What is our world coming to?

So, while I was away God knows where (seems I get out a lot more than I realize) my parents had ordered the new Sherlock Holmes on Pay-per-view and recorded it to our PVR for me to watch later, but neglected to tell me. Not being one to watch a particularly large amount of television, I rarely check the PVR to see what's been recorded. So imagine my surprise when my mother suggests we watch it when we can't find anything else but a re-run of Corner Gas on the television. Which makes me wonder, when we usually only watch TV more than normal on lazy Friday nights, why we have 1000 odd channels and there's nothing on when we choose to watch something outside the norm.

Anyways, you catch the drift that I just finished watching Sherlock Holmes, and I think it's appropriate now to throw in my five cents (apparently they're considering removing the penny again and we have to inflate costs) of a review. I found it a pretty good movie, stellar even by my standards. Not that my standards mean anything at all. From an unbiased perspective, it was pretty good. Paid the bills, you know, and kept us entertained and focussed for a couple hours.

But by my standards, it was quite something indeed. Not only did I find the rugged Mr. Holmes incredibly appealing, but he also kept up the incredible personality that keeps his character in my record book of idols. Not to mention the themes that ring true with everything that keeps my eyes glued to the page, err, or screen rather. Adventure, genius, action, dynamic characters... and even fantasy worthy black magic, proved wrong of course by simple science to accord with science fiction standards. I was a thing of beauty. And it was all mashed up together with just the right touch of comedy that kept you head over heels for Mr. Holmes.

Of course, now I find myself thinking slightly backwards, dazed from listening to old-ish English for the last two hours, and after watching Sherlock strut about the screen piecing together before my eyes a beautifully intricate and carefully laid death trap of a puzzle, I can't help but find myself thinking on a larger, more profound scale. Have you noticed? ;)

And thus I found myself puzzling over a little anomaly of my own as I washed the dishes, and without being able to get the image of Mr. Holmes out of my teenage brain, it is thus related to Sherlock Holmes. Yet I felt the need to reach back a few centuries (when was this wonderful piece of literature first published?) before my teenage years to the cover to cover print version of my idolized friend.

What I found myself puzzling over was the strangeness in society's need to connect ideal with symbols from culture and identity, and, as generations pass and change, how these symbols change.

Now you're probably going to ask me how the hell this relates to Sherlock Holmes, and if you figured it out, then top hat old friend. However, I'm going to assume most of you are like Watson, and would much prefer if I explained things to you before I run off gibbering.

I found myself matching Sherlock Holmes with detective. Which is what lead me to the above question. It's odd though isn't it? Especially in literature, when you start thinking of simple things, simple definitions and you can identify almost immediately with someone or something everyone else will likely recognize as well. It's the basis of the game Scategories.

When you think of detective, what immediately comes to mind is the silhouette of scruffy man in a large hat, smoking a pipe or holding a magnifying glass. The characteristic image of out good friend Sherlock Holmes. What comes to mind later, though perhaps just as quickly, is Agatha Christie novels, the FBI, or the police. And detective isn't the only word that immediately brings about the same picture in our heads.

The next word I thought of was romance, and the first thing that comes to mind is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, quickly followed by (in my mind at least) a girlfriend/boyfriend or someone you have a crush on, and then a romantic dinner with candles and ambiance and silver dishes.

Then, on the run with popular literature, I thought of vampires and began to ponder upon how these images we immediately associate with certain words must be derived from culture, because they change as pop culture changes. I think anyone who's at least poked their head out from under their rock lately knows where I'm going with this.

The sad fact of our reality of late is that the first thing that comes to mind (in my generation at least), when the word vampires is uttered is Stephanie Meyer's novels, Twilight. Now if you are of any taste at all, your mind  will also quickly associate images such as Anne Rice novels (as much as I despised Interview with the Vampire) and Dracula. Other multitudes of decent novels can come to mind as well since our reading repertoire has been flooded with vampires as of late.

Vampires are a good example of how this connection changes. If you asked what was the first thing that came into our heads when we were told of vampires five years ago, the immediate reply would likely be Anne Rice or Dracula. Maybe even horror movies, or a confusion with zombies. You'd get a variety of answers.

Now though, a good 80% of answers to that question will probably be Twilight. Our culture has changed. Our minds have been warped into this image of vampires as gorgeous, sparkling, eco-friendly creatures we can befriend and even love. This in contrast to the true, original, vampire image of a cold blooded killer who was stuck for eternity with his lot as much as he loathed it. Of killing with wooden stakes, and garlic, and religion.

I'm sure of someone came out with a Nancy Drew of a Sherlock Holmes, our perception of Detective would change as well. And in league with the change in Vampires, it will probably be a pig-tailed little girl running around solving mysteries she really shouldn't be involved in for her own safety.

It leaves me thinking now, what the hell is our world coming to? It's dying, that's for sure, have you felt the temperature lately? But it seems what entraps our undivided attention are images of shallow, whiny, perfect characters who, in the end, always get what they want. And I hate to break it to you world, but in reality, the characters you seem to idolize would never survive, let alone save the world. In fact, I'd much rather read a novel where at least one or more of the characters is homosexual or bisexual, it adds a certain spice to the story. Let's get a novel into our hands with characters that empower instead of entrap. Then we can change the world. That's the power of words.