The Lion's Mane

[Hikari]

For real, y'all--this is the real deal.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/animals/have-you-ever-seen-a-jellyfish-this-big/vi-BBSJZLZ

This largest species of jellyfish is the 'villain' in the Sherlock-narrated story, "The Lion's Mane".

I really enjoy reading Sherl in his own voice . . but in my opinion the Great Detective was not firing on all cylinders in this post-retirement case from Sussex.

Having a Holmes so distracted by an 18-year-old local beauty that he's decidedly slow in his brain work on the case is more than a little unsettling.  Maud Bellamy is *not* The Woman, after all.

[besleybean]

I've read it 2 or 3 times and I really didn't get the distraction thing...possibly I should read it again.

[Juggler]

TERRIBLE. The clues in the title !!! 😕

Saying that, im sure when it was written readers were less aware of the wildlife of the world. They didnt have documentaries e.g The Blue Planet played on a constant loop, introducing us to less heard of creatures.

[besleybean]

I confess it's one of my favourite stories...

However, I do remember guessing the solution straight away and thinking Holmes a bit stupid for not doing so!

[Carol the Dabbler]

From Wikipedia:

Quote

The largest recorded specimen, found washed up on the shore of Massachusetts Bay in 1870, had a bell with a diameter of 2.3 metres (7 ft 6 in) and tentacles 37 m (120 ft) long.

 

[Hikari]

3 hours ago, Juggler said:

TERRIBLE. The clues in the title !!! 😕

Saying that, im sure when it was written readers were less aware of the wildlife of the world. They didnt have documentaries e.g The Blue Planet played on a constant loop, introducing us to less heard of creatures.

Well . . I think Sherlock named his story . .(excuse me, his 'Official Case Record') after he had discovered the culprit.

I was not thinking 'lethal jellyfish' as the doer, of course . . but even if I had been thinking along the lines of poisonous marine wildlife, it would not have occurred to me that that particular species was indigenous to the English Channel.  I would have thought it too cold in England.

I like TLM . . . I also like 'The Blanched Soldier', narrated by Sherl . .when he admits (grudgingly) that there's more to writing a narrative for public consumption than he gave Dr. Watson credit for.

[HerlockSholmes]

Hikari, can you recall any pastiches that are narrated by Holmes himself. As you know I have the memory of a goldfish and I can’t recall any pastiche authors using this device. Saying that, I’m now expecting you to name loads of them.🙂

[HerlockSholmes]

4 hours ago, besleybean said:

I confess it's one of my favourite stories...

However, I do remember guessing the solution straight away and thinking Holmes a bit stupid for not doing so!

Holmes stupid!!

besleybean wash your mouth out.😃

[besleybean]

😂 Tee Hee.

[Hikari]

1 hour ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Hikari, can you recall any pastiches that are narrated by Holmes himself. As you know I have the memory of a goldfish and I can’t recall any pastiche authors using this device. Saying that, I’m now expecting you to name loads of them.🙂

I think the Holmes-narrated pastiches must be too numerous to mention and certainly to remember! . . one that I really enjoyed (even though it is reviled by David Marcum for tinkering with Holy Writ) is Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes by Michael Hardwick.  Reminiscing from his Sussex cottage in retirement, Holmes decides to finally come clean about what really happened at the the Reichenbach Falls and sheds some surprising light upon his relationship with his archnemesis, Prof. Moriarty.  

[Hikari]

2 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Holmes stupid!!

besleybean wash your mouth out.😃

I prefer 'preoccupied'.   

It isn't just Maud Bellamy, though Holmes has noticed the young lady.  He's only 50 at this point, so it's not *that* gross.  I think he's a bit off his game owing to it being the first investigation he has embarked upon without Dr. Watson at his side, or at least, within hailing range.  And he's still finding his way in his uncustomary environment of 'the country'.  I find the story a bit of a charming anomaly because it gives us a Holmes who actually seems to be enjoying himself doing the 'retirement' thing.  He takes walks on the beach; he swims every day . . he's even made some  pals, as he seems to be on friendly terms with a number of the locals.  This gives lie to the prevalent image of SH as a crabby hermit who is not socially functional without Dr. Watson to lubricate his way with other people.  He's also navigating the brave new frontier of writing something for an audience which is not a scientific monograph.  I wish Conan Doyle had given us more of these Sherlock-narrated tales.  Or just more tales, full stop.

[HerlockSholmes]

The problem with a Forum for me is that I occaisionally forget to log out when I’m going out (as I did last night.)  When I log in the next day and see that posts have continued on the thread and I’m still logged in  I feel like a man who’s sitting in the corner of a room ignoring everyone else.☹️

It might have been a bit galling for Watson to have seen Holmes blending in to life away from London. Not that he’d have wished him ill of course but he might have hoped that Holmes would soon tire of his quiet, bee-centred existence and decide to hot-foot it back to Baker Street in time for a plate of Mrs Hudson’s scones.

More Sherlock-narrated tales by ACD would have been interesting (or more tales full stop as Hikari rightly says apart from a measly 60 over 40 years!) Holmes would surely have been approached regularly to look into problems and solve crimes. Can we imagine Holmes opening the village fete though or judging a cake baking competition?😃

[Hikari]

1 hour ago, HerlockSholmes said:

Can we imagine Holmes opening the village fete though or judging a cake baking competition?😃

No, we absolutely can't.  Though he might turn up at said events if a dead body is discovered on the village green, DCI Barnaby style.

SH says in TLM that 'my place is lonely'.  He could just have meant the location, on the cliffs well away from the village, but his choice of the word 'lonely' connotes that perhaps he is himself a bit lonely in this isolated spot, after the continual hustle and bustle of London.  James Lovegrove has a book called Gods of War, in which Dr. Watson visits his old friend in Sussex to be of assistance on an intriguing case.  Mr. Lovegrove lives in Eastbourne himself, so his descriptions of the area ring true . . but I can't fathom his choice to locate SH's cottage on one of the four corners of the village green.  Even if were not entirely contradicted by SH's own description of his house in TLM, there's no way that Holmes would choose a house situated so close to 'people' . . tromping past his windows day and night and maybe even--quel horreur!--trying to peer through the curtains at the outlier.  Certainly not!

Sherlock Holmes prefers his encounters with humanity to be at carefully-managed occasions of his choosing.  He would relish the opportunity to get away from prying neighbors out on the cliffs . . but does not seem to be adverse to seeking out company in his retirement--if he feels like it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

6 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

The problem with a Forum for me is that I occaisionally forget to log out when I’m going out (as I did last night.)  When I log in the next day and see that posts have continued on the thread and I’m still logged in  I feel like a man who’s sitting in the corner of a room ignoring everyone else.☹️

Don't worry, Herlock -- the forum judges who's "online" and who's not by how long it's been since their last keystroke.  You could have been sitting in front of your computer for the past half hour and still be counted "offline."  And as long as you're on your own computer (or tablet or phone), there's absolutely no need to log out, ever.  You can even be logged in on two devices at once, the forum doesn't seem to care.  Logging out is primarily for shared devices, such as library computers.

4 hours ago, Hikari said:

James Lovegrove has a book called Gods of War, in which Dr. Watson visits his old friend in Sussex to be of assistance on an intriguing case.  Mr. Lovegrove lives in Eastbourne himself, so his descriptions of the area ring true . . but I can't fathom his choice to locate SH's cottage on one of the four corners of the village green.  Even if were not entirely contradicted by SH's own description of his house in TLM, there's no way that Holmes would choose a house situated so close to 'people' . . tromping past his windows day and night and maybe even--quel horreur!--trying to peer through the curtains at the outlier.  Certainly not!

Come to think of it, that may be one reason he chose to rent rooms that were one story *above* Baker Street!

[Juggler]

On 1/28/2019 at 9:23 PM, Hikari said:

Well . . I think Sherlock named his story . .(excuse me, his 'Official Case Record') after he had discovered the culprit.

I was not thinking 'lethal jellyfish' as the doer, of course . . but even if I had been thinking along the lines of poisonous marine wildlife, it would not have occurred to me that that particular species was indigenous to the English Channel.  I would have thought it too cold in England.

I like TLM . . . I also like 'The Blanched Soldier', narrated by Sherl . .when he admits (grudgingly) that there's more to writing a narrative for public consumption than he gave Dr. Watson credit for.

Just typed Lions Main Jellyfish into Wikipedia and it reads that it is common in the English Channel, Irish sea and the North Sea, which is new to me 😮

 

[besleybean]

I assumed ACD either had personal experience or had done his research.

[Hikari]

34 minutes ago, besleybean said:

I assumed ACD either had personal experience or had done his research.

I'm going with 'personal experience'.  Sir Arthur was not really a stickler when it came to research.  Maybe for something close to home.  His knowledge of American geography and patois and cultural minorities is droll.  

I lived in Japan for a time, where jellyfish were a real problem at the end of the summer . . never saw a specimen like the Lion's Mane or I would have died of fright!

[HerlockSholmes]

It’s indicative of how Doyle regarded his detective fiction in comparison to his historical fiction when we consider research. For his book The White Company for example he did huge amounts of research as he wanted to get everything just right from weaponry to battlefield tactics to historical background. When it came to his Holmes stories however he simply wanted to tell an interesting and exciting tale. He got many things wrong and made many errors. If he hadn’t have we wouldn’t have people writing scholarly pieces on the minutiae of the stories to this day. If he’d have taken more care to be accurate and done more rigorous research there would have been no need for a Baring Gould or any of the many other commentators, critics and chronologists.

[HerlockSholmes]

41 minutes ago, Hikari said:

I'm going with 'personal experience'.  Sir Arthur was not really a stickler when it came to research.  Maybe for something close to home.  His knowledge of American geography and patois and cultural minorities is droll.  

I lived in Japan for a time, where jellyfish were a real problem at the end of the summer . . never saw a specimen like the Lion's Mane or I would have died of fright!

And this is why I live in a country where there’s nothing more dangerous than a badger😃

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Juggler said:

Just typed Lions Main Jellyfish into Wikipedia and it reads that it is common in the English Channel, Irish sea and the North Sea, which is new to me 😮

 

1 hour ago, HerlockSholmes said:

And this is why I live in a country where there’s nothing more dangerous than a badger😃

 

I take it you're careful to remain well inland? 

[Arcadia]

8 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

15 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

The problem with a Forum for me is that I occaisionally forget to log out when I’m going out (as I did last night.)  When I log in the next day and see that posts have continued on the thread and I’m still logged in  I feel like a man who’s sitting in the corner of a room ignoring everyone else.☹️

Don't worry, Herlock -- the forum judges who's "online" and who's not by how long it's been since their last keystroke.  You could have been sitting in front of your computer for the past half hour and still be counted "offline."  And as long as you're on your own computer (or tablet or phone), there's absolutely no need to log out, ever.  You can even be logged in on two devices at once, the forum doesn't seem to care.  Logging out is primarily for shared devices, such as library computers.

Besides … if it's any consolation, I never look to see who's online anyway. 😛 

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Besides … if it's any consolation, I never look to see who's online anyway. 😛 

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit to doing so now and then, just because I'm curious. 

[Hikari]

17 hours ago, HerlockSholmes said:

It’s indicative of how Doyle regarded his detective fiction in comparison to his historical fiction when we consider research. For his book The White Company for example he did huge amounts of research as he wanted to get everything just right from weaponry to battlefield tactics to historical background. When it came to his Holmes stories however he simply wanted to tell an interesting and exciting tale. He got many things wrong and made many errors. If he hadn’t have we wouldn’t have people writing scholarly pieces on the minutiae of the stories to this day. If he’d have taken more care to be accurate and done more rigorous research there would have been no need for a Baring Gould or any of the many other commentators, critics and chronologists.

Yep.  Sir Arthur was absolutely convinced that his historical novels were going to catapult him into Sir Walter Scott territory in that genre.  He lavished all of his love and care and most of his energies on those projects.  His Sherlock stuff he viewed strictly as a moneymaker, and not a terribly involving one at that.  I believe it's owing to this ambition of Arthur's that Baring-Gould created the legend that Holmes's little-used third name of 'Scott' was an homage to a maternal fondness for the works of Sir Walter.

Sir Arthur may have been astute about matters martial or medical, but about his own work he was sadly blinkered.  History has proven him 100% wrong about where his literary reputation lies.  Today, only 'The White Company' remains widely in print of all his historical novels, though I did find this on Amazon: a Kindle-only compilation of 7 of his novels.  It could be argued, I believe without much fear of contradiction, that the only reason any interest in his non-Holmes fiction survives is because he is the Father of the Great Detective.  Sir Arthur owed, and continues to owe, his reputation and his everything to Sherlock Holmes, the creation he tried to disavow more than once.  Isn't irony funny?

https://www.amazon.com/White-Company-Historical-Novels-ebook/dp/B01N5T0DIO/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1548865200&sr=1-6&keywords=the+white+company

 

[besleybean]

I like to feel ACD made his peace with his creation!

[HerlockSholmes]

1 hour ago, Hikari said:

Yep.  Sir Arthur was absolutely convinced that his historical novels were going to catapult him into Sir Walter Scott territory in that genre.  He lavished all of his love and care and most of his energies on those projects.  His Sherlock stuff he viewed strictly as a moneymaker, and not a terribly involving one at that.  I believe it's owing to this ambition of Arthur's that Baring-Gould created the legend that Holmes's little-used third name of 'Scott' was an homage to a maternal fondness for the works of Sir Walter.

Sir Arthur may have been astute about matters martial or medical, but about his own work he was sadly blinkered.  History has proven him 100% wrong about where his literary reputation lies.  Today, only 'The White Company' remains widely in print of all his historical novels, though I did find this on Amazon: a Kindle-only compilation of 7 of his novels.  It could be argued, I believe without much fear of contradiction, that the only reason any interest in his non-Holmes fiction survives is because he is the Father of the Great Detective.  Sir Arthur owed, and continues to owe, his reputation and his everything to Sherlock Holmes, the creation he tried to disavow more than once.  Isn't irony funny?

https://www.amazon.com/White-Company-Historical-Novels-ebook/dp/B01N5T0DIO/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1548865200&sr=1-6&keywords=the+white+company

 

Absolutely Hikari.

I think it always rankled that he never got the plaudits that he might have expected, and certainly hoped for, from his historical novels. I’ve read a few and they’re pretty good but then again I’m not the best judge by a long straw. They certainly aren’t remembered in anything like the same way as Scott or RL Stevenson. Although Doyle dismissingly called his Holmes stories his ‘police mysteries’ but they made him and he knew it.