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sherlock60Hi all! The Speckled Band is one of my personal favorites of the canon stories, even with all its problematic bits surrounding 'the murder weapon,' so I'm doubly thrilled to be here hosting the conversation. As announced, I'm pinch-hitting for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spacemutineer this week, but she's hardly left me anything to do. :-) She's come up with all sorts of lovely thoughts and questions to help us kickstart the conversation. Take it away, mod-in-absentia!
- This is a great story with a rich, spooky atmosphere. Stoke Moran is a scary place, with
cheetahs, baboons, snakes, and a creature more dangerous and sinister than even those,
Grimesby Roylott. Roylott is some piece of work, isn't he? He's a murderer multiple times over
and beyond that, there seems to be something quite disturbing going on with his relationship to
his stepdaughters. Is grabbing her wrist tightly enough to leave distinct fingerprints all he did to
poor Helen? I suspect there were other... acts of violence in that household.
- The creepy atmosphere does its magic on Holmes as well as the reader. Very rarely does
he seem honestly terrified, but waiting in the dark for Roylott's deadly adder does the trick. At
least Watson is there with some moral support (and ballistic backup). Speaking of Watson's
gun, I love that all Holmes says they need for the night are Watson's revolver and a toothbrush.
Adorable.
- Holmes' sitting room standoff with a raging Grimesby Roylott is one for the ages. Facing a
violent psychopath wielding a hunting crop, Sherlock Holmes is a smirking, dismissive smartass.
That is perfection. Did anyone else try to bend a fireplace poker with their bare hands after
reading this section like I did?
- For all its intrinsic awesomeness, SPEC poses some problems in the logic department.
Snakes cannot climb up and down a rope, they can't really be trained, and snake bites are
very obvious wounds with gradual effects. Julia Stoner would have had visible fang marks on
her body, swollen and red at the very least. Regardless of the type of snake, neither she nor
Roylott could have died so quickly from a bite as well. Roylott dies within ten seconds! That's
some ludicrously fast acting poison. Is this an exaggeration on Watson's part or something
else?
...and adding on my own observation here, Roylott couldn't have summoned the snake with a whistle, as I understand that they can't hear such sounds. ;-) Alas, Doyle had no Internet for research purposes! It's fun to speculate what the real 'murder weapon' could have been though.
So: what are your thoughts? Please share! And don't forget: we've got STUD coming up in two weeks, so consider getting a head start on reading if you can!
spacemutineer this week, but she's hardly left me anything to do. :-) She's come up with all sorts of lovely thoughts and questions to help us kickstart the conversation. Take it away, mod-in-absentia!- This is a great story with a rich, spooky atmosphere. Stoke Moran is a scary place, with
cheetahs, baboons, snakes, and a creature more dangerous and sinister than even those,
Grimesby Roylott. Roylott is some piece of work, isn't he? He's a murderer multiple times over
and beyond that, there seems to be something quite disturbing going on with his relationship to
his stepdaughters. Is grabbing her wrist tightly enough to leave distinct fingerprints all he did to
poor Helen? I suspect there were other... acts of violence in that household.
- The creepy atmosphere does its magic on Holmes as well as the reader. Very rarely does
he seem honestly terrified, but waiting in the dark for Roylott's deadly adder does the trick. At
least Watson is there with some moral support (and ballistic backup). Speaking of Watson's
gun, I love that all Holmes says they need for the night are Watson's revolver and a toothbrush.
Adorable.
- Holmes' sitting room standoff with a raging Grimesby Roylott is one for the ages. Facing a
violent psychopath wielding a hunting crop, Sherlock Holmes is a smirking, dismissive smartass.
That is perfection. Did anyone else try to bend a fireplace poker with their bare hands after
reading this section like I did?
- For all its intrinsic awesomeness, SPEC poses some problems in the logic department.
Snakes cannot climb up and down a rope, they can't really be trained, and snake bites are
very obvious wounds with gradual effects. Julia Stoner would have had visible fang marks on
her body, swollen and red at the very least. Regardless of the type of snake, neither she nor
Roylott could have died so quickly from a bite as well. Roylott dies within ten seconds! That's
some ludicrously fast acting poison. Is this an exaggeration on Watson's part or something
else?
...and adding on my own observation here, Roylott couldn't have summoned the snake with a whistle, as I understand that they can't hear such sounds. ;-) Alas, Doyle had no Internet for research purposes! It's fun to speculate what the real 'murder weapon' could have been though.
So: what are your thoughts? Please share! And don't forget: we've got STUD coming up in two weeks, so consider getting a head start on reading if you can!
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 07:53 am (UTC)The toothbrush thing makes me sincerely glad that they didn't have gentleman pyjama parties back then... or did they? =P
no subject
Date: 2012-05-22 03:12 am (UTC)You kickbox? That's so cool!
no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 08:38 am (UTC)- but i also think it is a clue... Watson is making the whole thing up! Hence the lack of research - or at the least he is exaggerating beyond even his melodramatic yellow-backed norm; i'm betting Julia's last words were "It was a f-@k%-g snake!!"
no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 02:55 pm (UTC)Oh, and another thing that really makes me smile in this story: Victorian slang. I read this recently online somewhere...
Back in Victorian Britain, especially in northern industrial towns, a man was employed to go to people's houses and wake them up by knocking on their bedroom window. If you were so wakened, you were 'knocked up'.
Despite that, I can't help thinking whenever I read the line "'Very sorry to knock you up, Watson...'" that Holmes is apologizing for getting his loyal Boswell pregnant!
no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 03:54 pm (UTC)LOL!!
and hopefully someone will spin the tale as you suggest it.
as for the knocker upper - it's true, and there is an excellent description to be found in the writings of Ada Nield-Chew:
who was herself a very interesting personality.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ada-Nield-Chew-Writings-Working/dp/0860682943
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Nield_Chew
no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-22 03:19 am (UTC)I also love the Victorian turns of phrase and slang that are in these stories. It's lovely!
no subject
Date: 2012-05-22 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-23 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-23 08:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-22 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-22 05:09 am (UTC)then again - perhaps it fell into the hands of some unscrupulous dealer in monkey glands to creeping men, LOL! rough times to be a primate!
as for what became of the cheetah - a case left behind in Watson's tin box perhaps.
well, any way, the Speckled Band (despite some lovely moments) has much to answer for - not the least of which is Adrian Conan-Doyle's Deptford Parrot Horror.
Still, the play is a melodramatic hoot.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-23 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-22 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-23 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-23 08:11 am (UTC)Anyway - the play is definitely worth a read, Doyle knocked it off in about 2 weeks! It had an interesting run at the time.
:)
no subject
Date: 2012-05-23 06:26 pm (UTC).
.
.
Oh my.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-23 07:38 pm (UTC)well... quite so.
it's interesting to compare Doyle's own Speckled Melodrama with the hybrid Holmes play c/o William Gillette...