Holmes is more interesting than applying for jobs.

[elaby]

Okay, so, you know how I am with canon. It's important to me that I keep my interpretations and writings very much in line with it. This is more often relevant with books, because with movies and TV shows (aside from things I've studied minutely, like Utena) I have less access to the material. Stuff in books is easy to look up, whereas I probably wouldn't go through a movie or episodes of a show unless I was really dedicated. But with books, I really try to interpret the source material and stay true to it.

The exception to this is when I think the author is off their rocker (*coughAnneRicecough*) or when the general fan-feeling about the canon is pretty relaxed, like in Gundam Wing (of COURSE Treize and Wufei had the hots for each other!)

So I've been kind of going :{ about various things that displease me in the Holmes canon, because I can't reconcile them with what I want to think about the characters. I guess this is a kind of continuation of that post about The Game I had a little while ago.

But I came across something today that made me decide to relax my approach.


One of the reasons I have a hard time playing The Game is because, as I see it, Conan Doyle was really not that interested in continuity. I LOVE continuity. Stargate SG-1 made me a happy little fangirl. The fact that Watson mentions having a wife in a story that he says happened in 1887, when he says he got married in 1888, makes me twitch. Of course, people have taken this to mean he was married before he met Mary Morstan. I can't really believe that, since he never mentioned her and was obviously a bachelor when he moved in with Holmes. I think I sometimes consider authors to be more... on top of things than they necessarily are. I'm used to JKR, for whom it seems every tiny detail was exquisitely planned out, and Jim Butcher, who never puts anything anywhere in his stories that isn't going to be significant later. I'm sure I could come up with a lot more authors who do that, too.

But I don't think Conan Doyle is one of them XD

Today I was skipping through my second volume of Holmes stories, and I came upon The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. It took place, Watson says, in 1892.

Dude, Holmes went off Reichenbach Falls in 1891, and didn't come back until 1894.

And the thing that frustrates me is that some of those who interpret this as "real" blame all of this on Watson. He's not that stupid, guys T_T I can see him messing up dates, sure. He had a pretty relaxed marriage, so he could have even conceivably forgotten what year he got married (though I don't think it's very plausible). But he wouldn't forget what years he thought Holmes was dead, for god's sake.

I guess my problem is that I interpret the characters as if they were real people (i.e. trying to defend Watson), but I don't interpret the other details as if they have to be true and I need to find some way to explain them.

Anyway, that was a very long round-about way of saying that I'm no longer going to worry too terribly much about things that I perceive as out of place when I'm reading these stories. This is a breakthrough for me, I assure you!

Comments

[redatt.livejournal.com]

Fan me simply tells herself that Watson changed the names and dates to protect the differently innocent -- or Holmes. Well, she does now. When she was twelve she had charts and a nervous twitch.

But I don't think Conan Doyle is one of them XD

Ha Ha! Understatement of the century :~D It's more than three-pipe problem (for those who care) and no mistake!

The trouble, of course, is that Conan Doyle unlike JKR, never set out to write a series. He had an idea for a character and a story and the public kept demanding more (whilst ignoring the things he wanted to write!) which he reluctantly supplied. The more it went on the less he cared about the little things.

BTW have you read the Professor Challenger or Brigadier Gerard stories? I was fond of those, too.

[templarwolf.livejournal.com]

Treize deserves so much better than Wufei...

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

I *so* need to read the Holmes stuff. I'm sure I've got a 'collected works' volume at home somewhere.

in amongst all the other mountains of books i've yet to read, obviously. :-)

[poelaramont.livejournal.com]

Apparently, Holmes and Watson are time travelers. That would explain some of the dates, at least.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Well, she does now. When she was twelve she had charts and a nervous twitch.

Eee, I <3 you! XD

That's a really good point about setting out to write a series. I'm so anal that if that happened to me, I'd have to cross-reference all my old stuff so I stayed consistent (and I'd curse myself for not thinking of it at the time).

I haven't read those! I shall have to find them :)

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, it's true XD He has Lady Une. If that's any consolation O_o

He totally loved driving Wufei crazy, though.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

I LOVE them XD As you, I'm sure, have noticed. I would recommend Hound of the Baskervilles and The Speckled Band as good ones to start with.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

It WOULD! Ha, why didn't I think of that?

[poelaramont.livejournal.com]

Well, Doyle didn't exactly go into detail about the mechanics of their time travel. I think it had something to do with Holmes's pipe.

[elaby.livejournal.com]

So THAT'S why he used such strong tobacco!

[janeturenne.livejournal.com]

Then there's the good old 'blame ACD while still playing the game' methodology. "It totally got butchered in the editing process! WATSON wrote it right, but ACD tweaked, and this is the result!" And on WIST, we can always blame Watson's handwriting. It could easily be a 7, rather than a 2...

Of course, this is all my way of saying "I can't stop playing the Game for more than 15 seconds at a time or my brain may implode" :)

[And yes, quite possibly I will go on commenting on old entries of yours all the livelong night. I'm sorry for the commentspam, but your entries are simply too wonderful to go uncommented upon once I've read them!]

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Eee, so many wonderful comments! I'm blessed! *dances*

Then there's the good old 'blame ACD while still playing the game' methodology.

Ahahaha, I hate that one even MORE XD The man made these characters up, for heaven's sake, even if he couldn't pay attention to his main character's first name, he deserves a little respect! Which I'm sure serious fans give him, of course, but when I first came across the phenomenon I was like "!!!"

Of course, this is all my way of saying "I can't stop playing the Game for more than 15 seconds at a time or my brain may implode" :)

It's FUN! I just wish I could turn off the "but some guy made all this up!" part of my brain and enjoy it XD

[janeturenne.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's my feeling on ACD: first off, I think that acknowledging that his characters are so vivid as to be functionally real is about the best possible compliment one could pay the man. As a writer, if I ever write a story that lives to utterly overshadow me, I'll be a happy woman, personally, and will be willing to shoulder as much posthumous abuse as my characters need me to :) I understand your position, but I don't think theres any Game-player who, if asked '''How do you feel about Sir Arthur?" would say anything less than "I adore him." We're mad, but not THAT mad.

The other thing, though, on the Holmes and Watson vs. Doyle rivalry: He totally started it. Doyle, that is. He killed Holmes, for goodness sake! On purpose, 'cause he hated the poor man! And he made derogatory comments about Watson's astuteness in the preface to the Case-Book, setting us all up for generations' worth of bumbling screen portrayals. I mean to say, it's hard to know quite how to take a man who wrote the characters one loves, and yet hated their guts and thought they were a waste of his precious time. It would already be a love-hate relationship between Holmesians and Doyle even without the Game, is what I'm trying to say. Mostly love, but yeah. I think the Facebook-official term is "It's complicated" ;)

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally agree with you, and I'm not saying that Doyle doesn't deserve the fans going "WTF, dude?" What should have said was that this was what I thought when I came upon the idea of the Game, before I knew any of the fans personally. Which is why I cringe sometimes when I read those old posts ^^;;

The other thing, though, on the Holmes and Watson vs. Doyle rivalry: He totally started it.

Ahaha! It's totally the truth! And that's one of the reasons I get so mad at him (that and his lack of continuity).

it's hard to know quite how to take a man who wrote the characters one loves, and yet hated their guts and thought they were a waste of his precious time.

Seriously, it's so true. And frustrating O_O I wonder if the creation of the Game was kind of spurred on by this, because of the desire to attribute these wonderful works to somebody who cared about them.

I really didn't mean to sound like I think people who play the Game are crazy ^^;; I meant that when I first happened upon the concept, I rebelled against it.

[janeturenne.livejournal.com]

(that and his lack of continuity)

D'you know, I kind of like the insane continuity. Or, at least, I'd miss it if it was gone, because it's so much fun to poke at and play with!

I really didn't mean to sound like I think people who play the Game are crazy

You definitely didn't come across that way, never fear! And we are crazy, but the good, fuzzy, huggable kind :)

[elaby.livejournal.com]

Huggable crazy is the best kind! *hugs you* And you know, you have a good point about the continuity. If it were perfect, what would I do with my time? It would be no fun that way!