A real pea souper

I love fog -I really do. On Tuesday night I was engulfed in fog as I was driving to my tortuous 4 hour night class in Abbotsford. Fog transforms the landscape, much like snow does. It changes the way the world looks-giving the appearance of another, more magical, realm. When I think of fog, the first thing that springs to mind ? Sherlock Holmes.
When I was a younger I had a fondness for mystery novels, especially Agatha Christie . When I was 18 I asked for a box set of the complete Sherlock Holmes. Almost as soon as the wrapping paper was off, (Don't you sometimes mourn the loss of ripping now that most people use gift bags?) I began to devour the first novel, The Sign Of Four. Ah bliss -The sheer bliss in having a great thick book to read and no other pressing engagements. That murky world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle drew me in so completely. That dark, foggy, lamplight world of Victorian England.
And in contrast to the fog we have the almost supernatural sharpness of Sherlock Holmes' reason. (can reason be supernatural?)
There is even a Sherlock Holmes society at : http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/ They like to treat Watson and Holmes as if they were real people ! Apparently the society gets letters from around the world every year asking Holmes to solve cases. crazy ...
I think I would like to research the phenomenon of literary characters who take on a life of their own. How does an author create a fictional persona that transcends the narrative he/she s embedded in? In other words- why do some characters take on a life of their own?