Saturday Sherlock
Apr. 2nd, 2011 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsThe remaining cats are starting to go back to normal behavior, finally. Kaylee was taken off and came back shaved; DB was taken off and never came back. It's made the kittens skittish and unwilling to be touched - until yesterday, when Gytha rolled over and let me tickle her belly, then climbed in my lap when I had my afternoon read* purring madly. And Mulder has started to sleep on me again.
*As a bit of "me time" ever since the time change I've been coming home and reading a Holmes story/chapter a day as a bit of quiet time before I get on with the rest of the night's work.
Also, I notice that there are less than half the clumps in the clumping litter than there used to be, and M has to refill the little water bowl upstairs every other day instead of twice a day. DB was sicker than we thought for a longer time than we thought. But he still had enough left in him to demand petting and to purr for it...
Anyway! Stories.
The Beryl Coronet
Let me get something off my chest right away: I hate this story. HAAAAAAAATE. Loathe with the burning of thousand nova suns. I have never tolerated stupid plots well (where the only reason the plot works is because everyone's stupid) nor plots that could be resolved with 7 seconds of honest conversation. Beryl Coronet is both, and thus I have no sympathy whatsoever, neither with the guy who thinks that the smart thing to do with a valuable object is to remove it from a safe and THEN to tell everyone where it is, or the guy who, when literally caught red-handed, decides the noble thing to do is to shut his mouth and Suffer Nobly In Silence (and then make cryptic commands).
Schmuks, the lot of them. I won't even give it a pass because it has the famous "once you have eliminated the impossible" line because in this case, it's more an example of "once you have eliminated the STUPIDEST SET OF MOTIVATIONS EVER..."
The Copper Beeches
We launch from a story that I intend to never sully my eyeballs with again into one of my favorites. Copper Beeches has just about everything to recommend it: it starts off with Holmes being... well, Holmes in a two-page strop at Watson, who's privately thinking "drama queen!" Which makes for some pretty hilarious reading, IMO.
Most of the rest of the reason why I love this story is enumerated under Misogynist Holmes? below - suffice it to say that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
penguineggs is right that this particular short is not only stuffed to the gills with strong women, it passes the Bechdel Test. Add in Holmes being less than cool and composed (not just flustering over Violet, but chewing on Watson for overromanticizing the cases and working himself into a tizzy because he doesn't have enough data) and you've got interesting characters out the wazoo.
This is, however, the story in which Holmes gets strangely phobic about the countryside. Although he's been outside of London before and certainly has adequate evidence about all sorts of skullduggery in cities, he's suddenly a complete snot about isolation and "poor ignorant folk" etc. It's as odd and out of step as the "Whee! Let's reunite and have an empire!" speech in the otherwise excellent Noble Bachelor.
There is also something hilariously high-handed about Holmes suggesting that Watson hold a man at gunpoint inside his own house.
For once, the villain gets all kinds of comeuppance, from every possible corner. His daughter got away, with both lover and money; his servants plotted against him; his governess brought in the people who exposed his crimes, and even the starved dog got revenge on him.
Silver Blaze
The one about the horse, although more famously, the one about the dog that did nothing.
In whiplash from the previous story, Holmes has no collywobbles about going out to the country and is outright fawning towards Watson: "You would confer a great favour upon me by coming." He also points out that he needs to bounce ideas off of Watson and then admits that he's less infallible than Watson suggests in the stories (despite the fact that he just whipped off a calculation of the train speed that he apparently did not have the data to calculate so exactly. Perhaps there's something in the theory that he likes to stun Watson into admiration for made-up facts that Watson can't disprove.)
As for fanon, enter the infamous deerstalker cap (and Mark Gatiss getting his modern Holmes and Watson to recreate the photo. (I love the idea, but Cumberbatch looks uncomfortable, as if he has no idea what he's actually meant to be doing with his hands.)
And while I'm digressing, Freeman has his right hand up on the table in that shot, the fork is pointed to his right hand, and his Watson shoots with his right hand. So how has it become fanon that modern John is left-handed? Sometimes I want to make a collage of screencaps for Sherlock Secrets with "NOT LEFT HANDED!" superimposed on it.
*ahem* Back to Doyle. Where I haven't got a lot to say, really. It's a competent story, with a competent Watson (which feels rare sometimes), There are a bunch of clues and Holmes lays out his reasoning in the end. Aside from the one little character bit of Holmes being pissy towards Col. Ross & his shot in the dark regarding the sheep, there's little to either recommend or revile the story over. It has no major action scenes, no colorful characters... but also no dimwits, fools, or ludicrously exotic setups.
Exotic people/locales count: .5 for mention of gypsies (who have nothing to do with Silver Blaze)
Oppressive/abusive villain count: 2 Sir George in Beryl and then Rucastle of Copper is a prime example of the species
Venial victim count: 0 I count "venial victims" as people who know that they've been given an offer too good to be true but take it anyway for greed of the reward. Mr. Holder wasn't trying to get riches for himself in Beryl, profoundly stupid as his actions were. Violet (I just typed that with an extra n!) Hunter knew that she was being flim-flammed, had no alternative options, and took what steps she could to protect herself (thus proving to be one of the smartest "victims" in the canon). And Brown of Blaze simply took advantage of an accidental opportunity.
Sherlock actually solves something count: 3. He may have been too late to actually catch the criminal in Beryl or aid one of the women in Beeches, but he figures it all out. Even if Beryl was the kind of crime that Encyclopedia Brown could have figured out at the dinner table. (I loved the Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid, not least because his sidekick - and bodyguard - was named Sally. Who occasionally solves the crimes herself.) And a competent detective could have followed all the clues he did in Blaze... but the point of the stories is that there's only one really competent detective in town.
Misogynist Holmes?:
In Beryl, even though the woman is arguably the villain, the supposedly woman-hating Holmes casts her betrayal not as the fickleness of her gender, but due to a loving woman being seduced by a terrible man. "There are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all over loves" is a simple statement of fact - look at all the stories of girls running from their families to be with the men they love, fictional or factual. It could be argued that it was a terrible thing for Holmes to leave Mary with Sir George when he reclaimed the stones, but would she have come? Did she know yet what Sir George really was? Certainly Holmes doesn't sound gloating when he says that she will end up paying for her sins.
In Beeches, although Holmes starts out snitting that his skills are "degenerating into an agency for ... giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools," he rapidly switches tracks into not only taking Miss Hunter seriously, but actively getting all fraternal and worried about her. "No sister of mine..." This is the only time he's going to be that wrapped up in a female client, so it's no real wonder the romantic Watson is hoping that Holmes will take his interest further. Despite the fact that Holmes must be privately thinking "Sister. I said SISTER!Pervert." when Watson is doubtless nudging him off screen. The supposed woman-hater goes from calling the case "my zero point" to "the most interesting which ahs come my way for some months" - and then caps it with an extremely concerned reminder that he will be at Violet's beck and call "any time day or night." That's more than he offered Miss Stoner in Speckled Band, and he knew she was being physically abused. Add in calling Violet "quite exceptional" and... well, you can see why Watson got all hopeful that Holmes would fall in love at last!
Fanciful Sherlockisms: 0, although there is that long speech about the evils of the countryside in Copper Beeches, followed by... a visit to the country to see horses which doesn't bother him at all. I don't consider his "Haven't I met you, Mrs. Straker?" moment to be fanciful because he was using it to directly gather data.
Watson's Wits: Variable. In Beeches Holmes has to remind him that the child's behavior is a clue to the parents' attitudes. However, in Blaze, Holmes calls one of Watson's points "excellent" and "important" and outright asks "if you can give me any light, I shall be infinitely obliged." And it's Watson who saves them time by finding the hoofprints doubling back.
Next week: The Cardboard Box, The Yellow Face, The Stock-Broker's Clerk (Cardboard is from a different collection, but the stories were written in this order.)
*As a bit of "me time" ever since the time change I've been coming home and reading a Holmes story/chapter a day as a bit of quiet time before I get on with the rest of the night's work.
Also, I notice that there are less than half the clumps in the clumping litter than there used to be, and M has to refill the little water bowl upstairs every other day instead of twice a day. DB was sicker than we thought for a longer time than we thought. But he still had enough left in him to demand petting and to purr for it...
Anyway! Stories.
The Beryl Coronet
Let me get something off my chest right away: I hate this story. HAAAAAAAATE. Loathe with the burning of thousand nova suns. I have never tolerated stupid plots well (where the only reason the plot works is because everyone's stupid) nor plots that could be resolved with 7 seconds of honest conversation. Beryl Coronet is both, and thus I have no sympathy whatsoever, neither with the guy who thinks that the smart thing to do with a valuable object is to remove it from a safe and THEN to tell everyone where it is, or the guy who, when literally caught red-handed, decides the noble thing to do is to shut his mouth and Suffer Nobly In Silence (and then make cryptic commands).
Schmuks, the lot of them. I won't even give it a pass because it has the famous "once you have eliminated the impossible" line because in this case, it's more an example of "once you have eliminated the STUPIDEST SET OF MOTIVATIONS EVER..."
The Copper Beeches
We launch from a story that I intend to never sully my eyeballs with again into one of my favorites. Copper Beeches has just about everything to recommend it: it starts off with Holmes being... well, Holmes in a two-page strop at Watson, who's privately thinking "drama queen!" Which makes for some pretty hilarious reading, IMO.
Most of the rest of the reason why I love this story is enumerated under Misogynist Holmes? below - suffice it to say that
penguineggs is right that this particular short is not only stuffed to the gills with strong women, it passes the Bechdel Test. Add in Holmes being less than cool and composed (not just flustering over Violet, but chewing on Watson for overromanticizing the cases and working himself into a tizzy because he doesn't have enough data) and you've got interesting characters out the wazoo.This is, however, the story in which Holmes gets strangely phobic about the countryside. Although he's been outside of London before and certainly has adequate evidence about all sorts of skullduggery in cities, he's suddenly a complete snot about isolation and "poor ignorant folk" etc. It's as odd and out of step as the "Whee! Let's reunite and have an empire!" speech in the otherwise excellent Noble Bachelor.
There is also something hilariously high-handed about Holmes suggesting that Watson hold a man at gunpoint inside his own house.
For once, the villain gets all kinds of comeuppance, from every possible corner. His daughter got away, with both lover and money; his servants plotted against him; his governess brought in the people who exposed his crimes, and even the starved dog got revenge on him.
Silver Blaze
The one about the horse, although more famously, the one about the dog that did nothing.
In whiplash from the previous story, Holmes has no collywobbles about going out to the country and is outright fawning towards Watson: "You would confer a great favour upon me by coming." He also points out that he needs to bounce ideas off of Watson and then admits that he's less infallible than Watson suggests in the stories (despite the fact that he just whipped off a calculation of the train speed that he apparently did not have the data to calculate so exactly. Perhaps there's something in the theory that he likes to stun Watson into admiration for made-up facts that Watson can't disprove.)
As for fanon, enter the infamous deerstalker cap (and Mark Gatiss getting his modern Holmes and Watson to recreate the photo. (I love the idea, but Cumberbatch looks uncomfortable, as if he has no idea what he's actually meant to be doing with his hands.)
And while I'm digressing, Freeman has his right hand up on the table in that shot, the fork is pointed to his right hand, and his Watson shoots with his right hand. So how has it become fanon that modern John is left-handed? Sometimes I want to make a collage of screencaps for Sherlock Secrets with "NOT LEFT HANDED!" superimposed on it.
*ahem* Back to Doyle. Where I haven't got a lot to say, really. It's a competent story, with a competent Watson (which feels rare sometimes), There are a bunch of clues and Holmes lays out his reasoning in the end. Aside from the one little character bit of Holmes being pissy towards Col. Ross & his shot in the dark regarding the sheep, there's little to either recommend or revile the story over. It has no major action scenes, no colorful characters... but also no dimwits, fools, or ludicrously exotic setups.
Exotic people/locales count: .5 for mention of gypsies (who have nothing to do with Silver Blaze)
Oppressive/abusive villain count: 2 Sir George in Beryl and then Rucastle of Copper is a prime example of the species
Venial victim count: 0 I count "venial victims" as people who know that they've been given an offer too good to be true but take it anyway for greed of the reward. Mr. Holder wasn't trying to get riches for himself in Beryl, profoundly stupid as his actions were. Violet (I just typed that with an extra n!) Hunter knew that she was being flim-flammed, had no alternative options, and took what steps she could to protect herself (thus proving to be one of the smartest "victims" in the canon). And Brown of Blaze simply took advantage of an accidental opportunity.
Sherlock actually solves something count: 3. He may have been too late to actually catch the criminal in Beryl or aid one of the women in Beeches, but he figures it all out. Even if Beryl was the kind of crime that Encyclopedia Brown could have figured out at the dinner table. (I loved the Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid, not least because his sidekick - and bodyguard - was named Sally. Who occasionally solves the crimes herself.) And a competent detective could have followed all the clues he did in Blaze... but the point of the stories is that there's only one really competent detective in town.
Misogynist Holmes?:
In Beryl, even though the woman is arguably the villain, the supposedly woman-hating Holmes casts her betrayal not as the fickleness of her gender, but due to a loving woman being seduced by a terrible man. "There are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all over loves" is a simple statement of fact - look at all the stories of girls running from their families to be with the men they love, fictional or factual. It could be argued that it was a terrible thing for Holmes to leave Mary with Sir George when he reclaimed the stones, but would she have come? Did she know yet what Sir George really was? Certainly Holmes doesn't sound gloating when he says that she will end up paying for her sins.
In Beeches, although Holmes starts out snitting that his skills are "degenerating into an agency for ... giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools," he rapidly switches tracks into not only taking Miss Hunter seriously, but actively getting all fraternal and worried about her. "No sister of mine..." This is the only time he's going to be that wrapped up in a female client, so it's no real wonder the romantic Watson is hoping that Holmes will take his interest further. Despite the fact that Holmes must be privately thinking "Sister. I said SISTER!
Fanciful Sherlockisms: 0, although there is that long speech about the evils of the countryside in Copper Beeches, followed by... a visit to the country to see horses which doesn't bother him at all. I don't consider his "Haven't I met you, Mrs. Straker?" moment to be fanciful because he was using it to directly gather data.
Watson's Wits: Variable. In Beeches Holmes has to remind him that the child's behavior is a clue to the parents' attitudes. However, in Blaze, Holmes calls one of Watson's points "excellent" and "important" and outright asks "if you can give me any light, I shall be infinitely obliged." And it's Watson who saves them time by finding the hoofprints doubling back.
Next week: The Cardboard Box, The Yellow Face, The Stock-Broker's Clerk (Cardboard is from a different collection, but the stories were written in this order.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 03:56 pm (UTC)Other things that stick in the mind's eye from this tale: a particular shade of electric blue and the image of "a coil of hair." A particular tint of chestnut hair! Much love for Violet, who was clever enough to consult with Holmes before stepping into the crazy. I don't think she could have walked away from this, not just because she needed the money, but, like Holmes, the mystery beckoned. She had to find out what the heck was going on!
I think Copper Beeches is one of my favorites, too. A lot of great imagery.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 06:56 pm (UTC)A lot of great imagery.
It's got that gothic thing going on. Which always makes for a better story, IMO.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 04:42 pm (UTC)The Grenada series also reproduced that Paget illo in their version of Silver Blaze with Jeremy Brett and David Burke. They did so on a number of occasions with other illos-- fun to spot.
Well, of course Holmes thought Violet Hunter was exceptional. She was a redhead. And courageous and clever as well.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-02 06:59 pm (UTC)Yes, it's impossible to tell who's doing what until you catch 'em at it. It does make me feel better about the decision I made, though.
They did so on a number of occasions with other illos
Really? I hadn't caught that, how fun!
She was a redhead. And courageous and clever as well.
Don't forget freckled!