray his
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characteristics without difficulty. <<Holmes has been adapted into film and TV long before the
21
st
century. Have a look at this wikipedia page to get a more accurate idea of the popularity of
Holmes since his birth in the late 1880s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptations_of_Sherlock_Holmes
Although Sherlock has transformed to fit societies acceptance, directors and writers have still
kept some ideas of Doyles novels. In the current century, Sherlock Holmes has become a mash-
up of ideas created from the Victorian Era as well as the 21
st
century. Look at the very detailed
instructions I sent out about what to include in your introduction and thesis. You need to
introduce the texts youre going to work with (identify what the text is, who made it, when it was
released, the main thing its about, etc), and the specific convention or conventions youll be
analyzing, etc.
Sherlock Holmes is now considered a superhero. A superhero is one who is described as
a costume fighter.<MLA citation needed Superheroes possess powers and fight criminals
known as super villains in order to keep the audience cheering. A superhero is most often the
protagonist of the story and dedicates their wellbeing to protect the public. Even though a
superhero is described as someone who dresses up and possesses powers, most superheroes are
the exact opposite. <<what does this mean? Confusing Sherlock Holmes is famous for booking
criminals and keeping villains off the streets as well as solvinges mysteries that close cases.
Holmes is a superhero whose skill sets include observation, optimism and deduction. I dont
understand why you included this information about superheroes wearing costumes if it is not
something that you are going to use in your analysis of the film. Remember, you need to
carefully select what content you include in a summary or definition---you want to include what
is necessary for your upcoming analysis (like the Previously seen on that comes up at the
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beginning of a TV episode). You are probably going to want to introduce the idea that
superheros have super powersan ability to do something that a normal human cannot do (in
this way, Holmes was almost a superhero even during Victorian times, but they didnt have the
word superhero until after Doyle was already dead. You also want to introduce the Ritchie film
immediately and not make the general statement that everyone thinks Holmes is a superhero
nowinstead, you want to make the more specific and accurate point that the Guy Ritchie films
update the Holmes character by giving him some of the conventions we normally think of as
being superhero
A scene that demonstrates Holmes heroic skills is in the movie, Sherlock Holmes: A
Game of Shadows.film titles go in italics. Long texts (books, films, the title of a TV series) go
in italics. Short texts (short stories, an episode from a TV series, an article, a chapter) go in
quotation marks In this scene, <<in what scene? Where does it occur in the narrative? Set it up
with some context Holmes faces a bomb that is ready to go off. Holmes then takes the bomb and
uses his deduction skills to find a place to bury the bomb in so that nobody gets killed. He places
the bomb in a tomb or coffin and saves the old man inside the church. There is no super power
described here that would make this be a superhero scene---or if there are superpowers used, then
you have not described them.
Another example that demonstrates heroism in Holmes was during the episode The
Blind Banker of the TV series, Sherlock.This is not one of the episodes we watched, and the
requirement of the essay is to use scenes from the episodes that were required for this classfor
Sherlock that was season 1, episodes 1 and 3 and season 2, episode 1 In this episode, Watson is
faced with the Chinese gang, Black Lotus, because they believe that Watson is actually Holmes.
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Watsons girlfriend, is then tied up and about to be killed with an arrow, but then Holmes uses
his deductive skills to maneuver himself through the gang without being killed and rescues both
Watson and his girlfriend before they both perish.There is nothing about superhero conventions
in this summary and there is no analysis of cinematic elements
Holmes is a superhero because although he does not have any super powers,<<in both
these modern-day texts, he DOES have superpowers. In the Ritchie films, he can foresee every
move that is going to happen in a fight before it happens and then use that to his advantage; in
the TV series, he is able to think faster and more accurately than any normal human (his intellect
is super human) he has intellectual powers that help him solve cases and think at a quick pace.
As the Francesca Mariano and Kayley Thomas say, Watson identifies in Holmes is heroic either
you have not quoted enough of this sentence for it to make sense grammatically or you have mis-
typed itcheck the quote---your words and the quote must make a grammatical sentence
potential rather than actual heroism. Because it is Watson as Conan Doyles narrator through
whom readers have constructed through whom readers have constricted a heroic Holmes, the
legitimation of this construction is achieved by Watsons own heroism, complementing and
cultivation Holmes as a hero. (65)I dont understand what this has to do with modern-day
adapatations using superhero conventions along with detective genre ones
In the movie, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, directed by Guy Ritchie,
moves<<there is no subject for this verbsentence is grammatically broken the camera to a
shallow focus when Irene Adler hands off a small brown package to Dr. Hoffmanstahl and takes
it as payment. This is confusing because I thought you had already written your paragraph
about the film (you need to keep all your discussion of the film in one point, and then another
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point on the TV episode) When he holds the package in his hand, the camera moves to a scale
shot showing both Dr. Hoffmanstahl and Adler in the shot engaging in a conversation together.
After, the camera moves to an extreme close up <<you are writing a scholarly essay now, not a
wiki page, so you must use MLA in-text citations (not links to words) of the bomb, which
Sherlock then appears in the scene to place his number card in the trap to stop the bomb from
going off. By doing so, Sherlock is seen as a superhero to Dr. Hoffmanstahl because right then
and there Sherlock had saved his life. Againwhat is superhero about this? What super power
(some power that normal humans dont have) is illustrated here? This is heroic, but it is not an
example of superhero conventions. I suggest if you really want to write about this topic, you
become much more knowledgeable about what superhero conventions are. The fight scenes in
the Ritchie films are good examples of superhero moments for Holmes.
Another mash-up both modern day Sherlock Holmes and Victorian Era Sherlock Holmes,
begins with the introduction of the films and stories. When introducing Sherlock Holmes, most
films or stories, as said by Panek in his article, Doyle, Almost all of the Holmes stories begin,
not with a crime, but with a curtain raiser in which Holmes demonstrates his powers of
observation and analytical skill. Watson's shoes, hat, watch, and fingers all provide material for
seemingly outlandish and magical assertions which Holmes proceeds to as simply routine results
of methodical looking and thinking. (Panek 84)Not sure what this paragraph has to do with your
topic
In the many of the different types of Sherlock series, all movies or TV shows, have
started off with the exact same entrance of Sherlock. In the TV series, Elementary, shows the
exact type of opening that Sir Conan Doyle had developed for his genre of detective stories.
This is to be expected, as they both follow a pretty standard pitch to take Sherlock Holmes
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and place him and the other characters within his short stories and novels into a modern context.
(Chapman) Chapman explains that both the TV series, Elementary and Sherlock Holmes follow a
set of beginnings that are the same type of characteristics Holmes is known for having. In both
series, Sherlock is analyzing something in the beginning, dressed up neatly and stimulating his
mind by observation of a scene. Again, not sure what this has to do with your topic
In the series, Elementary, Pilot, Joan Watson discovers Sherlock for the first time.The
requirement is that you use TWO scenes in this essay, and those can be two scenes from one text,
or one scene from two different texts. You cannot have three. So you must decide which two are
the best illustrations of your point When Watson walks into Sherlocks building, she interrupts
him during his time of stimulation. Since Sherlock is a recovering drug addict in this series, he
may use other types of stimulation to keep his mind fresh. The scene then displays Sherlock
surrounded by about an estimate of seven televisions playing all different shows. The camera
then moves and shows Watson explaining who she as and why she was there, but then discovers
that Holmes is analyzing and memorizing each line of each show playing on the televisions.
With that being said, the show had depicted the same opening as other stories; demonstrating
Sherlocks amazing ability of observation and analytical skills. Holmes does have an amazing
intellect in Elementary (he is a genius, as all the Holmes characters are), but this series does not
do much with superhero conventionsHolmes is more human, more relatable, in this adapation
This reflects the classical convention of Sherlock Holmes that Sir Conan Doyle has
created due to the same openings that the article written by Panek had described as well as the
TV series, Elementary. In the TV series, Elementary, Holmes body language is shown by the
camera using a technique called, pan. By panning out the scene, viewers can see that Holmess
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mind is processing all televisions at once and analyzing each and every line that comes from the
audio of each show playing. After, the camera shifts and moves to a shallow focus on only
Holmes and blurs Joan out in the background to show that it is Holmess turn to speak. After, the
camera moves to a telephoto shot and displays the whole room to show Holmess reaction to
Joan telling him that she would be assisting him and watching his sobriety from drugs. How the
stories begin is a totally different point than what you started out with for your essay
In conclusion, modern day Sherlock Holmes and Doyles creation both cross roads and
contain the same ideas. Writers wanted to display Holmes in such a way that he would satisfy the
audience and presents himself as being full of mystery. Along with 21
st
century technology,
cinematic techniques also helped display the mash-up between modern day Holmes and
Victorian Holmes. Without the camera angles, viewers would not be able to criticize the
similarities and differences both Dolye and directors wanted to depict. The cinematic techniques
also displayed the mash-up between the superhero genres and developments of modern day
Sherlock.

Jenny, This essay needs a lot of work. So much so that I think you might be better off
doing a full revision of your Literature Review essay than of this onebecause you basically
would have to re-write this whole essay. You do not really ever cover what you say your main
point itthe mash up of a superhero convention and a detective convention within two scenes.
After reading your essay twice, I dont get the idea that you really have any clue what the
superhero genre is, or how some of these modern-day texts use conventions from that genre.
There is some identifcation of cinematic terms sprinkled here and there, but none of this is
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actually an analysis that is tied to your main idea, and then described so as to make a conclusion
based on the analysis about exactly what about the elements shows us how the text is being
adapted for a 21
st
audience. My recommendation is that you go back to the drawing board and
locate one scene from one of the modern-day texts and find superhero conventions in it. If you
do not know what that means, then switch your topic and just find a detective genre convention
in one of the scenes and analyze the scene to show how that convention is maintained and/or
updated, or both, in order to appeal to the 21
st
c audience.
There are also pervasive language errors throughout the essaythese must all be
addressed in the final drafts included in your ePortfolio in order to pass the class.










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Works Cited
Mariano, Francesca and Kayley Thomas. "Don't Make People into Heroes, John:
(Re/De)Constructing the Detective as Hero." Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century. ed.
Lynette Porter. Jefferson, NC: Macfarlane & Company, 2012, 65-79. Print.

"Superhero Fiction." Wikipedia. N.p., 27 May 2014. Web. 10 Aug. 2014.

Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1987. Print.
Chapman, Brian. "10 Reasons Why Elementary is Better than Sherlock." What
Culture.What Culture, LTD., 9 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.