Canon Discussion Post: The Naval Treaty
Feb. 16th, 2013 11:58 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60Welcome back! Let's have some Sherlock Holmes canon discussion, shall we? What did you all think of The Naval Treaty? As always, I've written up a few of my own random thoughts and questions, which are behind the jump. Add your own in the comments!
Discussion about the Granada adaptation of The Naval Treaty is available in this week's Granada discussion post.
- Sherlock Holmes is fabulous in The Naval Treaty. At the beginning, he's a brilliant scientist who determines murder by distillation and litmus test. At the end, he's a able fighter who bests a knife-wielding villain, beating him into half-blind submission despite being wounded in the fight. In between, he's a philosopher, who picks up a rose and is inspired to pontification on religion, goodness, and the nature of existence. Meanwhile, he gets in a bit of detective work for good measure too, handily solving a case involving the destiny of nations.
- So about that rose-induced philosophical digression... Where on earth did that come from? Even Watson is perplexed by it. It's a very strange monologue with something vague about how religion can be reasoned into an exact science and a questionable argument about flowers proving the existence of Providence. It's all extremely odd. What brought it about, do you think? I'm guessing cocaine.
- "It seemed rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit him over the shins with a wicket." Watson confesses he was a bully as a child, to Tadpole Phelps, at least. It's a surprising revelation, given the fair and compassionate Watson we know as an adult. Did he just grow out of it, moving past a mean phase of childhood with the passage of time? Or did something happen in his life to change his behavior?
- Holmes lets a would-be traitor and murderer go at the end of this case. Would/should there be repercussions for that? What about Harrison himself? What happened to him after his presumed flight from Briarbrae and justice? He has good reason to want vengeance on Phelps and Holmes for ruining his fortune and his life. Do you think either of them ever saw him again? Or did he spend the rest of his life on the run, never able to return home?
- You may be wondering about the mention of The Second Stain here. Why does Watson mention it as occurring before this, but we haven't read it yet? We're following Baring-Gould's chronology, and this is another one of its prominent quirks. The theory goes that there are no less than three cases titled The Second Stain. B-G lists them as 1) the recorded adventure; 2) the "failure" mentioned in The Yellow Face; and 3) the case mentioned here, which took place in the July following his marriage to Mary Morstan.
Any chronology of Sherlock Holmes is unfortunately bound to have discrepancies and dubious explanations. We're following William S. Baring-Gould's chronology here, but not necessarily his logic. Six paired stains being the centerpieces of three separate cases seems a tad unlikely, to be generous. If you favor another explanation, by all means, please tell us -- here or in a 60!
Comment away and join us next week for The Cardboard Box!
Discussion about the Granada adaptation of The Naval Treaty is available in this week's Granada discussion post.
- Sherlock Holmes is fabulous in The Naval Treaty. At the beginning, he's a brilliant scientist who determines murder by distillation and litmus test. At the end, he's a able fighter who bests a knife-wielding villain, beating him into half-blind submission despite being wounded in the fight. In between, he's a philosopher, who picks up a rose and is inspired to pontification on religion, goodness, and the nature of existence. Meanwhile, he gets in a bit of detective work for good measure too, handily solving a case involving the destiny of nations.
- So about that rose-induced philosophical digression... Where on earth did that come from? Even Watson is perplexed by it. It's a very strange monologue with something vague about how religion can be reasoned into an exact science and a questionable argument about flowers proving the existence of Providence. It's all extremely odd. What brought it about, do you think? I'm guessing cocaine.
- "It seemed rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit him over the shins with a wicket." Watson confesses he was a bully as a child, to Tadpole Phelps, at least. It's a surprising revelation, given the fair and compassionate Watson we know as an adult. Did he just grow out of it, moving past a mean phase of childhood with the passage of time? Or did something happen in his life to change his behavior?
- Holmes lets a would-be traitor and murderer go at the end of this case. Would/should there be repercussions for that? What about Harrison himself? What happened to him after his presumed flight from Briarbrae and justice? He has good reason to want vengeance on Phelps and Holmes for ruining his fortune and his life. Do you think either of them ever saw him again? Or did he spend the rest of his life on the run, never able to return home?
- You may be wondering about the mention of The Second Stain here. Why does Watson mention it as occurring before this, but we haven't read it yet? We're following Baring-Gould's chronology, and this is another one of its prominent quirks. The theory goes that there are no less than three cases titled The Second Stain. B-G lists them as 1) the recorded adventure; 2) the "failure" mentioned in The Yellow Face; and 3) the case mentioned here, which took place in the July following his marriage to Mary Morstan.
Any chronology of Sherlock Holmes is unfortunately bound to have discrepancies and dubious explanations. We're following William S. Baring-Gould's chronology here, but not necessarily his logic. Six paired stains being the centerpieces of three separate cases seems a tad unlikely, to be generous. If you favor another explanation, by all means, please tell us -- here or in a 60!
Comment away and join us next week for The Cardboard Box!
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Date: 2013-02-17 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-17 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-17 06:56 pm (UTC)I too found Holmes letting Harrison go strange, and not least because he'd basically promised the Yard inspector his assistance in gaining credit for the case. I have to think that there was more going on behind the scenes there - and that while Harrison might escape official justice, he's about to meet a very sticky - and permanent - end, courtesy of the agents of the Foreign Office, or even less official channels.
Great questions, as usual!
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Date: 2013-02-18 02:10 am (UTC)