The Second Stain: Trivial, G

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

The Adventure of the Second Stain

Title Trivial

Author tweedisgood

Rating G



It is poorly disguised, that tale. Four friends have already asked me if I am Lady Hilda. My husband angrily demands “the truth”.

Trivial? Mr Holmes, if women's conduct still appears so to you, consider this. For what faults - that in men are excused as not worth serious attention - are we even now, summarily judged and condemned?

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

"Lady Hilda" may well have a point. Unfortunately she sounds as if she hasn't learnt from the events either.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Depends what you think she was supposed to have learned...personally I think Watson was far too concerned about the political ramifications and not nearly enough about the personal ones.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that one rule for the men and one for the women is wrong, but at the same time would her problem have justified a war?

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

OTOH she didn't know that,she knew nothing of the significance of the letter beyond that some guy wanted it. Not until Holmes sort-of confirmed it.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, if she had given it some thought, she could have realised that she was giving away something important. Although this could be taken as ACD's low opinion of women.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure he had a low opinion of them (I'm reading his letters atm), but some fairly standard-for-the-time expectations of their understanding of public affairs and some stereotyped notions of their priorities. But then we come back to "how much is them and how much is the role society pressured them to play?"

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

As in "women should only talk about flowers and fluffy kittens".

It's true that society pressured women into a role, but there were women who would soon be ready to speak out, and in this case I get the impression that Lady Hilda is more concerned about her position in society than anything else.

I think my difficulty comes in discussing the views of a fictitional character at the same time as the opinions of their author.

Sunday, 15 April 2012

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User thisprettywren referenced to your post from Sunday, 15 April 2012 (http://holmesian-news.livejournal.com/201531.html) saying: [...] by (Holmes, Watson | G | ACD) Trivial [...]

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Righteous anger from "Lady Hilda". She did as he asked and he hid her... only to reveal her through Watson years later. Ouch.

[wild-huntress.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like this sort of deconstruction of the way Watson and Holmes supposedly keep people's secrets... but not necessarily that well, given that whole publishing them in the Strand thing. Kudos!

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they pretty much fail at client confidentiality.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Quite. There are only so many cabinet ministers and their wives over a given period. Glad you liked.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

No, Doyle was a bit better than that, he encouraged his sisters to become professional teachers and appreciated brains in a woman. At the same time, as you say, we can't always assume authorial voice is the same as character voice.