The Speckled Band: A Night at the (Light) Opera

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Speckled Band
Title: A Night at the (Light) Opera
Author: scfrankles
Rating: G
Author's Notes: “...he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, the young widow of Major-General Stoner…”
And father is a Major-General! (Author currently making her way through a Pirates of Penzance obsession.)


“It’s ridiculous!”

Holmes stared aghast at the stage.

“This Frederic’s birthday is apparently in February, but there are girls paddling on a beach! ‘Hardy little lasses’? There’s hardy and there’s dying from exposure.”

“I really don’t think the date is that important,” muttered Watson.

Holmes gave him a hard look.

“Gilbert and Sullivan have been a terrible influence on you.”

Comments

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Great work from both Holmes and frankles. In addition, thank you for pointing out how likely Watson loved G&S.

Watson's subsequent defense of the Cornish climate, of course, is why they holidayed in Mounts Bay, (and paddled?)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^_^ I'm definitely not the first to go with the "Holmes hates G&S/Watson loves G&S" divide though ^_^

I'm guessing as a young man Holmes wouldn't have wanted to go to Mounts Bay. But as a more mature man he might have enjoyed a bit of seaside and paddling ^^

[debriswoman]

Yep...I can see there being a difference of opinion over light opera:-)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Holmes is not one for "pop" music ^^

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Why let something as insignificant as the date spoil a good story?

[debriswoman]

He'd comment on the hairstyles, the attitudes of the young...

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Watson's thoughts exactly! ^_^

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yeah it must be murder to go to any kind of theatrical show with Holmes. If there's not an unconvincing dead body, it's an illogical plot. I bet Watson's always going "Shhh! It's just a story!"

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

The Date-Continuity Mystery solved!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I'm with Small Hobbit: Why let something as insignificant as the date spoil a good story? ^__^

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can really see that ^^"

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I loved this.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad ^_^

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

This Frederic’s birthday is apparently in February, but there are girls paddling on a beach! ‘Hardy little lasses’? There’s hardy and there’s dying from exposure.

I cannot believe that this has never occurred to me before!! Perhaps the pirates won their hearts by pouring them some pirate sherry before hypothermia set in?!

Love it, of course. And in the realm of music I naturally share Watson's taste :)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the pirates won their hearts by pouring them some pirate sherry before hypothermia set in?! ^___^

A paradox indeed ^_^ I think I must have seen this discrepancy in the time of year pointed out somewhere in the past - though I haven't the foggiest where now. It has to be said that W.S. Gilbert deals with it very neatly though - by the time Frederic's birthday is mentioned, it's night and we're inside, in a chapel. The fact we've seen young ladies playing in the sunshine has floated away, and we blithely accept the earlier season. (And in the film we go from the sisters fanning themselves in the heat to singing daffodils ^^)

I'm always with Watson too. And I think Holmes does secretly like G&S - he just hates himself for it ^_^

[sanguinity]

Heh, he just really doesn't have the module to let an inconsistent detail slide, does he? (Whereas I suck at reading mystery stories for the flip reason: I instantly chalk every inconsistency up to yet another Doylistic error, and only later realize that I was supposed to consider some arbitrary subset of those errors 'real.') Sadly, there's not much one can do with those misplaced details, short of writing an explanatory fix-it: perhaps Holmes should take up writing fanfic!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of Holmes writing Pirates fanfiction out of sheer frustration ^_^

And I have to say I am probably the perfect reader for any kind of mystery - I generally just don't see the inconsistencies at all. But I don't really want to - I love being fooled by a well-written story ^^