neadods: (reading)
[personal profile] neadods
What made it doubly interesting is that my Dover Thrift copy of Sign of Four (So4) is bound with Study in Scarlet (SiS) so I could do some immediate comparison of the infamous continuity glitches:

"I was struck in the shoulder by a Jezail bullet" (SiS, p2)
"...sat nursing my wounded leg. I had had a Jezail bullet through it" (So4, p95)

"Sherlock Holmes: his limits. Knowledge of literature, nil. Knowledge of philosophy, nil... Knowledge of politics, feeble." (Sis, p10)
"He spoke on a quick succession of subjects - on miracle plays, on medieval pottery,... on the Buddhism of Ceylon... handling each subject as though he had made a special study of it." (So4, p150)
"Let me recommend this book... Reade's Martyrdom of Man." (So4, p103)
"Goethe is always pithy" (S04, p126)
([livejournal.com profile] redpanda13 has pointed out that the limits list was made very early in Watson's acquaintance with Holmes, and Holmes may have been jerking him around.)

Or Watson could be that unobservant, considering the internal glitches like:
"I never remember feeling tired by work" (So4, p141)
"I could not sleep... This infernal problem is consuming me" (So4, p144)

And not recognizing Holmes in the same seaman's outfit he'd watched Holmes leave the flat wearing

Perhaps this is to be expected of someone who routinely gets flustered and says things like "I told her one moving anecdote as to how a musket looked into my tent... and how I fired a double-barrelled tiger cub at it" and "overheard me caution him against the great danger of taking more than two drops of castoroil, while I recommended strychnine in large doses."

Maybe he didn't get sent home from the army because he got shot, y'know?

On the other hand, Sherlock's not so bright either, not when he keeps mentioning the "many" cases of his that Watson has published -- all of one at this point, which Holmes claimed was too romantic ("much the same effect as if you worked a love-story... into the 5th proposition of Euclid") and then turned around and himself says things like "doggy" to Toby and more fantastic still, "See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo."

Also, if Watson's line "I keep a bull pup" in SiS is really code for "I have a gun," why does Sherlock have to turn around on p 150 of So4 and ask "Have you a pistol, Watson?"

Sign introduces the infamous 7% solution, and I notice that my annotated copy was very anxious to sidetrack by pointing out that at the time cocaine was legal, and then wandering off into a discussion of how likely it would be to be injected and if Holmes was actually taking a reduced dose. Certainly the straighforward Watson seems to be willing to eat his own stomach lining out in an ulcer over "many months" resenting the drug habit until he gets his courage up through his own Watson's Little Helper ("the Beaune [burgundy] which I had taken with my lunch".)

We learn much about Watson. He mentions his PTSD (which is going to disappear as soon as the action starts) and his having taken responsibility for Holmes as a doctor... but on the other hand, he's a crap doctor if he's going to do nothing for months (and then drop his patient at the end of the book).

We learn about his love life: this is the book with the infamous "experience of women over many nations and three separate continents" line, although considering how bumbling he is around Mary, his experience seems to have consisted of simply looking at other women.

And we get the reminder that he is dismissive and racist, considering Indians savages (even when he's fought alongside them), depicting Tonga as a malformed, unintelligent, vicious brute in human form, and even conspiring with Athelney Jones to treat a lower class sailor with rudeness and casual blowoffs of "We shall recompense you." When Sherlock Holmes corrects your manners ("I think that you might offer me a cigar too"), you've really screwed up.

So4 is also a little bit like that joke about Hamlet being nothing but cliches strung together - it's certainly a kickline of famous Holmesian quotes and moments.
- the writing of the monograph on tobacco ash
- deducing Watson's watch (primarily famous now for being rewritten as a cell phone scene in Study in Pink) - although unlike modern John (who didn't get upset), Watson is deeply offended and Holmes apologizes to him. Modern John would probably die of the shock if Sherlock ever apologizes to him. (Also unSherlockian moments in S04 - Holmes tries to sleep, sends Watson home to sleep, plays the violin to put him to sleep, eats, and brags about his own cooking... although the annotated points out that Holmes could have picked up the mentioned food ready prepared)
- Holmes as an excellent boxer
- The Science of Deduction (second use in as many novels)
- "Once you have eliminated the impossible..."
- "You know my methods. Apply them."
- Tells Watson to act as Sherlock's replacement, opening mail, using his own judgment, etc.

And then there's the Holmes and Women issue. Watson's main issue in complaining of misogyny appears to be that Holmes "did not observe" if Mary was beautiful; in Holmes' defense, he's right that getting involved leads to biased judgment and that charm and looks have nothing to do with personal character. (Besides, Holmes is observant enough to realize that Watson's practically panting at first look at her, IMO.) Holmes insists throughout that it's not that he dislikes women, he dislikes "whatever is emotional [because it] is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things." He neither tries to split the newly formed couple apart (as Holmes does in the Ritchie movie) nor insults her. Instead, the supposed misogynist compliments Mary as "one of the most charming young ladies I ever met" and even higher, calls her "a decided genius."

Next Saturday is entirely devoted to the Team Wench Privateer Feast, our biggest fundraiser for the year. So I'll see the rest of the Saturday Sherlockians in two weeks, when we discuss The Red-headed League, A Case of Identity, & The Boscombe Valley Mystery.

I fired a double-barrelled tiger cub

Date: 2011-02-26 09:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mustangsally78.livejournal.com
Clearly, Watson also shot an elephant in his pajamas.

And you wonder why Nigel Bruce played him as a moron.

Shall we just accept that ACD was a damn sloppy writer?

I understood that Watson's Mysterious Moving Wound was due to the fact that he'd been shot in the balls and that was why he never fathered any children!

Oh Artie, you weren't fussed by details, were you?

Re: I fired a double-barrelled tiger cub

Date: 2011-02-26 10:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
... and what he was doing in my pyjamas, I'll never know.

Oh Artie, you weren't fussed by details, were you?

This pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. Although it has provided a century of retcon, what with Holmes being the first participatory fandom (Apparently it's even the genesis of the word "canon") *and* the game that everyone pretends that it's all real. No wonder I was primed to accept Whovian lack of canon (and then re-apply that back to Holmes.)

I understood that Watson's Mysterious Moving Wound was due to the fact that he'd been shot in the balls and that was why he never fathered any children!

I have heard the "fleshy part of the thigh" = "shot in the ass and too Victorian to admit it" theory.

Regarding Holmes' romantic/fanciful comments...

Date: 2011-02-27 05:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cha-maeri.livejournal.com
if you play the game and accept the stories as Watson's first-hand accounts then a lot of these seeming contradictions can be explained as his subjective representation. If Holmes criticizes him for Romanticizing events, then in one sense everything else Watson records Holmes as saying may be questioned. Did Holmes really make
That remark about the clouds, or iwas that just another one of Watson's little embellishments - him exercising his artistic license. I think every reader has to determine how trustworthy/reliable a narrator he is.
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
Did Holmes really make That remark about the clouds, or iwas that just another one of Watson's little embellishments

It would be a bit funny if Watson made it up and printed it *just* to piss off Holmes!

Date: 2011-02-27 12:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] redpanda13.livejournal.com
"in Holmes' defense, he's right that getting involved leads to biased judgment":

"I told her one moving anecdote as to how a musket looked into my tent... and how I fired a double-barrelled tiger cub at it" and "overheard me caution him against the great danger of taking more than two drops of castoroil, while I recommended strychnine in large doses."

Watson's strongly attracted to Morstan and it makes his brain turn to guacamole and drip out his ears.

Holmes' most notable failure was when he was attracted to a woman too....

These boys just didn't grow up around girls; that's a good part of the problem. They regard women as some kind of inscrutable alien species.

As for Watson being "dismissive and racist" and rude to the lower classes-- again, he's a product of his times.

"experience of women over many nations and three separate continents" line, although considering how bumbling he is around Mary, his experience seems to have consisted of simply looking at other women.

I doubt it. For the respectable Victorian male, there were women you ogled, women you partied with and screwed, and there were the Superior Beings you married. Watson went from medical school into the army. Unless he had sisters (which we never hear about) or contact as a visitor with friends' sisters or cousins or whatever, his experience with women of his own "class" would have been limited, and he would have been flustered in his attempts to court a women seriously.

Date: 2011-02-27 01:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
Watson's strongly attracted to Morstan and it makes his brain turn to guacamole and drip out his ears.

Extremely so, considering she can even make him forget where he's been shot!

Holmes' most notable failure was when he was attracted to a woman too....

Point!

again, he's a product of his times

I know - but some things hold up to the test of time, and others don't. In those sorts of cases, what was a normal attitude then is all kinds of awkward/flat out rude now.

he would have been flustered in his attempts to court a women seriously

He barely even courts her - he's thinking how she's above his station the first time he ever sees her, and without more than a couple of dozen sentences back and forth he proposes marriage. (And she accepts with as little acquaintance.) It's back to the one look and that's all it took - obviously something that Watson has never experienced before for all his "experience of women" wink wink nudge nudge say no more.

Date: 2011-02-27 03:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] redpanda13.livejournal.com
"without more than a couple of dozen sentences back and forth he proposes marriage."

Maybe he grew up on those ballads where a young rover spies a pretty milkmaid or shepherdess and the first thing out of his mouth is "Will you marry me?" I always liked the versions where she tells him to get stuffed. But I'm a trifle off-topic.

Date: 2011-02-27 10:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] penguineggs.livejournal.com
Arthur Ransome's biography suggests that he actually did carry on like this (and the girls did say, "Bog off" more often than not), so late Victorian young men proposing practically on sight is historically documented, at least partially.

Date: 2011-02-27 04:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
late Victorian young men proposing practically on sight is historically documented,

I'm not surprised; it fits in neatly with tropes of romance that were in full flower at the time. Not just Victorian times either; wasn't one of the reasons Henry VIII pissed off at Anne of Cleaves being that he expected her to know him even in disguise -- and she didn't? (Reality is so very squelching to romantic tropes. And you can't blame the women snapping "Bog off" when they don't have the option of backing out of a bad marriage.)

Date: 2011-02-27 04:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
Maybe he grew up on those ballads where a young rover spies a pretty milkmaid or shepherdess and the first thing out of his mouth is "Will you marry me?"

It certainly suits Watson's romantic nature - and he has one, very definitely, and he's used to making snap decisions. He was practically slathering to move in with Holmes even with Stamford going "Uh, you should know this guy's a little odd. Actually, that's the understatement of the year."

Date: 2011-02-27 10:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] penguineggs.livejournal.com
There's a (non-Holmes) ACD short story where the narrator says of the protagonist (a specialist in neurology) "He was not a single man so he did not confine himself to a single woman." Admittedly, the protagonist in question has just outed himself in front of a class of students as suffering from tertiary neuro-syphilis.

Date: 2011-02-27 04:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
Admittedly, the protagonist in question has just outed himself in front of a class of students as suffering from tertiary neuro-syphilis.

Which is really scary stuff. There was an exhibit on forensics at the Smithsonian (Written in Bone; fabulous stuff if anything remains online) and one of the features were a couple of syphilitic bones, including a skull that had been... eaten away is a cliche, but that's exactly what it looked like. Horrifying.

Date: 2011-02-27 08:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inamac.livejournal.com
Ah, but even in the Army, and even at that time (and in India) there were social occasions when Officers (and Surgeons were certainly Officers - and even Gentlemen) would meet members of the Fair Sex - wives, daughters, ladies' companions... so Watson had opportunity to learn social skills - if not the inclination.

I've always rather liked the 'Watson was sitting down pulling on his boots' explanation for the path of the Jezail bullet (early Holmesiania is full of detailed trajectory diagrams of the incident.)

Date: 2011-02-27 04:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
Watson seems to have social skills, but he's certainly unskilled at dealing with sudden infatuation! (It could be argued that in most cases the women of his class he was meeting were out of his reach anyway, being already married or children of officers, etc.)

early Holmesiania is full of detailed trajectory diagrams of the incident

I've heard verbal descriptions (I still kinda like "he was shot in the ass and coming up with euphemisms" version) but I haven't seen any diagrams. Yet. I need to brush up on my Holmesian history.

Date: 2011-02-27 05:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] redpanda13.livejournal.com
"I've always rather liked the 'Watson was sitting down pulling on his boots' explanation for the path of the Jezail bullet"

My favorite theory is that he was shot in the shoulder, thrown over the back of a mule by his orderly, as he says, and then shot in the ass, which would have been a prominent target. "Leg" was a euphemism.

I also like someone's theory that the reason there were so many contradictions in the Canon is that Watson was lonely and wanted mail.

Watson, thou shouldst be living at this hour...

Date: 2011-02-27 06:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] inamac.livejournal.com
Watson was lonely and wanted mail.

LOL. I like that.

And isn't it the entire raison d'etre for the Sherlock blogs?

Date: 2011-02-27 06:12 am (UTC)
ext_52603: (Minnasota Nice)
From: [identity profile] msp-hacker.livejournal.com
I never heard of "I keep a bull pup" as code for gun. I've heard of it being a code for "I have a bit of a temper."

Date: 2011-02-27 04:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
I've heard both (there's a discussion about Doyle's Dogs on [livejournal.com profile] meta_holmes), although I've never been convinced by any definition other than "I have a puppy." For someone who was making coded references to a temper, he never shows it to Sherlock except when Sherlock egregiously insults Watson or his family - circumstances which would make anyone explode.

Date: 2011-02-27 08:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] big-wired.livejournal.com
I have the COllected Volumes of Sherlock Holmes, and in it is an essay dedicated to John Watson, and in regards to his wound, the writer speculated that it was the trauma of the incident itself that causes John to say he was wounded in two different parts of his body and mixes them up.

I sorta know what this is like, having had an incident at work in which I swore one thing happened when if it did, my hand would have been torn off.

Date: 2011-02-27 04:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neadods.livejournal.com
But did you get wounded on the hand/arm and say it was your foot? Because I'd find it so much easier to understand if Watson was substituting, say, elbow and shoulder, but not leg and shoulder, no matter how traumatic an incident it was. (Which is why I rather liked how modern Sherlock dealt with it, with one being a real injury and the other being psychosomatic.)

Profile

neadods: (Default)
neadods

February 2023

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
121314 15161718
19202122232425
262728    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Aug. 18th, 2025 04:22 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios