Okay, forgive my inner Holmes fangirl coming out here, but:
OMG OMG SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY. "Exuberant" is entirely the right word and it really does seem to be in large part his inner Holmes/Watson slasher coming out. Er, as it were. *g* Like, he clearly loved the Holmes/Watson relationship, but he also saw a bunch of stuff there that he seems to not quite know what to make of (well, we could rectify that for him, but in the thirties that might have been a bit shocking *g*) and so he wrote what is very much Holmes/Watson except his own version, with a reason - Wolfe's refusal to go anywhere - for the necessity and closeness of his Watson character. His own new-and-improved versions, as it were: Holmes, but his Watson admits to finding him annoying sometimes! Watson, who is a proper detective all by himself and given credit for it! Wolfe's mental health issues are parallel to Holmes' habit of retreating into drugs and sitting around for days or weeks at a time, hell even a bunch of the cases are - not ripoffs, but clearly analogous.
And he seems to enjoy that so much, it makes me happy. :D
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OMG OMG SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY. "Exuberant" is entirely the right word and it really does seem to be in large part his inner Holmes/Watson slasher coming out. Er, as it were. *g* Like, he clearly loved the Holmes/Watson relationship, but he also saw a bunch of stuff there that he seems to not quite know what to make of (well, we could rectify that for him, but in the thirties that might have been a bit shocking *g*) and so he wrote what is very much Holmes/Watson except his own version, with a reason - Wolfe's refusal to go anywhere - for the necessity and closeness of his Watson character. His own new-and-improved versions, as it were: Holmes, but his Watson admits to finding him annoying sometimes! Watson, who is a proper detective all by himself and given credit for it! Wolfe's mental health issues are parallel to Holmes' habit of retreating into drugs and sitting around for days or weeks at a time, hell even a bunch of the cases are - not ripoffs, but clearly analogous.
And he seems to enjoy that so much, it makes me happy. :D