“The Diogenes Club is
the queerest club in London, and Mycroft is one of the queerest men.”
--Sherlock Holmes, “The Greek Interpreter”
Leigh:
If I had to pick one Sherlock
Holmes story that didn't quite fit with the rest of them, it would be this one.
Don't take this as a bad thing because this is one of my favorites. It just
seems so DARK compared to the rest of the canon. Sure, the canon deals with
murders and missing fiancés and eventually a jellyfish (we'll get to that
eventually) but this one. This one is different. It's like all of the darkest
things from all the other stories combined into one (minus the jellyfish.) We
have deception, kidnapping and imprisonment of three people, and eventually two
stabbings. If that isn't a turn for the more sinister, I don't know what is.
And to top it all off, we get to meet Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's
older brother. I quite enjoyed the introduction of his character because even
Watson was like, "Dude, I thought you were an only child and an orphan.
What the heck." And if I recall correctly, this is the most we learn about
the Holmes clan ever. (This of course excludes highly regarded, yet
non-canonical biographies.) ACD's original description of Sherlock Holmes
paints a man who is smart and uncharismatic and a bit on the ugly side (Not
many men can pull off a "hawk-like nose and still be called "sexy.).
Mycroft is described as worse in every aspect except the nose bit. He's round
and lazy and smarter but also just as callus, if not more so.
 |
| Hush you. |
But my big
question right now: Why introduce Mycroft at all? We are a good portion of the
way through the canon and Holmes' family members have never been mentioned
before, so why now?
Austin: Welcome
back Florida Traveler!
So why introduce Mycroft? It has to be avoiding staleness. As we get
further into Memoirs, that means we are getting closer to Doyle throwing
up his hands and saying he's done with Sherlock Holmes. (Spoiler: He's not.)
Doyle was very smart in being vague with Sherlock's background because that
means whenever he wishes he can add to that backstory. There is nothing to
contradict and Sherlock's personality allows for that mysterious element to
play out.
I've been used to a number of cinematic Mycrofts and none of them
are really played off as ugly. This one is rather large, strange and unappealing.
His laziness is strongly criticized by Sherlock and Watson. It's almost like
the story is saying "This guy is even smarter than Sherlock, but but but
he's lame. You don't want to hang out with him. Hang out with Sherlock! You
like Sherlock!" The competition element is inherent with them which means
we get a very fun ping-pong observation dialog between Sherlock and Mycroft
much like we saw in The House of Silk.
 |
| "Quiet Sherlock. Your thinking is annoying me." "I'm going to use that." |
This dynamic is
very fun to watch but like all Doyle stories, that now needs to take a back
seat because a new character needs to walk in and give an absurdly long
backstory monologue. Was that jarring for you? Or was this story worthy to cut
away from Sherlock and Mycroft messing with each other?
Leigh: It's hot.
And humid. I'm schvitzing all over the place.
I have to agree about the staleness. ACD famously wrote to his
mother a lot and often complained about Sherlock Holmes and how he just wanted
to write historical fiction. (A good portion of ACD's letters were compiled
into a book called Arthur Conan Doyle: A
Life in Letters which is a really good read if you enjoy that kind of
thing.) And we have mentioned a little before that some of the stories seem a
little repetitive. So what is the best way to add something new to a played out
format? Add an obscure relative of course.
 |
| "What do you mean? I've always been here." |
But most importantly, did it work? I think
so. Definitely so. I absolutely love the competition between the two as a
competitive elder sister to a competitive younger brother. It's something
that's familiar to me and gives us some proof that Holmes is human and not just
an automaton. Sibling rivalry is something that many can relate to and if
written correctly can be really fun.
Of all of the stories that had lots of backstory, this is the one
that I minded it least in. (Please ignore that incredibly awkward sentence.) It
didn't take up 3/4 of the story like others have (or have felt like) and
instead gives us details that we kinda do need to know to get to the rest of
the mystery. This is also the first one in a while that actually felt more like
a mystery instead of just sitting around and listening to stories or reading
the newspaper. This one seemed exciting and different! And not just because of
the addition of Mycroft, although I could easily read a whole book of just
Sherlock and Mycroft sitting in a room talking to each other about everything.
I also liked that we had bad guys who weren't from America or had spent time in
India but were actually British. It was a nice change of pace to what we've
been reading.
But it sounds
like you don't like it? Why? Why must you hate everything I love? /melodrama
 |
| "This is how Leigh submits her half of the blog." |
Austin: Because
you love terrible things!
No, I don't hate this one. I just feel that I keep looking at this
anthology in a misguided light. I look at it like a season of television and
it's wrong to judge such an early outing of the genre in such regards. Yet,
perhaps some of it is allowed in storytelling sense. In this story we introduce
Mycroft Holmes. His way into the narrative is that he has a client for
Sherlock. Then the client appears and it's just like every Sherlock Holmes
case. This client just happens to be a neighbor of Mycroft. This case isn't
very Mycroft-y, whatever that could mean.
Then it becomes into the routine I have with all of Doyle's stories.
The backstory narration is problematic for me and then I get back into it when
it's in present day. I rather enjoyed that aspect of this story because it had
a chilly element to it, a bit of a horror feel. Also we have Mycroft tagging
along, which didn't add to a whole not but got him out of the chair.
Since I'm now going through the rest of these stories for the first
time, I don't know if Mycroft pops up again but I hope he does. I don't want
him to be an Irene Adler--an amazing foil for Sherlock Holmes and then
disappears into that good night.
We'll find out soon! But reading this story made me throw an
audible. (It's a football term, Leigh. I'll explain later.) Reading about
Mycroft's laziness made me think of a different interpretation of that
character, one that uses that element in a different way. So we're watching an
episode of Monk! Now Monk is not a direct adaptation, but the similiarites are
there. In Season Two, we meet his smarter older brother in an episode called
"Mr. Monk and the Three Pies." You can find the episode on Netflix
Instant, Amazon Instant, and any number of places. Do join us.
And here is
Leigh Montano with the final word...
Leigh: Opa!
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