Discussion Post: A Study in Scarlet
Sep. 2nd, 2012 12:21 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60Welcome, readers! Let's talk about A Study in Scarlet, a legend in literature and culture in general. As always, I've written up a few of my random thoughts and questions, which are behind the cut. Please add your own in the comments!
- Holmes and Watson meet, and a storied partnership begins. It begins the instant they meet, in fact. Watson certainly needs a friend, a home, a place to belong after his long death-defying battle with injury and illness. He finds all of that in Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes. For his part, Holmes seems almost to have been waiting for him. A man who regards nearly everyone with mild to utter disdain takes to Watson immediately, agreeing to share rooms with him on the spot. Any thoughts on that? Holmes was in the flush of a great discovery at that moment -- do you think their meeting would have gone differently if his experiment had failed?
- The novels sometimes send us on long voyages away from the familiar climes of London to far-off places of desperation like the Country of the Saints. The middle section of STUD is blackly beautiful in a way, as harsh and unforgiving as the barren land it describes.
- What would have happened if Jefferson Hope hadn't been conveniently hours from death from an aortic aneurysm? Do you think he could have been deliberately trying to set it off (or hurry it) during that futile attempted jump through the window glass?
- There's no Granada version of A Study in Scarlet, depriving us of that imagining of the meeting of Holmes and Watson. There's no version of their last case together (His Last Bow), either. I prefer it that way -- there is no beginning and no end to their friendship. It is eternal, or better said, always 1895.
Join us next week for The Speckled Band in canon and Granada!
- Holmes and Watson meet, and a storied partnership begins. It begins the instant they meet, in fact. Watson certainly needs a friend, a home, a place to belong after his long death-defying battle with injury and illness. He finds all of that in Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes. For his part, Holmes seems almost to have been waiting for him. A man who regards nearly everyone with mild to utter disdain takes to Watson immediately, agreeing to share rooms with him on the spot. Any thoughts on that? Holmes was in the flush of a great discovery at that moment -- do you think their meeting would have gone differently if his experiment had failed?
- The novels sometimes send us on long voyages away from the familiar climes of London to far-off places of desperation like the Country of the Saints. The middle section of STUD is blackly beautiful in a way, as harsh and unforgiving as the barren land it describes.
- What would have happened if Jefferson Hope hadn't been conveniently hours from death from an aortic aneurysm? Do you think he could have been deliberately trying to set it off (or hurry it) during that futile attempted jump through the window glass?
- There's no Granada version of A Study in Scarlet, depriving us of that imagining of the meeting of Holmes and Watson. There's no version of their last case together (His Last Bow), either. I prefer it that way -- there is no beginning and no end to their friendship. It is eternal, or better said, always 1895.
Join us next week for The Speckled Band in canon and Granada!
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 07:44 am (UTC)Mostly, I'm curious - what do we know about how the Mormons were viewed in Britain at the time of STUD's publishing? Were they even known at all? Or was ACD really the first to bring them up in a public forum? Because certainly, his portrayal of the religion isn't a very positive one.
I should probably note that I am NOT Mormon. I grew up in southern Arizona and so have known Mormons all my life and still have good friends who are Mormon. I've got no problem with the religion in the least. I really don't want to start wankage or a debate on the merits or otherwise of the religion itself; I'm just curious about how it was perceived at the time. Mods, if you think this vein is inappropriate, please feel free to delete!
no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 02:18 pm (UTC)Perhaps it was the Mountain Meadows?
Date: 2012-09-03 03:49 am (UTC)The even though the massacre took place in 1857, but investigations were interrupted when the Civil War broke out, so an actual trial had to wait until 1875. All the settlers on the little wagon train were killed, with the exception of some children under the age of 8.
Some links...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre
http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/mormons.html
http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mountainmeadows/leetrial.html
There were several articles on the trial during the late 1870s. There was even a book published about 1910.
So I would assume it was something 'familiar' to British readers at the time, and idea of evil Mormons wouldn't have been far fetched.
(Maybe it's like reading Sax Rohmer? First time I read one of his Fu Manchu novels, it really seemed pretty unrealistic and racist. But I'm sure the idea of "The Yellow Peril" was familiar to readers at that time, and they probably didn't see it as slightly racist.)
no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 07:45 am (UTC)I love the beginning in this book. The descriptions of Holmes and Watson. How Watson takes on Holmes as his mystery. His descriptions of this strange, eccentric, yet intriguing enigma.
It is interesting to see that apparently Holmes was 'delighted' with the prospect of sharing rooms with Watson immediately. What did he see in Watson? Why did he list off his faults so quickly up front: tobacco, chemical experiments, sulky moods, and a violin? Had he other experiences with roommates like at the University?
no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 09:22 am (UTC)Apart from the financial issues Holmes might have had, and the happiness about finding a flatmate that quickly and without problem, he'll know what loneliness is, and the difficulties he has in finding steady company. Being alone among the masses is a common tragedy students face. At first you just long for privacy, then you move into your own rooms, and boom, there it is. Too much of it. So, what to do? Business is slow, women are not part of his mind, and the few people he's on closer terms with all have other places to stay. He's probably very happy that someone considers moving in with him, he's excited about new rooms, new stories, and the new companion most of all. How can a soldier, wounded in action, a learned doctor, someone who's seen the world, a hero, be that kind? That flexible, understanding? That willing to move in with him, accepting those whims given? I think Watson is a present to Holmes which he deliciously starts to unwrap, and what he finds fits his requirements quite exactly, though there was a risk of biting into a rather bad apple.
My ability to concentrate just jumped out the window, so I'll just stop the rambles here. ^^"
no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 10:01 pm (UTC)I think Hope would have fled the country and not stayed in London at all had he not been so close to death. But I'm not sure why I think that.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Date: 2012-09-03 02:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-03 03:54 am (UTC)a) Something (an experiment gone wrong, perhaps) has caused the rooms in Montague street to be less than ideal for living in and Holmes has been kicked out of his flat and is spending all his time at the labs for a roof over his head as well as a distraction. He needs to get into other rooms fast before he is found out.
b) We don't know how long Holmes he has had his eye on the Baker Street suite, nor how many others he may have considered to be potential flatmates, before bemoaning his luck to Stamford. He may well have been running out of time to seal the deal getting the rooms and desperate to find another with whom to split the rent at least until his business picked up. We know that he sums up Watson quite neatly very quickly- a medical and military man, used to chemicals and shared spaces, will suit him nicely. I mean, he even manages to behave extremely well for the first few months!
c) Slash goggles firmly affixed, now: Holmes just plain thought Watson was pretty, all tanned and skinny.(on second thought.... no, not really.)
2. Doyle got carried away on his sub-plots at times, I think, in an effort (as was said before) to add in some exoticism and romantic adventure here. America! Ecaped Convicts! Love Triangles! The Moor! Glowing Demonic Doggies- erm, Hounds-!! Or he got paid by the word, I am not certain. These locales might have appealed especially to his audience who may rarely get outside of London at the time.
3. I think that Jefferson Hope began his to bring hs Lucy to justice the moment he knew he was a doomed man by his anyurism. I suspect he knew he had not long to live no matter what. Was the attempt to Jump through the glass to escape his captors or hurry along inevitable death? I think he meant to flee and in his panic fogot his heart condition.
4. I really like your thoughts on this. Hurray for it always 1895, let the fog roll in!
no subject
Date: 2012-09-03 03:55 am (UTC)Do you suppose that Doyle could have chosen Mormons due to the Mountain Meadows Massacre? (If you don't know about it go google it.) The massacre happened in 1857 but an actual trial didn't occur until the late 1870s. (That pesky Civil War thingy sort of interrupted the investigations.)
A book was written about it in 1910, and there were articles written about before then. So I'm assuming it would have been something that British readers would have heard about, thus why Doyle chose to make the bad guys Mormons.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-03 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-03 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-03 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-15 04:47 pm (UTC)