Five Orange Pips
Jul. 22nd, 2020 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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victorian221bThis story is very interesting from a chronological point of view, and because of that it shaped my headcanons in many ways.
1) “My wife was on a visit to her mother’s, and for a few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker Street.”
Mary Morstan is an orphan, and it’s September ‘87 whereas SIGN took place exactly a year later. Besides, what married man runs away to stay with his friend once his wife is out of the door?
Maybe it’s a mysterious wife, who, according to some scholars, was before Mary? But no, a few paragraphs below we have:
“I think, Watson,” he remarked at last, “that of all our cases we have had none more fantastic than this.”
“Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four.”
“Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that.”
There is also confusion regarding SCAN:
“I have been beaten four times—three times by men, and once by a woman.”
If that woman is Irene Adler, SCAN took place in ‘88 according to what Watson tells us. But basing on the circumstances of SCAN, namely that Adler’s marriage had to be solemnised before 12 o’clock, SCAN took place before the Marriages Act of ‘86 came into force (more about it in the previous discussion), hence SCAN took place before ‘86 and the discrepancy in the chronology of these two cases disappears.
2) The sweet domesticity
“Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime”
Holmes updates his indexes which must be a painstaking process and has to be done regularly.
“Except yourself I have none,” he answered. “I do not encourage visitors.”
Despite having numerous acquaintances who later could be called friends, like Lestrade, Holmes has no close friends except Watson.
3) Holmes's humanity and Watson's doctoring
“Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air.”
“Again Holmes raved in the air.”
Emotional, isn't he, for a cold reasoner? I actually have a mighty need for an adaptation where Holmes shakes his fists in the air.
“We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and shaken than I had ever seen him.”
Holmes cares deeply for people who come to him asking for help. He takes to heart what happens to them. Hardly a thing a cold, detached reasoner would do.
“I shall be my own police”
Here Holmes already doesn't hesitate to take matters into his own hands without involving the police and to act as a vigilante instead.
“All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in the evening before I returned to Baker Street.”
A second instance when Watson is actually busy doctoring.
“He walked up to the sideboard, and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, washing it down with a long draught of water.”
Holmes does eat while on a case, if he's done his thinking and remembered his body's needs.
4) The case itself
According to Wikipedia, the first iteration of KKK was suppressed by the government around 1872, and didn't suddenly disperse by itself in 1869. Reconstruction of the Southern states and carpetbaggers can also be easily looked up, so I won't copy the definitions here.
I wonder why KKK hunted the Openshaw family within several years interval? Why did they not try to ransack the house after killing the uncle? They could pose as common robbers or something.
Why did then KKK kill the father and Openshaw himself after some time since their respective coming into inheritance?
Why different ports—Pondicherry in India, Dundee in Scotland, and finally London? Because the gang was in hiding and its different members operated independently?
And lastly, I wrote a short fic a while ago about Watson comforting Holmes after the events of the Five Orange Pips.
The Conductor of Light (T, ~1,600 words)
Edit: see Pip-themed recs byrachelindeed in the comments!
1) “My wife was on a visit to her mother’s, and for a few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker Street.”
Mary Morstan is an orphan, and it’s September ‘87 whereas SIGN took place exactly a year later. Besides, what married man runs away to stay with his friend once his wife is out of the door?
Maybe it’s a mysterious wife, who, according to some scholars, was before Mary? But no, a few paragraphs below we have:
“I think, Watson,” he remarked at last, “that of all our cases we have had none more fantastic than this.”
“Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four.”
“Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that.”
There is also confusion regarding SCAN:
“I have been beaten four times—three times by men, and once by a woman.”
If that woman is Irene Adler, SCAN took place in ‘88 according to what Watson tells us. But basing on the circumstances of SCAN, namely that Adler’s marriage had to be solemnised before 12 o’clock, SCAN took place before the Marriages Act of ‘86 came into force (more about it in the previous discussion), hence SCAN took place before ‘86 and the discrepancy in the chronology of these two cases disappears.
2) The sweet domesticity
“Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime”
Holmes updates his indexes which must be a painstaking process and has to be done regularly.
“Except yourself I have none,” he answered. “I do not encourage visitors.”
Despite having numerous acquaintances who later could be called friends, like Lestrade, Holmes has no close friends except Watson.
3) Holmes's humanity and Watson's doctoring
“Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air.”
“Again Holmes raved in the air.”
Emotional, isn't he, for a cold reasoner? I actually have a mighty need for an adaptation where Holmes shakes his fists in the air.
“We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and shaken than I had ever seen him.”
Holmes cares deeply for people who come to him asking for help. He takes to heart what happens to them. Hardly a thing a cold, detached reasoner would do.
“I shall be my own police”
Here Holmes already doesn't hesitate to take matters into his own hands without involving the police and to act as a vigilante instead.
“All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in the evening before I returned to Baker Street.”
A second instance when Watson is actually busy doctoring.
“He walked up to the sideboard, and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, washing it down with a long draught of water.”
Holmes does eat while on a case, if he's done his thinking and remembered his body's needs.
4) The case itself
According to Wikipedia, the first iteration of KKK was suppressed by the government around 1872, and didn't suddenly disperse by itself in 1869. Reconstruction of the Southern states and carpetbaggers can also be easily looked up, so I won't copy the definitions here.
I wonder why KKK hunted the Openshaw family within several years interval? Why did they not try to ransack the house after killing the uncle? They could pose as common robbers or something.
Why did then KKK kill the father and Openshaw himself after some time since their respective coming into inheritance?
Why different ports—Pondicherry in India, Dundee in Scotland, and finally London? Because the gang was in hiding and its different members operated independently?
And lastly, I wrote a short fic a while ago about Watson comforting Holmes after the events of the Five Orange Pips.
The Conductor of Light (T, ~1,600 words)
Edit: see Pip-themed recs by
rachelindeed in the comments!
