PROCESS & PRODUCT: Sherlock Holmes expressed absolute glee when he realized that ‘the game is afoot … ( “Come, Watson, come!’ he cried. ‘The game is afoot – the chase is on’”)[1] He felt the excitement, unlike Vronsky who, “in spite of the complete fulfilment of what he had so long desired, was not completely happy. He soon felt that the realization of his longing gave him only one grain of the mountain of bliss he had anticipated. That realization showed him the eternal error men make by imagining that happiness consists in the gratification of their wishes.” (Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina) (“A man is occupied by that from which he expects to gain happiness, but his greatest happiness is the fact that he is occupied.”—Alain, quoted by Jim Holt 2006)[i]
Reminded me of Midnight in Paris (2011, the movie in which Gil (Owen Wilson) discovers that the Golden Age is now (he time travelled with Scott & Zelda to the 20’s Paris & meets Picasso’s friend, Adriana, who pines for the 1890’s the way he pines for the 1920’s. Back in the present he resolves to stay in Paris. (later he meets Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux), an antiques dealer who shares his fondness for the twenties and the music of Cole Porter and discovers Adriana’s diary from the 1920s in a book stall on the Seine and finds out that she was in love with him.) (Had a vivid sense of “Midnight…” when Kathy and I spent the evening of 10 June … at the Café Carlyle.)
[1] The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle: “The candle in his hand shone upon his eager, stooping face and told me at a glance that something was amiss. “Come, Watson, come!’ he cried. ‘The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!’ Ten minutes later we were both in a cab and rattling through the silent streets on our way to Charing Cross Station.” ( https://literarydevices.net/the-game-is-afoot/ )
[i]. Quoted by Jim Holt in, AOh Joy,@ a review of Happiness: A History by Darrin M. McMahon in the NYTBR February 12, 2006, p20
