Discussion Post: The Adventure of the Dying Detective

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Hello again! Time for some discussion about The Adventure of the Dying Detective! What did you think? Here are a few questions and thoughts to get you started -- add your own!

- How do you think Holmes got involved in the death of Victor Savage? Is it a formal case or a casual inquiry?

- "...if you love me!" -- Obviously he does, because he puts up with schemes like this one. We don't get to hear what Watson has to say to Holmes after this incident, but Watson has every right to be furious. Holmes frightens poor Mrs. Hudson into retrieving him, then Watson is forced to stand by and do nothing but watch Holmes grow weaker and sicker for two hours. And after everything he does, Holmes still forgets all about him hiding behind the bed at the end. Ouch. How does Watson forgive this? How does Mrs. Hudson forgive it? Does Holmes understand what he is doing here at all?

- DYIN is another story where it is easy to wonder if Watson is not always a reliable narrator. As he presents them here, the sequence of events seems highly unlikely, given what we know about Doctor Watson’s medical competence and his loyalty.

A conflict between what Watson says and what he does lingers. He tells Holmes very firmly, "If you think that I am going to stand here and see you die without either helping you myself or bringing anyone else to help you, then you have mistaken your man." But then he does just that, waiting around doing nothing for two hours. If Watson believes Holmes' scheme, really believes this man, his friend, is dying, why would he wait? Especially if he thinks Holmes may be delirious.

A couple caveats here. First, yes, he is respecting Holmes and his wishes to do as he asks, all very Victorian indeed, but Watson says himself that "a sick man is but a child". Does it make sense to bend to a child's arbitrary whims? This is a matter of life or death. Second, yes, the disease is said to be transmitted by touch. But clearly only through direct touch, because they both handle the key with no concerns. Couldn't Watson just put his leather gloves on? Third, yes, this means he would have to take the key by some amount of force, an outcome which Holmes is very sure Watson won't do. Should he be that sure, though? That might be Watson's predictable behavior under normal circumstances, but these are hardly normal circumstances.

The Adventure of the Dying Detective

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Author: thesmallhobbit
Rating: G
Warnings: none

“Good morning, Mrs Hudson, I understand Holmes is ill.”

“Yes, Dr Watson. He says he’s got some funny foreign illness from the east, but it’s not even influenza. He has a bad cold. I have taken him a supply of handkerchiefs and some hot lemon and honey.”

“Is there anything else that he needs?”

“I’m his landlady not his nurse.”

The Adventure of the Dying Detective: Collapse

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Title: Collapse
Author: spacemutineer
Rating: G

One may spend a week concocting a plan, three days enacting it, and still it can collapse in a second. Belladonna's sting remains fresh in my eyes when Mrs. Hudson checks in. Her worry dissolves into panic and all my careful timing dissolves with it.

Watson is now on his way here as planned. But two full hours too early.

---

Author's Note: This two hours wait thing in DYIN is a real sticking point. It makes absolutely no sense to me as written. Why does Holmes play his game this way with so many additional risks of discovery of his deception by the doctor and the risk of Watson opening the box (which he nearly does)? Why does Watson go along with all of it despite calling it "insanity"? It's all ridiculous, so I just had to try to find an explanation for it, hence this 60. It latched onto my mind so strongly that I'm also working on a full fic retool of DYIN with this idea as its basis.

The Dying Detective: Trumpery

[hardboiledbaby]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Title: Trumpery
Author: hardboiledbaby
Rating: PG
Warnings: none

---

"You won't be offended, Watson?"

In truth, I knew not what to think. Relief that Holmes was not dying was foremost, but the deception he had perpetrated wounded deeply. Perhaps it had been necessary that I met Smith while still unaware, but afterward? Surely not.

Holmes counted on my love to trump my medical judgment. Lord help me, it did.

The Adventure of the Dying Detective: Hindsight

[methylviolet10b]

Author: methylviolet10b
Rating: PG
Character(s): Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson
Summary: The case was a success, but his handling of it was a near-disastrous failure. 
Warnings:  Some spoilers for The Adventure of the Dying Detective, so if you haven't read that, you might not want to read this.
Word Count: 60
Author's Notes:  60 words of my own inspired by one of the canon stories. And this week, I also managed a bonus drabble (not a 60): Knowledge.
Disclaimer: I don't own them.

DYIN -- The Adventure of the Dying Detective

Although blessed with imagination, Holmes was not particularly given to nightmares. However, seeing that infernal box in Watson’s unprotected palm – those skillful, caring fingers so hideously close to death – he woke, gasping and sweating, several nights running.

The case was a success, but Holmes retroactively considered his actions a near-disastrous failure, saved only by chance and Watson’s unbelievably generous forgiveness.

The Adventure of the Dying Detective: Monograph, G

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

The Adventure of the Dying Detective

Title: Monograph

Author: tweedisgood

Rated: G. Somebody's a bit cross.

“When you write your doubtless definitive monograph on Malingering, Holmes, you might make it part of a series.”

“Oh, yes?”

“In my mediocre literary experience, a unifying theme attracts a loyal audience. May I suggest Mendacity, Callousness and Egotism make up the quartet of arts in which you are an expert?”

“Ah. Perhaps next Friday for dinner at Simpson’s, then?”

The Dying Detective: Thoughts from an unpublished account of Dr. Watson

[wild-huntress.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Dying Detective
Title: Thoughts from an unpublished account of Dr. Watson
Author: wild_huntress (and soon to be reposted in my Holmes-fandom-specific journal, always_1895, provided that's OK by community rules).
Rating: G
Author’s notes: 1) I am going to take this story as an(other) example of Holmes putting his work way before common sense, and assume that the general unhealthiness of this plan actually did start affecting his thinking by its final stage. Watson, in his account, presumably tried to tidy it up and make Holmes seem more glorious, but could only do so much. 2) As has been suggested*, a remainder may be more likely than a reversion here. Perhaps Watson (and/or Holmes) put the reversion back into his account as an inside joke?

( Unpublished thoughts )

The Dying Detective: Come to My Senses

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Dying Detective
Title: Come to My Senses
Author: rabidsamfan
Rating: G



For two hours I waited, trying to reconcile my medical instincts with my hesitation. It was not until I returned from my errand to Culverton Smith that I realized what had been bothering me. For all that Holmes looked terribly ill, the room did not smell like a sickroom. It was a sham. And I was not the intended target.




Author's Notes: I've always wondered why Watson didn't override Holmes, too, and think it must be because he had conflicting data to contend with.

The Adventure of the Dying Detective: Third Time

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Title: Third Time
Author: Castiron
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: Using the chronology that puts DYIN post-Reichenbach. If anyone's reading who could be spoiled for FINA/EMPT, spoilers.



Twice I have thought that I would lose him to death. First by a criminal mastermind at Reichenbach; and now by a heinous poisoner.

I pray that I shall not see the third time. But if I do, I will not believe him dead until I have performed the autopsy myself, until I hold his cold heart in my hands.