Discussion Post: The Five Orange Pips
Oct. 30th, 2011 12:47 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60Hello, again! This week, we have The Five Orange Pips: a case gone wrong, and we are left with a pile of unanswered questions. As always, here are a few questions and thoughts to get you started. Please add your own!
- Do you find it interesting Holmes makes a point to mention the sex of those who have bested him? Why do you think he did that?
- Holmes loses another client and we have to have a discussion about culpability. I don't think you can absolve Holmes for this one. John Openshaw should never have left 221B once he arrived there. There was every reason to believe the KKK were on their way to get him imminently. He'd already waited too long. But Holmes sends him out into the storm, alone but "armed" (as if that means something to these people), saying he'll look into it tomorrow. Holmes allows his client in known imminent mortal danger to walk out of Holmes' own, safe home into the rain and the night and his death. What does that mean for him and to him? Do you think Watson would blame Holmes at all?
- Once the inevitable happened, what did you think of Holmes' reaction to the news? Is this Watson's first time witnessing Holmes lose a client? How analogous is this to Watson losing a patient?
- FIVE is a sad one for an American reader. There are some of the ugliest parts of American history on display here. In my notes, upon seeing the first "K. K. K." reference, I wrote: "Surely not THAT KKK... right?" Oh yes, it's that KKK. *sigh*
- What do you think of it being the Ku Klux Klan? Were you surprised? For a literary criticism question: Would you have preferred Doyle use a fictional gang here instead or do you like the way the KKK's reputation (whenever and wherever the story is read) colors the narrative? Why or why not?
- Do you find it interesting Holmes makes a point to mention the sex of those who have bested him? Why do you think he did that?
- Holmes loses another client and we have to have a discussion about culpability. I don't think you can absolve Holmes for this one. John Openshaw should never have left 221B once he arrived there. There was every reason to believe the KKK were on their way to get him imminently. He'd already waited too long. But Holmes sends him out into the storm, alone but "armed" (as if that means something to these people), saying he'll look into it tomorrow. Holmes allows his client in known imminent mortal danger to walk out of Holmes' own, safe home into the rain and the night and his death. What does that mean for him and to him? Do you think Watson would blame Holmes at all?
- Once the inevitable happened, what did you think of Holmes' reaction to the news? Is this Watson's first time witnessing Holmes lose a client? How analogous is this to Watson losing a patient?
- FIVE is a sad one for an American reader. There are some of the ugliest parts of American history on display here. In my notes, upon seeing the first "K. K. K." reference, I wrote: "Surely not THAT KKK... right?" Oh yes, it's that KKK. *sigh*
- What do you think of it being the Ku Klux Klan? Were you surprised? For a literary criticism question: Would you have preferred Doyle use a fictional gang here instead or do you like the way the KKK's reputation (whenever and wherever the story is read) colors the narrative? Why or why not?
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