#3GAB

[dailyholmes]

"'Stop! Where are you going?' 'To Scotland Yard.'" The Adventure of the Three Gables. Published in The Strand Magazine. Howard K. Elcock, 1926

Source

[eirinstiva]

Three what?

After reading The Adventure of the Three Gables (in English and Spanish) I almost throw away my copy of the book.

The title of this story is usually translated as La aventura de los tres gabletes, but my edition translated it as La aventura de los tres frontones so everytime I read the OG title I couldn't remember anything.

The translation in Todo Sherlock Holmes sounds slightly less racist because three words (black, n-word and another one) were translated for a neutral term in Spanish.

The notes of this story are mostly about "how ironic, sarcastic and funny" is this case, the comeback of Watson and the "wonderful Spanish eyes" that, maybe, bewitched Holmes.

Sir, did we read the same story?

To finish on a better note, let's enjoy the elegance of Mycroft, my toy penguin:

[stephensmithuk]

The Three Gables

The lack of posts on this one is a clear demonstration of the clear rejection of the racism running through this story.

I can't say that I'm particularly enthusiastic about doing this one, but I can't pretend this one doesn't exist.

Here we go then:

First published in 1926, the Americans again got this one first.

Boxing for money was heavily regulated to the point of outright bans in much of the United States; illegal fights would frequently end as "no contest" when the police turned up.

The Bull Ring in Birmingham is a major shopping area that goes back to a market established in 1154 under royal approval. The area is named for a ring of iron that bulls were tied to for the purposes of bull-baiting, a 'sport' banned in 1835.

The area was redeveloped in the 1960s into an enclosed shopping centre considered an epitome of Brutalist architecture and which became more unpopular over time. It was replaced in 2003 by a more modern centre, branded "Bullring" that is just as controversial.

Harrow Weald is a suburban area of what is now Greater London. It still contains a large amount of ancient woodland despite major development in the early 1930s, such as Harrow Weald Common.

One highly notable resident of the area was W.S. Gilbert of operetta fame, who lived at a house called Grim's Dyke and died of a heart attack in the lake in 1911 while saving a 17-year-old girl from drowning during a swimming lesson. The lake was mostly drained after that and what is left was filled with algae during my visit to the area early this year - the London Loop footpath goes through the area.

The "Weald Station" is probably, as per Bernard Davies, Harrow & Wealdstone station. This is today the northern terminus of the Bakerloo Line, which reached there in 1917 when services were extended on the newly electrified lines to Watford Junction; London Overground services call there on their way to the latter destination. LNWR and Southern services also are available, while Avanti West Coast and Caledonian Sleeper trains go through without stopping on platforms generally closed unless a train is calling there.

The station was also the site of the worst peacetime rail disaster in British history in 1952 (only the 1915 Quintinshill rail disaster has a higher death toll) - an express train collided with the rear of a local train in fog and then another express train hit the wreckage. 112 people died and 340 were injured. Since the crew of the express train died in the crash, the precise reason why they failed to respond to two signals was impossible to establish. The result of the report was a faster introduction into service of the Automatic Warning System or AWS that gives a driver an in-cab indication of the state of a signal by visual and auditory means.

A two-station branch line to Stanmore Village closed in 1964 as part of the Beeching cuts.

Paregoric is a 4% tincture of opium, then available over the counter without prescription. Its main uses would be for treating diarrhoea, treating teething pains in children and as a cough medicine. It is today a Schedule III controlled substance in the US i.e. prescription only.

Crown Derby refers to Royal Crown Derby, a porcelain company founded c.1750 and still going today; it may be the oldest still active company in that field in England.

Langdale Pike is clearly a pseudonym, referring to a series of peaks in the Lake District.

This is, fortunately, the only time we have the n-word being used in the canon. It was considered a crude term even then.

Pernambuco is a state in NE Brazil, then a centre of sugarcane cultivation, still a major part of its economy. It was historically Portuguese, not Spanish.

Yes, let's stereotype Latina women, shall we, Mr. Doyle? I'm not calling you Sir Arthur in this discussion; you're not acting like a knight.

This whole thing leaves a rather ugly taste and if I could strike a story from the canon, I would do it for this one.

[holmesillustrations]

Left: “Watson, would you be afraid to sleep in the same room with a lunatic?” Valley of Fear, Arthur I. Keller, GH Doran US Novel Feb 1915 Characters: Holmes, Watson

Right: “Holmes raised his pipe, languidly smiling.” Three Gables, FD Steele, Liberty Sep 1926 Characters: Holmes, 'Steve Dixie'

[skyriderwednesday]

November 15th Quick Chronology

I've moved things again! So in quick fashion... (bold titles changed, see bottom for notes)

GLOR - Summer 1875

MUSG - Spring 1879

STUD - Jan to Mar 1881

SHOS - May 1881

RESI - Oct 1881

YELL - Mar 1882

SPEC - Apr 1883

BERY - Feb 1884

LADY - May 1884

CHAS - Winter 1884

HOUN - Oct to Nov 1885

COPP - Spring 1886

GREE - Summer 1886

VALL - Jan 1887

REIG - Apr 1887

SIGN - Jul 1887

CARD - Aug 1887

NOBL - Oct 1887

SCAN - Mar 1888

STOC - Jun 1888

NAVA - Jul 1888

SECO - Jul 1888

CROO - Aug 1888

FIVE - Sep 1888

BOSC - Spring 1889

TWIS - Jun 1889

ENGI - Summer 1889

DYIN - Nov 1889

IDEN - Sep 1890

REDH - Oct 1890

BLUE - Dec 1890

FINA - Apr to May 1891

EMPT - Apr 1894

WIST - May 1894

NORW - Aug 1894

SILV - Sep 1894

GOLD - Nov 1894

REDC - Dec 1894

SOLI - Apr 1895

3STU - May 1895

BLAC - Jul 1895

BRUC - Nov 1895

VEIL - Early 1896

MISS - Feb 1896-7

ABBE - Feb 1897

DEVI - Mar 1897

SIXN - May or Jun 1898

DANC - Jul 1898

SUSS - Nov 1898

RETI - Summer 1899

PRIO - May 1901

THOR - Oct 1901

3GAR - Jun 1902

ILLU - Sep 1902

BLAN - Jan 1903

MAZA - Summer 1903

3GAB - Summer 1903

CREE - Sep 1903

LION - Jul 1907

LAST - Aug 1914

Notes:

LADY, moved to May 1884: Lady Frances Carfax originally disappeared (sorry) in Spring 1901. After discussions started by LFW reaching it, I've decided it makes more sense pre-Hiatus and early(ish) in the canon.

COPP, moved to Spring 1886: The Copper Beeches originally sat in the spot now occupied by Lady Frances in Spring 1884. I shifted it ahead by two years because Holmes needs more time to get sick of young lady clients.

SILV: Please do not @ me about Silver Blaze. It's my chronology and I only care about publication dates when it's funny/historical.

REDC: I'm still unhappy with The Red Circle being in December 1894. If anyone has any better ideas for when it takes place, I'm all ears.

[darchildre]

Because of my current Rathbone Holmes project, I keep thinking that maybe when I'm done reading all the Raffles ever, I should do a general reread of the Holmes canon. Like I mentioned last night, there are stories that I very rarely reread and it could be fun to do that again.

And then I remember that this would also mean rereading, y'know, LION and 3GAB, etc, and then I decide that I don't need to do that.

[oldfashionedbooklove]

REDC : The Adventure of the Red Circle

REDH : The Red-Headed League

REIG : The Adventure of the Reigate Squire

RESI : The Adventure of the Resident Patient

RETI : The Adventure of the Retired Colourman

SCAN : A Scandal in Bohemia

SECO : The Adventure of the Second Stain

SHOS : The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place

SIGN : The Sign of Four

SILV : The Adventure of Silver Blaze

SIXN : The Adventure of the Six Napoleons

SOLI : The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist

SPEC : The Adventure of the Speckled Band

STOC : The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk

STUD : A Study in Scarlet

SUSS : The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire

THOR : The Problem of Thor Bridge

3GAB : The Adventure of the Three Gables

3GAR : The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

3STU : The Adventure of the Three Students

TWIS : The Man with the Twisted Lip

VALL : The Valley of Fear

VEIL : The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

WATS : How Watson Learned the Trick

WIST : The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge

YELL : The Adventure of the Yellow Face

I absolutely need to memorize the abbreviations for the Sherlock Holmes stories.

From https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Abbreviations_for_the_Sherlock_Holmes_stories:

ABBE : The Adventure of the Abbey Grange

BAZA : The Field Bazaar

BERY : The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

BLAC : The Adventure of Black Peter

BLAN : The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

BLUE : The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

BOSC : The Boscombe Valley Mystery

BRUC : The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

CARD : The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

CHAS : The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton

COPP : The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

CREE : The Adventure of the Creeping Man

CROO : The Adventure of the Crooked Man

DANC : The Adventure of the Dancing Men

DEVI : The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

DYIN : The Adventure of the Dying Detective

EMPT : The Adventure of the Empty House

ENGR : The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb

FINA : The Adventure of the Final Problem

FIVE : The Five Orange Pips

GLOR : The Adventure of the Gloria Scott

GOLD : The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez

GREE : The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter

HOUN : The Hound of the Baskervilles

IDEN : A Case of Identity

ILLU : The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

LADY : The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

LAST : His Last Bow

LION : The Adventure of the Lion's Mane

MAZA : The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

MISS : The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter

MUSG : The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual

NAVA : The Adventure of the Naval Treaty

NOBL : The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

NORW : The Adventure of the Norwood Builder

PREF : Preface

PRIO : The Adventure of the Priory School

[astudyinimagination]

Also I need suggestions for face-claims for Isadora Klein from “The Three Gables.” Right now, Michelle Gomez is the only actress I can think of offhand who’s Spanish/Hispanic, 40s/50s-ish, and very beautiful. If anybody has some other recommendations along those lines, please reply! ;)

[travelingwithoutthedoctor]

Holmes is absolutely unimpressed by a woman.

[sarahthecoat]

mmhmm, and i can't miss that bit about "the man whom above all others i revere"!

Martin is not involved in the game/play/etc because John's ""not important"" in this part of the story?

No, it’s actually way cleverer than that. @devoursjohnlock​ touched on “John erasure” over a year ago in this meta (x), but basically, in the Case-Book era of stories, or rather, everything written from The Valley of Fear and after, Watson starts to downplay his own role in the cases:

Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificantpersonality and to describe events which occurred before we arrivedupon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards.

– The Valley of Fear (1914)

There remain a considerable residue of cases… […] In some I was myself concerned and can speak as an eye-witness, while in others I was either not present or played so small a part that they could only be told as by a third person.

– The Problem of Thor Bridge (1922)

His Last Bow (1917) is written in third person. The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone (1921) is written in third person. Holmes narrates two – The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier (1926) and The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane (1926) – and Watson isn’t even in them. People are really indignant about John’s diminished role in S4 but the fact is, it fits with canon perfectly.

But when you look at the other Case-book stories, you realize that while Watson leaves himself out of the surface narrative, he’s actually using the cases to vague about his own life’s drama in far more graphic detail than would ever be otherwise appropriate. He’s using his personal turmoil as inspiration; he’s using characters as mirrors to blab about his own private affairs. And then, in case you couldn’t figure out that was what Watson was doing, Watson writes up a case where a guy literally does this:

Could I have believed that a gentleman would do such an act? He wrote a book in which he described his own story. I, of course, was the wolf, he was the lamb. It was all there, under different names, of course, but who in all London would have failed to recognize it?

– The Adventure of the Three Gables (1926)

So while in some ways John is erasing himself from the narrative, in other ways the narrative is more about John than ever. Just like S4.

Apart from these unfathomed cases, there are some which involve the secrets of private families to an extent which would mean consternation in many exalted quarters if it were thought possible that they might find their way into print. I need not say that such a breach of confidence is unthinkable, and that these records will be separated and destroyed now that my friend has time to turn his energies to the matter. There remain a considerable residue of cases of greater or less interest which I might have edited before had I not feared to give the public a surfeit which might react upon the reputation of the man whom above all others I revere.In some I was myself concerned and can speak as an eye-witness, while in others I was either not present or played so small a part that they could only be told as by a third person. The following narrative is drawn from my own experience.

– The Problem of Thor Bridge (1922)

He’s telling you: “The following narrative is drawn from my own experience.”

[bohemiansoulscanondiscussion]

I think it is of help, without my giving away any plot points, to mention that the word “creature” has a more obscure definition in use in Victorian times that I believe applies in STUD. It can mean a servant or someone under the control of another. So the use of “creature” to describe a certain character is not as negative as one might think- in terms of being either inhuman or exoticised. ACD uses “creature” in this sense in a later story, The Mazarin Stone: “..you have gone out of your way to annoy me. Because you have put your creatures upon my track.” “My creatures! I assure you, no!” “Nonsense! I have had them followed. Two can play at that game, Holmes.” … “I assure you you are mistaken about my alleged agents.” And again in Lady Carfax; “I had no difficulty in finding the ex-servant and in learning all that she could tell me. She was a devoted creature, who had only left her mistress because she was sure that she was in good hands.” There are certainly many other times in Canon where the word is used to put someone apart from humanity (SIGN) or to show a degree of attraction (3GAB), or that someone is especially exotic (THOR), but I don’t think there is negativity in its use in STUD.

[holmesillustrations]

oh another story fully out of the game: 3 gables is defeated!

[skyriderwednesday]

November 21st Quick Chronology

Update! I now like where I've put all the stories!! (Recent changes in bold, see bottom for notes)

GLOR - Summer 1875

MUSG - Spring 1879

STUD - Jan to Mar 1881

SHOS - May 1881

RESI - Oct 1881

YELL - Mar 1882

SPEC - Apr 1883

BERY - Feb 1884

LADY - May 1884

CHAS - Winter 1884

REDC - Jan 1885

HOUN - Oct to Nov 1885

COPP - Spring 1886

GREE - Summer 1886

VALL - Jan 1887

REIG - Apr 1887

SIGN - Jul 1887

CARD - Aug 1887

NOBL - Oct 1887

SCAN - Mar 1888

STOC - Jun 1888

NAVA - Jul 1888

SECO - Jul 1888

CROO - Aug 1888

FIVE - Sep 1888

BOSC - Spring 1889

TWIS - Jun 1889

ENGI - Summer 1889

DYIN - Nov 1889

IDEN - Sep 1890

REDH - Oct 1890

BLUE - Dec 1890

FINA - Apr to May 1891

EMPT - Apr 1894

WIST - May 1894

NORW - Aug 1894

SILV - Sep 1894

GOLD - Nov 1894

SOLI - Apr 1895

3STU - May 1895

BLAC - Jul 1895

BRUC - Nov 1895

VEIL - Early 1896

MISS - Feb 1896-7

ABBE - Feb 1897

DEVI - Mar 1897

SIXN - May/Jun 1898

DANC - Jul 1898

SUSS - Nov 1898

RETI - Summer 1899

PRIO - May 1901

THOR - Oct 1901

3GAR - Jun 1902

ILLU - Sep 1902

BLAN - Jan 1903

MAZA - Summer 1903

3GAB - Summer 1903

CREE - Sep 1903

LION - Jul 1907

LAST - Aug 1914

Notes:

LADY, moved to May 1884: Lady Frances Carfax originally disappeared (sorry) in Spring 1901. After discussions started by LFW reaching it, I've decided it makes more sense pre-Hiatus and early(ish) in the canon.

REDC, moved to January 1885: The Red Circle was originally shoved into December 1894 because I had no idea where else to put it, but I have since realised it makes way more sense as an earlier case. Thank you @transholmes for the suggestion.

COPP, moved to Spring 1886: The Copper Beeches originally sat in the spot now occupied by Lady Frances in Spring 1884. I shifted it ahead by two years because Holmes needs more time to get sick of young lady clients.

SILV: Please do not @ me about Silver Blaze. It's my chronology and I only care about publication dates when it's funny/historical.

[sarahthecoat]

wow, you're right, i re read the description of the woman, and it does sound like a description of holmes! no wonder mofftiss picked up on that, with their penchant for mirroring!

also that TAB starts with another echo of the scene, again with "mary" in the veil. (but no shooting this time)

By Elizabeth Carolyn Miller

The Perils of Public Visibility

Conan Doyle’s resistance to visually identifying the female criminal sometimes appears, nonetheless, as a denial of women’s public subjectivity, a refusal to grant women full citizenry by refusing to grant them full criminality. The anonymous female avenger in “Charles Augustus Milverton” perfectly exemplifies this tendency in the series. Despite the violence of the murder she enacts, Holmes keeps her publicly invisible by chivalrously covering up her deed; her name remains a secret even to readers of the story. This is not the only case where Holmes opts not to pursue legal redress after discovering a crime, but it is the most obviously illegal instance, since he actually witnesses the murder. On the night in question, Holmes and Watson break into the home of Milverton, a blackmailer, to secure some letters written by Holmes’s client, Lady Eva. While searching his study, they inadvertently witness Milverton’s meeting with a lady’s maid who has offered to sell him her mistress’s letters. Page  63

“You couldn’t come any other time—eh?”

Fig. 14. From “Charles Augustus Milverton”

Page  64

The maid turns out to be a former victim in disguise. Milverton previously exposed her secret letters to her husband, who died from the shock, and she has returned to enact revenge.

In describing the interplay between Holmes, Milverton, and the avenger, Conan Doyle orchestrates a complicated interplay of the visible and the invisible. An illustration of the avenger shows her thickly veiled—utterly obscured by the accoutrement of feminine propriety (figure 14). Secreted behind a curtain, Holmes and Watson witness her visual revelation: “The woman without a word had raised her veil and dropped the mantle from her chin. It was a dark, handsome, clear-cut face which confronted Milverton, a face with a curved nose, strong, dark eyebrows, shading hard, glittering eyes, and a straight, thin-lipped mouth set in a dangerous smile” (171). While suggesting formidability, this description counters the visual criminal theory of criminologists like Lombroso, who claimed female criminals have racialized or masculine features such as a heavy jaw (102). The avenger speaks:

“It is I … the woman whose life you have ruined. … you sent the letters to my husband, and he—the noblest gentleman that ever lived, a man whose boots I was never worthy to lace—he broke his gallant heart and died. … You will ruin no more lives as you ruined mine. You will wring no more hearts as you wrung mine. I will free the world of a poisonous thing. Take that, you hound, and that!—and that!—and that!—and that!”

She had drawn a little gleaming revolver, and emptied barrel after barrel into Milverton’s body, the muzzle within two feet of his shirt front. … Then he staggered to his feet, received another shot, and rolled upon the floor. “You’ve done me,” he cried, and lay still. The woman looked at him intently and ground her heel into his upturned face. She looked again, but there was no sound or movement. I heard a sharp rustle, the night air blew into the heated room, and the avenger was gone. (171–72)

This passage depicts one of the most violent murders committed by a woman in turn-of-the-century fiction, and its graphic illustration brought that violence home to readers (figure 15). Despite the woman’s ferocity, however, Conan Doyle takes pains to rationalize—even defend—her act. Her invocation of her husband and her insistence on her own humility position her squarely in the tradition of self-renunciatory Victorian wifeliness. The scandalous letters do not challenge this characterization:Page  65

“Then he staggered to his feet and recieved another shot.”

Page  66

we know from Lady Eva’s case that most of the letters in which Milverton traffics were written when the women were young and unmarried, and Holmes describes Lady Eva’s letters as “imprudent, Watson, nothing worse” (159). Watson’s reference to Milverton’s killer as an “avenger” also serves to justify her act, as does her seemingly selfless invocation of Milverton’s future victims.

Holmes and Watson choose not to expose the avenger. When Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard tries to enlist Holmes’s help in solving the case, obviously unaware that he witnessed the murder, Holmes replies, “there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge. … My sympathies are with the criminals rather than with the victim, and I will not handle this case” (174). Even in the moment of watching the woman unload her pistol into Milverton’s breast, while Watson reacts, Holmes holds him back:

No interference upon our part could have saved the man from his fate; but as the woman poured bullet after bullet into Milverton’s shrinking body, I was about to spring out, when I felt Holmes’s cold, strong grasp upon my wrist. I understood the whole argument of that firm, restraining grip—that it was no affair of ours; that justice had overtaken a villain. … But hardly had the woman rushed from the room when Holmes, with swift, silent steps, was over at the other door. He turned the key in the lock. At the same instant we heard voices in the house and the sound of hurrying feet. The revolver shots had roused the household. With perfect coolness Holmes slipped across to the safe, filled his two arms with bundles of letters, and poured them all into the fire. Again and again he did it, until the safe was empty. Someone turned the handle and beat upon the outside of the door. … “This way, Watson,” said he; “we can scale the garden wall in this direction.” (172–73)

Holmes not only keeps quiet about the murder, but seizes the opportunity to actively cover it up and destroy all of the compromising letters in Milverton’s safe. Committed in cold blood, with premeditation, this crime would presumably be quite disturbing to contemporary readers: a woman shooting a man with a phallic gun in his own study is a perfect example of the kind of invading and destructive threat that characterized many representations of first-wave feminism.[34] In covering the woman’s act, however, Holmes ensures that the avenger will remain outside of the public forums of the newspaper, courts, and legal system. Indeed, the female avenger remains anonymous even on a metafictional level, for Watson refuses to reveal her name even to the “public” readership of the story.

Conan Doyle’s discomfort with women in public cannot alone account for his shocking and remarkable female avenger, however; it does not explain why he makes her at once so appalling and so appealing. He takes a potentially threatening woman and normalizes her by providing justification for her act and presenting her as a loyal and loving wife; but he goes on to present her, like Irene Adler, as an object of public desire, idolization, and glamorization. At the end of the story, gazing into “a shop window filled with photographs of the celebrities and beauties of the day,” Holmes recognizes what we might call the “mug shot” for the anonymous avenger:

Holmes’s eyes fixed themselves upon one of [the photographs], and following his gaze I saw the picture of a regal and stately lady in Court dress, with a high diamond tiara upon her noble head. I looked at that delicately curved nose, at the marked eyebrows, at the straight mouth, and the strong little chin beneath it. Then I caught my breath as I read the time-honoured title of the great nobleman and statesman whose wife she had been. My eyes met those of Holmes, and he put his finger to his lips as we turned away from the window. (174–75)

Shop window photography promoting “celebrities and beauties of the day” was part of the new visual landscape of Victorian consumerism. Just as magazine illustrations and newly visual textual formats transformed the medium in which readers encountered crime fiction and other narratives, the display of famous women’s photographs as a means of selling products helped shift public culture toward the visual, consumerist, and feminine. Here, Conan Doyle portrays one such woman—displayed in all her aristocratic splendor to encourage others’ consumption—as a murderer, a sharp distinction from what she appears to signify on a visual, imagistic level. The Holmes series on the whole presents criminality and truth as visually ascertainable categories, but when depicting female criminality, it suggests that the orchestration and framing of an image determines its meaning. Here, the murderer’s photograph is a marketing tool, not a revelation of essential identity. Rather than a low brow, sensuous lips, or a misshapen ear, she has a tiara. The photograph represents the avenger’s invulnerability: she gets away with murder in part because of her social standing, but more obviouslyPage  68

“Following his gaze I saw the picture of a regal and stately lady in court dress.”

Page  69

because of her image. Conan Doyle’s depiction of the avenger encapsulates the entire series’ ambivalence about the female criminal, who represents a newly roused feminist power, the failures of patriarchy, and the consumerist appeal of feminine disobedience. The anonymous avenger is not a figure of criminal degeneracy, but of glamour and beauty; she is appealing rather than repulsive to readers. As the illustration accompanying this scene shows, she is literally a representation for the public to admire (figure 16). Thus, while Conan Doyle’s stories do commodify feminine victimization, their commodification of feminine violence and criminality is even more significant. At a historical moment when a faction of the suffrage campaign was becoming ever more violent in its acts of civil disobedience, Conan Doyle’s 1904 story banks on the allure of feminine disobedience for readers. The avenger puts the anger of first-wave feminism into an exquisite, consumable package. Like other female offenders in the series, her image and body project fantasy and glamour rather than criminological stigmata; she suits a consumerist model of vision rather than an anthropological or criminological one. In consumerist discourse, as I discuss in the introduction, to be visible and noticeable is a form of power rather than submission. Late- nineteenth-century advertisers and marketers preached, unlike Holmes, that it was better to be looked at than to look. They also defined, however, what kind of feminine embodiment was worthy of the gaze. Consumerism redefined femininity as public and visible, but only when it conformed to the logic of consumerism.

Given the series’s apparent investment in a criminological theory of vision, one would expect its female criminals to be easily identifiable, but envisioning women is an activity fraught with problems for Holmes, the otherwise expert eye. Women criminals prove capable of resisting the detective’s gaze, and Conan Doyle makes a sustained case for legal interventionism, which he associates (not unproblematically) with state feminism rather than state paternalism. Thus, at the turn of the twentieth century, Conan Doyle’s stories put forth a far more compound and ambivalent theory of gender, vision, and the public than has been previously acknowledged; they support the authority of the gaze and locate ontology in image, except when depicting women criminals. In these instances, Conan Doyle’s detective fiction prefigures filmic genres like film noir, in which femmes fatales reveal a great “truth” about the visual landscape of modern urban culture: that the unknowable is not signified by the invisible, but by a peculiarly modern disjunction between the visible and the real.”

This is an interesting article but it reminded me wasn’t there a meta or mention of a theory saying that it might have been Holmes who actually killed Milverton?

@sarahthecoat​ @ebaeschnbliah​ @raggedyblue​ @therealsaintscully​

[thetimemoves]

Writer Meme

I was tagged by @discordantwords and @calaisreno - thank you!

Name: thetimemoves / thetimemoves(WriteOut) on AO3

Fandoms: BBC Sherlock

Where you post: AO3

Most popular multi-chapter: I’ve not yet written one! I’ve got three multi-chapter WIPs, coincidentally all BBC updates of canon stories, so we’ll see how those turn out.

Fic you were most nervous to post: It’s always nerve-wracking, but I’ll say Abditory, which was my first fic. Even though I’d been reading Sherlock fic since 2011, I was super late to the fic-writing party and didn’t join until after S4. I had no idea what to expect. I followed my first fic up with a Sally Donovan-centric fic, Carpe Vinum. It was only my second story and I wasn’t sure how it would be received. Based on hits/kudos, it’s my least popular work, but it found a lovely and receptive audience. I’m quite fond of my Sally and plan on writing more.

How do you choose your titles: They’re usually the first thing about a story to come to me. Bits from songs, poems, and canon stories seem to be the most popular for me so far. I’m pleased with most and wish I could retitle one or two.

Do you outline: Not really, hence my growing list of unfinished multi-chaptered WIPs. I make lots of notes, which are fine for shorter stories, but I’m learning I need more structure for the longer ones. 

Complete: 15! Who would’ve thought? NOT ME. 7 of those are 221b ficlets, which I’ve discovered I love to write.

In progress: Let’s not talk about my 2018 Spook Me fic about the Bogeyman. Okay, fine. Yesterday Upon the Stair (title is tentative, might just be straightforward and call it Bogeyman). John and Sherlock are on a nasty case involving a serial burglar turned possible serial killer. The fic is set in the present day (not sure when in canon, maybe post-S3) as they have their final confrontation with the Bogeyman, but it relies heavily on flashbacks that both set up the case and (hopefully) provide some insight into John’s background and character. I REALLY want to finish this one. I’m quite pleased with what I’ve done so far, but need to take time to fully flesh out the story. 

Ironically, I saw a Tumblr post this week that talks about the proper way to use flashbacks and I’m pretty sure my fic breaks all those rules. Ah well. 

And then there is Of Shags and Squires. A BBC ‘verse update of REIG that I’ve mixed up with the legend of the Buckland Shag, a local legend I stumbled across by accident when doing some area research. The story follows canon loosely, in that John drags a recovering and reluctant Sherlock down to the countryside to relax. As in canon, their relaxing weekend goes sideways when they get caught up in a case, only this time it’s not as straightforward a solution.

Coming but not soon:  A BBC ‘verse updated of 3GAB centered around Sally Donavan (her POV, her story) and a BBC ‘verse update of GLOR that will feature my version of Victor Trevor. Whee!! Sherlock takes a case that opens up his past. That one will be titled The Ghosts of Our Old Lovers. 

Do you accept prompts? Sure, although the only prompts I’ve so far written have been for the Holmestice exchange. I do love writing 221b ficlets and would happily try my hand at any prompts for those. Longer stories, probably not right now.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: Each one excites me in some way, but I’m really stoked to write Victor Trevor and his mother (not father) Alice Trevor.

Upcoming story you are most excited about: my FTH story by @reveling-in-mayhem! It’s going to be so. so. good. I’m following lots of excellent WIPs, there’s my ever-growing MFL list, and finally all of the upcoming fics I’m seeing in these memes. Yay!! There’s no such thing as too many fics, but there is certainly too little time in which to read them all! 

If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged. I’d love to know what everyone is working on these days! Fics, vids, art, anything. 

[swissmissficrecs]

Word count: 7,685 Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Sexual Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Larry Townsend Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Isadora Klein/Susan Stockdale, Isadora Klein/Duke of Lomond Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Steve Dixie, Isadora Klein, Susan Stockdale Additional Tags: Oral Sex, BDSM, Dom/sub, Caning, Nipple Clamps, pain play, Exhibitionism, Impromptu Sex Party, Canon-Typical Purple Prose, Infinite Queerness in Infinite Combinations, Story: The Adventure of the Three Gables, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, The Shocking Truth The Strand Refused to Print!! Summary:

Another manuscript from the secret journals of Dr John Watson: In an encounter later rewritten and published under the title of "The Three Gables," Holmes assists a member of the Tribadic Tribe who is being blackmailed by a former lover. In thanks, he and Watson are treated to a demonstration of feminine courage and devotion.

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Quickrec: Holy moly, this fic does not mess around! I’m not familiar with the pastiche it’s based on, but suffice it to say it is an unrepentantly smutty, porny ACD verse where everyone has a good old free-spirited Bohemian time. With the bonus of a fresh rendition of 3GAB.