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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 1:26:43 GMT
if it was a female character (with presumably a different first name)?
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Post by novastar6 on Aug 7, 2017 5:44:02 GMT
Today or originally? Either way I'd say no.
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Post by theravenking on Aug 7, 2017 8:50:06 GMT
Difficult to say. I recently read this short story where Sherlock Holmes was an intelligent talking dog. They have turned him into an alien, a cyborg, a robot, a cat, everything possible has been tried with the character. So why it is possible to turn Holmes into all kinds of different creatures, we are talking about an already existing and famous character here, plus all these different takes are not meant to be taken 100% seriously. Establishing a new detective character on the other hand is very, very difficult.
One would have to look at the specific characteristics which make Holmes so unique and try to find out whether these would work, if the character changed its gender.
Then there is also the case of his companion. If Holmes would have been female, Watson would've had to be female too, since it would be very difficult to imagine such a close platonic friendship between a man and a woman in Victorian times. The TV series Elementary already struggled by turning Watson into a woman. The relationship between thw two characters is just not the same anymore.
Actually there are very few truly popular female detectives. Miss Marple is the only one I can think of. There are plenty of succesful ones, but the likes of Kinsey Milhone, Kay Scarpetta, Vic Varshwaski or Hildegard Withers simply don't have the same standing as their male counterparts, Poirot, Marlowe or Wimsey.
I believe a similar question could be raised about James Bond. The so called female Bond, Modesty Blaise is not nearly as popular as her main counterpart and all the attemps to establish popular female spy characters have failed so far.
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Post by Nalkarj on Aug 7, 2017 14:34:05 GMT
@nxnwrocks
Certainly not in the original time period. There were female sleuths at the time, based on Holmes—Loveday Brooke, Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, Dorcas Dene—but none half as popular.
As for a similar character today... I have read a story in which the Holmes expy was female (possibly in the anthology The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, if I'm remembering correctly?). It was OK, but there was no justification for the gender swap.
ETA: Yes, that was the one. The story's called "The Adventure of the Gowanus Abduction," by Joyce Harrington.
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Post by Nalkarj on Aug 7, 2017 15:49:08 GMT
theravenkingAs far as female sleuths go, nowadays there's Phryne Fisher, who's very popular. (I haven't actually seen a complete episode of the program.) How about Mrs. Bradley? Unknown, perhaps, nowadays, but popular in the '30s and '40s. And I don't know if it counts, but there were several female detectives in husband-and-wife pairings...
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Post by theravenking on Aug 7, 2017 16:32:45 GMT
theravenking As far as female sleuths go, nowadays there's Phryne Fisher, who's very popular. (I haven't actually seen a complete episode of the program.) How about Mrs. Bradley? Unknown, perhaps, nowadays, but popular in the '30s and '40s. And I don't know if it counts, but there were several female detectives in husband-and-wife pairings... Consider yourself lucky. While I've only watched the first few episodes of The Miss Fisher Mysteries, I thought it was one of the worst mystery series I've ever seen. I just can't stand the main character, she basically personifies everything that is wrong with feminism today. |
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Post by mrdanwest on Aug 7, 2017 20:19:38 GMT
if it was a female character (with presumably a different first name)? Miss Marple seems to have done all right for herself. In fact, when her BBC series was running in the 80's & early 90's, it definitely could have been argued that she was at least as popular as Holmes. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2017 23:46:16 GMT
if it was a female character (with presumably a different first name)? Miss Marple seems to have done all right for herself. In fact, when her BBC series was running in the 80's & early 90's, it definitely could have been argued that she was at least as popular as Holmes. I'm not sure Miss Marple was ever more popular than Hercule Poirot, and certainly not as universally beloved worldwide as Sherlock Holmes is. I think if Conan Doyle had made the character female it would be very cool, but probably never catch on as well as Sherlock has. |
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Post by Nalkarj on Aug 8, 2017 0:10:23 GMT
theravenking As far as female sleuths go, nowadays there's Phryne Fisher, who's very popular. (I haven't actually seen a complete episode of the program.) How about Mrs. Bradley? Unknown, perhaps, nowadays, but popular in the '30s and '40s. And I don't know if it counts, but there were several female detectives in husband-and-wife pairings... Consider yourself lucky. While I've only watched the first few episodes of The Miss Fisher Mysteries, I thought it was one of the worst mystery series I've ever seen. I just can't stand the main character, she basically personifies everything that is wrong with feminism today. Oh, God. I'm happy I missed it, then. |
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