When it comes to a problem, Lupin goin solve it every time.
When I think of problem-solving, I begin to consider the myriad of problems we face in a single day, a single hour, perhaps.
And once this consideration has nearly concluded, one of the best problem-solvers I've ever read about inevitably comes to mind.
There is a character that, in the last two years or so, has drawn me in with an electrifying charm. This character is written by an author who, albeit quite racist given his being a 19th-century white man and the way he wrote the singular Black character in his books, nonetheless has a rambling style to his writing that strikes an enrapturing elegance that I aspire to emulate.
I speak of none other than Arsène Lupin, a fictional gentleman thief, detective, and hopeless romantic, and his creator, French novelist Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941).
In Leblanc’s staggering 25 short stories featuring Lupin, the reader is swept across the landscape of 1920s France chasing down adversaries, pressing through tension, and rattling our brains alongside Lupin himself to solve the problems at hand. And it is that very task, solving problems, that we have much to learn about from the gentleman thief.
Though his problems may be fictional, the problems that you and I face are very real. While they may not be about how to sneak antique paintings out of a waterfront mansion in the French countryside, they could certainly be about how to navigate the dating scene, travel wisely, or deepen our connection with our bodies.
So what lessons can we glean from a man who never lived? Much, my dear. Much indeed.
"In the afternoon, during Daubrecq's absence, he examined the door of the first-floor bedroom. And, at the first glance, he understood: one of the lower panels had been skillfully cut out and was only held in place by invisible tacks. The people, therefore, who had done this work were the same who had acted at his two places, in the Rue Matignon and the Rue Chateaubriand."
- from The Crystal Stopper
As you begin to read any of Lupin's many adventures, you'll notice one thing very quickly: the man sees everything. He is extremely attentive and uses that as a constant source of information and material to assist him and use against others if he must. He is extremely skilled at not only connecting the dots of a situation but also understanding the dots deeply and noticing meaning in the individual connections between them. He is no superhero, Lupin simply pays very close attention to the world and people he engages with, usually to reach a specific goal.
How can we apply this?
It is far too laborious to constantly be at the level of attentiveness that Lupin eternally exists at, but we can certainly get close for what matters.
Lupin's ability to pay close attention and to observe even the most minute details can inspire us to be more attentive, if not for the sake of outdoing our adversaries, then perhaps for us to see our problems more clearly and then too their solutions.
Imagine if you pushed yourself to notice just a bit more about what is driving the conflict with your manager at work. Or if you find yourself with a spending problem that you can't quite figure out, consider being just a bit more attentive as you review your bank statements to pinpoint what exactly is giving you the most trouble. Once you start exercising the muscle of deeper observance, you too will be able to connect the dots as our Lupin does and reach a better solution faster.
"The day did not seem long to Lupin. Knowledge was at hand."
- from The Crystal Stopper
Arsène Lupin is many things, but one thing he's not is a punk.
When face-to-face with the only living detective that could go toe-to-toe with him, he did not once falter. Whether it's on a boat, a train, in jail, at a cafe, in peril, or in triumph, Lupin knows exactly who he is and what he's capable of. He also makes sure that whether you're Inspector Ganimard, a dedicated but unclever man, or Sherlock Holmes himself, you too will know who he is and what he is capable of. And even when Lupin does take an L, his self-perception is never distorted by adversity. He only uses the temporary defeat as data to inform a new approach to solve his problem.
And that is what we can gain from him: staying connected to who we are even in the face of our enemies. When we are working through our own problems, we must tell ourselves what we know to be true about us. If you're having a difficult time progressing in your career, don't allow that problem to distort what you know to be true about yourself, your capabilities, your strengths, and your experience. Use those rejection no-reply emails as fuel to solve the problem. Let those losses inspire you to commit to finding a solution.
"One must be audacious, when the truth’s at stake. If I had not been there, I should not have discovered just the one little clue which I missed…Now that’s the key to the riddle. When we know that, we know the solution.”
- from The Eight Strokes of the Clock
One thing about Lupin, he's goin admit when he's wrong. But how does he move forward? By asking the right questions.
Let's remember that he's a detective first and a thief second. Much of the books are lines and lines of him asking the right questions, even if they’re in his own head, to solve mysteries and problems at hand. He uses good, specific questions to look at things from new perspectives and identify what needs to happen long before anyone else.
In The Golden Triangle, there was a lot that went wrong and quite a bit that even Lupin missed. He got some things wrong just like the reader did. But he didn’t linger on the fact that he had been outsmarted, he admitted that he had been led astray and then immediately pivoted into doing what he could to move forward. He didn’t harp on himself about how he should’ve done this or done that. He certainly didn’t give up on himself because he got something wrong. He merely took it as a new clue and thought even more carefully about what the truth now revealed about his situation.
You and I can do the same thing. We too can admit when we're wrong and ask the right questions to get us closer to our goal. We can pivot when we've made a mistake. We can try new approaches when something isn't working. And the quicker we do it, the quicker we can solve our problem. Arsène is always quick to implement a change or a new piece of information into his problem-solving. So too should we be quick to analyze information thoroughly and decide how it can be best implemented for our problem.
Having a hard time learning a new skill? Ask somebody. Research. Google. As you're being attentive to yourself and identifying what specific things about this skill are a problem for you, acknowledge that the way you've been doing it isn't working out, and then go find out how to fix it.
We are all one question, one conversation, one rejection of our ego away from the solution to our problem.
"Oh, you know the fellow's name as well as I do!...Lupin, that's it!: Arsène Lupin!"
- from The Golden Triangle
Well, dear reader, I hope you have now been encouraged to approach your problems with more confidence or, at the very least, borrow a Leblanc work from your local library. I invite you to wander as I have through the enticing world of Arsène Lupin for a true literary mystery experience.
Need somewhere to start? Check out my review of The Eight Strokes of the Clock, my personal favorite book of Leblanc’s.
I wish you a delightful problem-solving and/or reading experience!
Thalia can talk about detective fiction all day; murder mysteries truly are the key to her heart these days.
