The Holocene Mass Exinction Event

I just listened to the last Sherlock Holmes story on BBC7 -- The Retired Colourman. In print, it hasn't that much to recommend it, but the Coules adaptation was one of the best episodes; funny, interesting, and incredibly poignant. If you care at all about Sherlock Holmes then you must listen to this episode!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/thursday

It seemed as if The Lion's Mane, which aired a few days before, was just as good, but I haven't got the chance to listen to it properly as yet.

Also: I now have ALL 56 short story episodes RECORDED. Oh yes!! Now for the BBC to air the two hour novel adaptations... and of course Coules' own original Further Adventures (oh please do it BBC you know you want to).

Title: If Clothes Make The Man...
Author: Professor Pangaea
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Mary Russell)
Spoilers: A bit for The Beekeeper's Apprentice, plus slight mentions of events in A Monstrous Regiment of Women and The Game
Discliamer: Though Mr. Sherlock Holmes is in the public domain, Miss Mary Russell is most assuredly not, and so I let it be known that I do this not for profit but for love. I'm sure Laurie R. King would be slightly confounded at my take on her characters.
Notes: This is incredibly not-betaed, and in fact I've taken much more time on it than I meant to. Still, it is rather off the cuff (for me), and mostly written because the idea randomly sprang into my head one day and I thought, Someone should write that. But then I realised I was the only one who would ever do such a thing. Mostly finished to see it it would make cesario's head explode. And maybe a little bit of an eruption from lizbee. Also, I'm really not sure why I've titled this thing as I have done, but ah well.


( If Clothes Make the Man... )



Tell me what you think, peoples.

Here is a sketch for a proposed comic book that I plan to make... someday...

Watson: It was with some relief, therefore, that I found Holmes in when I called at his Baker Street lodgings, and an even greater relief to sit in front of a cheerful fire, and discuss the world in general, and crime in particular.

That, of course, is when the arguments started.



Watson: Well done, Holmes.
Holmes: My dear fellow, I can hardly claim credit for predicting the predictable.
Watson: Oh really, why not?

Wednesday night Tim and I watched the Granada adaptation of Shoscombe Old Place which I had SOMEHOW managed to never see (picked it up at the library, oh yeah), and then watched Easy Rider, while I made homework type things.

Easy Rider: Way, WAY overrated. Yikes.

Shoscombe Old Place: Holy crap!!!! I will cut this for spoilers, in case anyone actually cares (for all puzzled parties this is an episode of Sherlock Holmes, I'm talking about). Also included under cut: wittering about the BBC episode of SCAN.

( Weirdness! )

Ah, can't wait for The Red-Headed League.

Alright, the other day at the library I found THE COOLEST book. Yes, the coolest. I have quite a few Sherlock Holmes books, as you may imagine, and several of them are of the pictorial variety, such as The Pictorial Sherlock Holmes for an example. You know, lots of illustrations, photos of actors, etc. I was browsing the Holmes section in literary studies and there was a book called Sherlock Holmes in America (I believe), I picked it up and lo and behold it is full of AWESOME picture. ALL of the Frederic Dorr Steele illustrations for Return (sorry Sidney Paget, you know I love you, but Steele is a MUCH better illustrator than you ever were), plus the covers in full colour! Lots of newspaper illustrations! And a whole section on comic strips. So awesome. I've learned a few things:

1. Newspaper strip humour of the early 20th century is incredibly bizarre, and often makes no sense (I knew that before, but it was imprinted upon me even more forcefully).

2. Apparently the phrase, "Quick, Watson, the needle!" was THE Sherlockian catchphrase of the early decades. Why... I have no idea. But it was so well known that people could use "Quick, Watson, _______" as a punchline in adverts and cartoons. Wow. It's random inclusion at the end of the 1939 Hound now makes sense! Or, more sense.

3. If you write The Katzenjammer Kids it completely makes sense to you that your Holmesian parody, Sherlock Guck, wold dress himself as various animals and have a bad Chinese accent. Who knew?

Anywho, I wrote out a couple of the strips because I found them amusing, and so I shall share my wealth of Sherlockian fun! At some point I'll try to scan a few of the good ones (i.e. ones that actually work best when you can both read the text and see the drawing, as opposed to the following, which work pretty much as text without any drawing getting in the way). I will DEFINITELY have to scan the strip series in which all the characters are either dogs or sausages (with an occasional teddy bear or snake). I think it is the COOLEST WEIRDEST STRIP I'VE EVER SEEN. Apart from Little Nemo, of course. But what the hell -- a strip about the murder investigation of a frankfurter? AWESOME.



Sherlock Holmes Analyzes a Perfect Stranger
by John T. McCutcheon
(a four panel comic strip)

Panel 1: Sherlock Holmes -- "Ah, a stranger whom I've never met before."

Panel 2: "How do you do, sir -- I observe that you are in a coal trust; also that you have just had a narrow escape; that you have no children; that you were in a great hurry this morning; that you have been writing, and that you shaved with your left hand this morning. Are you going away on the afternoon or the evening train?"

Panel 3: "Why this is simply marvelous Mr. Holmes. Everything you've said is true. How in the world did you find out all these things about a man you've never heard of before?"

Panel 4: "By a very simple process of deduction. I can tell by your hands that you are in a trust, and I know it was the coal trust by the hungry way you looked at my purse there on the table, and by the way you glanced apprehensively around you as if expecting someone to hit you with a club. I knew that you had just had a narrow escape, by the fact that three bricks grazed you, and the brick dust is still on your coat. You have no children, for if you had you would have some consideration for poor people who have children. I knew that you expected to take a journey, because I understand the grand jury is in session. I also knew that you had shaved with your left hand because your face is cut, and there is ink on your right forefinger, showing that you were writing out an order to whoop the price of coal while shaving with your left. You were in a hurry, because you had time to have only one shoe polished. It's all very simple.


Sherlock Holmes Jr. Tries A New Trick
by Sidney Smith

PANEL 1:
Criminal: "I borrowed Sherlock's rain stick and am just bringing it back I fixed it for him"

PANEL 2:
Sherlock Jr: "An idea -- I'll use that umbrella to hide behind when I'm chasing these thieves"

PANEL 3:
Sherlock Jr: "I'll put my star under my coat and can stand right in their midst and learn their secrets"

PANEL 4:
Sherlock Jr: "I hear them coming now for my disguise"

PANEL 5:
Sherlock Jr: *hides behind open umbrella*
Open umbrella reads: "I AM A DETECTIVE HIT ME WITH A BRICK"

Panel 6:
Sherlock Jr: *is hit in head with brick*

Title: Five Things That Never Happened to Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson
Author: Professor Pangaea
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Disclaimer: Public domain, my friends. Yet I would still have it known that none of this would be without the efforts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Steel true, blade straight.

( Five Things That Never Happened to Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson )


I throw this upon the public's mercy unbetaed. Feedback and criticism are both appreciated and cherished.

BBC Cult has a Sherlock Holmes page, and contained upon said page is an interview with Bert Coules (the adaptor of the oft-mentioned and worshipped BBC Holmes series). While I wish it had been a bit more in depth, it's definitely worth reading.

"I know that they are firmly in the realms of what you might call light fiction, but the depth of characterisation that Doyle brings to the partnership is a wonderful thing. And I think it's important to regard the stories as the stories of a partnership. Everyone refers to the Sherlock Holmes stories, but they are in fact the Sherlock Holmes and John Watson stories."

"A good quote about writing a Sherlock Holmes story is, "It doesn't need to be a good detective story, but it does have to be a very good story about a detective.""

"But what brings them together and what keeps them together is that Watson would love to be Holmes, and Holmes needs to be Watson. Together they make a whole functioning individual. Without Watson, Holmes would probably kill himself, deliberately or otherwise. And without Holmes, Watson would probably die of boredom."


The rest is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/sherlock/coules.shtml

While reading The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Les Klinger, I am constantly reminded that while other fandoms might be full of seriously disturbed people, My Fandom Is Crazier Than Yours. And so shall it always be. Here are a couple of theories about Reichenback that Klinger mentions:

"Auberon Redfearn concludes that Moriarty escaped death because his black cloak (Watson notices only a 'black figure', but a black cape or cloak is standard gard for villains) acted as a parachute until it caught on a branch and Moran was able to rescue him." (italics added by my astounded brain)

"Jason Rouby reveals, in 'A Confidential Communication', that Holmes let Moriarty go and that Moriarty subsequently achieved moral rehabilitation and, assuming the name J. Edgar Hoover, pursued a career in law enforcement in the United States." (the most unbelievable part of that theory is that it assumes that Hoover had morals).

I don't think anything can beat this, though:
"More farfetched is the work of Alastair Martin, in 'Finding the Better Half', which identifies Moriarty as the widow of Count Dracula whom Holmes encountered at the Reichenbach, wed, and spent three years with during the great Hiatus." (OK... this guy never says that Moriarty is a man... but he doesn't seem to say that Moriarty is a woman, and so I am forced to conclude that this is THE GAYEST THING EVER).

Please bear in mind that the majority of these writers are middle-aged, middle class white men, with normal jobs like "broker".

Ganked from Scarlet Street, yet again:

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking is the final (and somewhat prosaic) title for the BBC's new Holmes film, which goes out at 9.25pm on Boxing Day. The cast includes some interesting names including Jonathan Hyde and Guy Henry, and the director is Simon Cellan Jones.

The listings mag Radio Times has a preview which calls Everett's Holmes "suitably ascetic with a slightly unnerving sexuality" but goes on to note "Pity he's let down by the plot". The piece also tells us that the film includes "a touch of criminal profiling" ("But did they have that in those days?") and then, startlingly, informs us that it comes courtesy of Dr Watson's psychologist fiancee...


I am hoping fervently that the title is a misprint; as strange as The Deadly Season sounds, it is an interesting title, while The Silk Stocking sounds... like it should be on latenight Showtime. Or worse, Lifetime. *shudder*

But yay for Jonathan Hyde (somebody cast him as Holmes already!!), and I found the slightly unnerving sexuality comment to be rather interesting as well...


http://p067.ezboard.com/fscarletstreetsherlockholmes.showMessageRange?topicID=350.topic&start=161&stop=172