"Thou art too damned jolly. Sail on." Herman Melville in Moby Dick
Current book-selection rotation: B, M, J, A, K
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
SACD's Sherlock Holmes - "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
Angie chose "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" for her selection of SACD's Sherlock Holmes collection, based solely on the mirth alluded to in the title.
Unfortunately, the mirth alluded to in the title did not appear in the story. In fact, this is one of the stories with an unhappy ending- good choice, Angie!
It was impressive that Holmes could figure out the secret writing. I was assuming that it had something to do with the flag code used in the military.
Having watched my mom work the Anagram (I think that's what the paper calls it) every day of my life, I was reasonably certain that each drawing represented a letter, especially after I noted that some repeated. Like Holmes, I guessed the E correctly, but alas, I was in the laundrymat at the time and didn't have any instruments with which to sit and figure the others.
I really liked that it did not end happily - how macabre - but it's refreshing to have a strong lead character that doesn't always get his man, or act quickly enough, or figure it out in time. C'est la vie, non?
I find myself wishing that there was a line (_____________do not read further, Holmes will reveal the solution in the following 2 paragraphs_____________) in each story so that I would be able to stop and reflect and try to piece together a guess.. I suppose you can generally tell when he's getting ready to solve, but I tend to read so fast that before I know it I've read too much!
This week I've also read The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips (or something like that) The Adventure of the Naval Treaty (parts I and II) and maybe one more but the titel escapes me now. I am very much enjoying this selection - the length of the stories is just what we needed after 600 pages of fluff.
So have you tried to put some Holmes-like reasoning to work yet? Seen anything peculiar and tried to reason back as to why it is so?
This is the exchange that really started me thinking that my short term memory is crap, and that I will probably never make moonlighting as a detective/investigator:
"Here are the missing links in a very simple chain: 1. You had chalk between your left finger and thumb when you returned from the club last night. 2. You put chalk there when you play billiards to steady the cue. 3. You never play billiards except with Thurston. 4. You had told me four weeks ago that Thurston had an option on some South African property which would exire in a month, and which he desired you o hare with him. 5. Your cheque-book is locked in my drawer, and you have not asked for the key. 6. You do not propose to invest your money in this manner."
I'd also love to find out how it is that Holmes and Watso came to live together. if you run across that little blip in "Scarlet," please post about it.
I prefer happy endings myself- read more under "Study in Scarlet". I have tried to put the clues together, but I don't think that SACD gives us enought to really figure it out. For example, for this story, while I figured out quite early that it was some sort of code and had to do with her past, I didn't know enought about her past to be able to figure out who it was. Also, I don't really like to take the time to work on it. I'm really that lazy. I know Sherlock Holmes will solve it so I just read to that part.
Why don't you open posts for the other two stories? I'll read them this weekend.
4 comments:
Unfortunately, the mirth alluded to in the title did not appear in the story. In fact, this is one of the stories with an unhappy ending- good choice, Angie!
It was impressive that Holmes could figure out the secret writing. I was assuming that it had something to do with the flag code used in the military.
Having watched my mom work the Anagram (I think that's what the paper calls it) every day of my life, I was reasonably certain that each drawing represented a letter, especially after I noted that some repeated. Like Holmes, I guessed the E correctly, but alas, I was in the laundrymat at the time and didn't have any instruments with which to sit and figure the others.
I really liked that it did not end happily - how macabre - but it's refreshing to have a strong lead character that doesn't always get his man, or act quickly enough, or figure it out in time. C'est la vie, non?
I find myself wishing that there was a line (_____________do not read further, Holmes will reveal the solution in the following 2 paragraphs_____________) in each story so that I would be able to stop and reflect and try to piece together a guess.. I suppose you can generally tell when he's getting ready to solve, but I tend to read so fast that before I know it I've read too much!
This week I've also read
The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips (or something like that)
The Adventure of the Naval Treaty (parts I and II)
and maybe one more but the titel escapes me now.
I am very much enjoying this selection - the length of the stories is just what we needed after 600 pages of fluff.
So have you tried to put some Holmes-like reasoning to work yet? Seen anything peculiar and tried to reason back as to why it is so?
This is the exchange that really started me thinking that my short term memory is crap, and that I will probably never make moonlighting as a detective/investigator:
"Here are the missing links in a very simple chain: 1. You had chalk between your left finger and thumb when you returned from the club last night. 2. You put chalk there when you play billiards to steady the cue. 3. You never play billiards except with Thurston. 4. You had told me four weeks ago that Thurston had an option on some South African property which would exire in a month, and which he desired you o hare with him. 5. Your cheque-book is locked in my drawer, and you have not asked for the key. 6. You do not propose to invest your money in this manner."
I'd also love to find out how it is that Holmes and Watso came to live together. if you run across that little blip in "Scarlet," please post about it.
I prefer happy endings myself- read more under "Study in Scarlet". I have tried to put the clues together, but I don't think that SACD gives us enought to really figure it out. For example, for this story, while I figured out quite early that it was some sort of code and had to do with her past, I didn't know enought about her past to be able to figure out who it was. Also, I don't really like to take the time to work on it. I'm really that lazy. I know Sherlock Holmes will solve it so I just read to that part.
Why don't you open posts for the other two stories? I'll read them this weekend.
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