On the Necessity of Moriarty

Over time, I've accumulated a lot of old magazines, generally for the express purpose of having something interesting to read during my daily escapist fantasies where I indulge a hidden, but very real desire to aspire to royalty, at least in terms of functional furniture whose primary purpose is to support the regio glutealis. Anyway, I came across this interesting article in the August 11, 1997 issue of the New Yorker, where Alex Ross critiqued the book of Ben Macintyre, The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief. According to Ross, Macintyre (a distinguished British journalist who writes for the Times) claims in his book "that there really was a Professor Moriarty: a Victorian criminal on whom Conan Doyle's evil genius was based". Since I read historical fiction, or pseudo-historical fiction on a more or less regular basis, I was amused to hear of Worth. What caught my attention though was the rather curious relationship between the supposed archcriminal, Worth, and his nemesis, the famed William Pinkerton. Ross writes:

"In a chapter entitled 'Moriarty Confesses to Holmes,' Macintyre wrings romance from the friendship between the aging Pinkerton and the fallen Worth. But the episode also points to a pathetic crisis in Pinkerton's mind, of which Worth took material advantage. The detective, at this stage in his career, was known less as a wrangler of outlaws than as a brutal strikebreaker: the suppression of the Homestead strike of 1892 was his handiwork. Now he set about rescuing and immortalizing a worthier, more mythic foe, his own private Moriarty."

The rest of the article details how Pinkerton not only stage-managed Worth's so-called redemption (by returning a priceless painting to its rightful owners), but actively set out to cement Worth's reputation as "the most inventive and daring criminal of modern times" by producing a pamphlet published by the Pinkerton Agency offering glittering testimonials to Worth's supposed genius.

I suppose that this necessity, on Pinkerton's part, to create an archcriminal to validate his own legacy as a detective, could be viewed as some sort of cautionary tale regarding man's need for validation. But for me, the necessity, so to speak of Moriartys, is indicative of man's quest for meaning: there has to be some sort of fundamental operating principle, or fundamental organizing structure that allows us to make sense of everything. This is similar to how the late Canadian theorist Northrop Frye considered myths: as recurring themes, images or archetypes that allow us to delve into the supposed structure that links all stories together, and by extension, all of humanity.

One thing's for sure though: you must be incredibly lonely to invent myths just to make you feel better about yourself. That, more than anything, struck me the most.

Photo Credits:
Picture of The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief comes courtesy of Abe Books.