Canon Discussion Post: The Creeping Man

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Welcome back, everyone! Let's have some canon Sherlock Holmes discussion, shall we? What did you all think of The Creeping Man? As always, I've written up a few of my own random thoughts and questions, which are behind the jump. Please add your own in the comments!

Discussion about the Granada TV adaptation of this story is available in this week's Granada discussion post.


- It's the end of the line for Holmes' career and similarly, we're nearing the end of our second run through the canon. We have two stories left, The Lion's Mane, set firmly in retirement, and His Last Bow, Holmes and Watson's last hurrah. When we wrap those up, we'll be wrapping up sherlock60 too. After more than a hundred and twenty weeks of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic Sherlock Holmes canon stories and the multitudes of minature 60 word fics inspired by them, this comm will be coming to a close. All the great work will stay up, however, as one of the most amazing collections of Holmesian fic available anywhere. I'll be posting a separate closing post soon with more details, but for now, I just want to thank you all for coming along with us on this crazy little adventure, and for keeping Sherlock Holmes canon readership and fic writing alive!

- So it's finally time for retirement. We don't get many details of how and why Holmes stops with the detective game, but we can take some guesses. For instance, he's frequently and increasingly chastised himself for being slow to put the clues together on cases, and we get some of that here. Although, how he was supposed to have figured out earlier that the real problem was monkey serum is beyond me.

- This case may be but one of Holmes' last, but I don't think Watson had another with him until retirement after this one. It's a rough one for our good doctor. He is shamefully mistreated. At this point in their partnership, Watson feels he is considered more a tool, an object, a habit to Holmes rather than a partner or even a friend. After an extended absence from Baker Street to be with his wife and his busy practice, he is called back even "if inconvenient" to his old rooms and his old chair to find Holmes as neglectful and thoughtless as ever, if not more so. Watson is ignored for the most part, and when he does get to offer any opinions, he is either ridiculed for them or condescended to about them. After Presbury gets mauled and is saved through the doctor's quick work and battlefield skills, Watson's surgical recommendations are summarily overruled too. He doesn't seem to know why he's there with Holmes anymore. He's not getting much if anything out of it, and Holmes isn't really taking anything out of it either, not on a working level at least. And so, with a whimper, one of the greatest professional partnerships in literature comes to a close. I found their ending to be very sad. Watson deserves better than Holmes in many ways.

- This is as close to science fiction as canon Sherlock Holmes stories ever get. What do you think of Holmes investigating the borders of the fantastic or supernatural? He is a realist, as are many of his readers, I suspect. Speaking personally, I find love a realist forced to expand his idea of what reality is. But at the same time, there's something just as undeniably grand that comes about when Holmes gets to disprove the paranormal as well. Skirting these lines in either direction really appeals to me, even if this particular case does not.

Comment away, and join us starting next Sunday for The Lion's Mane!

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I missed out on all the stories that alphabetically come before CREE first time round, and I'd quite like to have a full set, so if you want some company for those you haven't done, let me know.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

So we'd have our own mutual mini-schedule and post to our own individual journals..? Sounds like a good idea ^^ I'd like that.

I was just looking at tweedisgood's list of stories on AO3 because I wasn't sure if you'd gone alphabetically by actual title or by abbreviation ^^" Anyway, I make it 10 before CREE - 5 out of those I haven't written yet. (I started going in the order in which the stories appear in my battered "Complete Adventures" paperback, before I switched to the Baring-Gould order ^^") I've written 30 in total (almost 31 - started on the Valley of Fear this morning ^^) Perhaps if you make a list of the ones you definitely haven't done, I can then write the same one with you some weeks, and the other weeks I can either post the story I've already done or have a crack at one I haven't done yet but you have. (There must be a clearer way of putting it... ^^")

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

You're quite right, there are 10 I'm missing - if you work through the canon:storyname tags above you can see which ones I've not done.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Mine are all from the first time round, when we went alphabetically by full title, rather than chronologically(insofar as that can be pinpointed) as this time, and are a full set (as I backtracked after starting a few weeks in so I could do all of them).

I'd look forward to seeing you and thesmallhobbit 'collect' them all too :-)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for making it absolutely clear ^^ (I'd been a bit confused as to where the "three" ones came: at the beginning under "3" or towards the end under "three" ^^")

I'm determined to finish the full 60 now ^^ It's a shame the community is closing but I'm so pleased to have been a part of it, however briefly. I'd been hesitating, and putting off joining - I would have kicked myself if I'd missed out on taking part altogether ^_^

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

It has been a delight to have you along! And sherlock60 isn't over, if you don't want it to be. Keep going and we'll all keep reading. You could do discussions too, if you want. Prompts or such. Maybe thesmallhobbit would be interested also?

No matter what happens, I can't wait to read the rest of your 60s.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for thesmallhobbit but I would love for the community to continue on an informal basis; it would be marvellous to still be able to post my ficlets here. I have already arranged a mini-schedule with thesmallhobbit: after LAST we will spend the next 10 Sundays going from ABBE to COPP. That covers the 10 stories my colleague is missing - after that I will be flying solo ^^ The remaining stories won't be in any particular order - it'll just be a case of me filling in whatever I'm missing. (And perhaps I can also post the stories I wrote before I joined. I'll stagger them, naturally ^^")

I wouldn't mind having a crack at the occasional discussion post too - I don't know as much about Holmes as you and some of your members, but it would be the perfect opportunity for me to do a bit more digging, and you do know how I like my long comments ^_^

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I'm quite happy to continue posting here. And if anyone else wanted to do some catching up too ...

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It would be nice if other people joined in too ^^ It'll be fine with the two of us, but I think I might eventually become a little self-conscious if it was just me carrying on.

(Btw, hope you didn't get multiple "pings". The system kept declaring my comment had been marked as spam ^^")

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I imagine I could probably be persuaded to continue to contribute on occasions if you twisted my arm. I'd hate to think you were too self-conscious to post.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I may have perhaps made myself seem more of a delicate flower than I really am ^^ But I would love to have (occasional) company as I finish my collection - after all, the point of joining the community was to have contact with other writers ^_^

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

This is awesome, you guys! I am thrilled that you're going to keep going with these! That is utterly fantastic. I can't wait to read them all.