Oscar Wilde & ACD Canon

no-literally:

Since Oscar Wilde influenced ACD when he was writing the Sherlock Holmes stories (they were living at the same time and had met, more on this in a second) anytime anyone adapts ACD Holmes they are inherently influenced, at least a tiny bit, by Oscar Wilde.

So how was ACD influenced by Wilde?

1. Wilde and ACD met at a prearranged dinner and basically dared each other to write a story. Wilde wrote The Picture of Dorian Grey. ACD wrote The Sign of Four. Here’s Sherlock Holmes fanboy and Oscar Wilde lover Stephen Fry telling you more about that, because why the hell not. 
2. After Wilde was put on public trial for sodomy and his reputation was essentially destroyed, ACD distanced himself from knowing Wilde, even though he had spoken positively of him in the past. [As mentioned in this biography.]
3. But ACD probably didn’t forget Wilde. Many people believe that ACD referenced Oscar Wilde’s trial in 1895 is referenced in “The Adventure of the Three Students,” an ACD story where Watson says they had to leave London because of “a combination of events, into which I need not enter.” Here’s more tumblr meta from johnnlocked about the dates of the trial. 

So, literally any version of Sherlock Holmes is going to be connected to Oscar Wilde in some way.

I think it would be hard for me to understate the importance Wilde has for the queer community. He is a beloved author and artist, but also a key figure for his honesty and the trauma he endured.

His tomb in France is covered with lipstick kisses, and when authorities put glass in front of his tomb in 2011, people who visited started kissing the glass.

The Legacy Project in Chicago, celebrating major figures LGBT history, included Wilde in its first set of members. Wilde’s plaque includes this text describing his legacy: “The publicity surrounding Wilde’s trials…led to the development of a nascent gay and lesbian consciousness that became central to the success of the GLBT civil rights movement that was to follow.“

Moriarty and ACD

ACD Conspiracy Theories

thejohnlockrapture:

wellthengameover:

I have an annotated version of ACD, and reading the annotations, I figured out where Mofftisson got their ideas for TRF:

The Final Problem … has probably given rise to more discussion among Holmesians than any other [story] in Canon … numerous … theories are proposed to explain the inconsistencies …

Moriarty is imaginary:

• Holmes staged the entire affair to obtain a three-year rest-cure for his drug addiction
• Holmes imagined Moriarty and traveled to the Falls bent on suicide
• Moriarty was invented by Holmes to explain his lack of success in an increasing number of cases; Holmes’s ego would not allow him to admit that ordinary criminals had outsmarted him, so he invented a master criminal
• Holmes and Moriarty were the same person
• Watson made up the entire story, at the request of Colonel James Moriarty, to memorialize his brother, who died saving Holmes’s life!
• Professor James “Moriarty” was in fact Professor James Holmes, an elder brother of Sherlock’s; the flight from England must have been made to give James a chance to escape with his life
• Holmes invented the story of Moriarty as a cover-up for a secret diplomatic mission
  

Moriarty is innocent:

• Moriarty was persecuted by Holmes as revenge for Holmes’s being forbidden to woo Moriarty’s daughter
• Moriarty as Holmes’s childhood tutor, the seducer of Holmes’s mother, upon whom Holmes projects a fantasy of criminality
• Moriarty was a wholly innocent bystander killed by Holmes at the Falls while Holmes was [high on cocaine], and Moriarty’s reputation was smeared to preserve Holmes’s

Moriarty lives:

• Holmes died at the Falls while Moriarty took his place
• Moriarty was never at the Falls but lived to confront Holmes later in The Valley of Fear
• Moriarty escaped death because his cloak acted as a parachute until it caught on a branch and Moran was able to rescue him
• Holmes killed the wrong man at the Falls and Moriarty took on a new identity - Colonel Sebastian Moran
• Holmes let Moriarty go and … Moriarty subsequently achieved moral rehabilitation and … pursued law enforcement in the United States
• Moriarty was Count Dracula

Holmes is guilty:

• Holmes could not obtain sufficient evidence to convict Moriarty, [and so] enticed Moriarty to follow him up to the Falls for the express purpose of killing him

Holmes killed the wrong man:

• A brother of Moriarty … was thrown into the Falls
• Holmes at a tryst at the falls with Irene Adler and … she fell into the Falls
• Watson and Mycroft dumped Holmes … into the Falls

Holmes died:

• After Holmes’s death, Mycroft replaced him with his cousin Sherrinford
• The entire post-Reichenbach Canon was made up by Watson, to supplement his income

I think it’s pretty incredible how Mofftisson put most of the major theories in TRF - Moriarty is innocent, Holmes is guilty, Moriarty lives, etc. These guys are such huge ACD fans.

Additionally, apparently some ACD scholars think Mycroft worked for Moriarty:

Although Mycroft Holmes’s aid [in driving Watson to the train station undercover in The Final Problem] seems purely altruistic … he was a double agent, working for Moriarty while feeding information to his brother. It is clear … that someone leaked information from Holmes’s camp to the professor … this information would have included both a physical description of Holmes … and the precise time of Holmes’s departure … Mycroft [was] Moriarty’s agent in The Greek Interpreter and as Porlock, a nom de plume of an informant in the Moriarty camp in The Valley of Fear … Mycroft inhabits a difficult role as a man playing a delicate part in an irreconcilable duel between his brother … and a super criminal. 

And - best for last - some ACD scholars think Mary Morstan is a criminal:

Mary Morstan’s utter lack [after The Sign of the Four], to the point of never again being mentioned by name, and … ultimately understanding nature in the face of her husband’s tendencies [to run off with Holmes] … is nothing more than a cover written by Watson … Suspecting Mary’s involvement with the Four, Holmes and Watson agreed to keep her close. She did not die during Holmes’s absence … but was in fact sent to jail several years earlier.

Wow, how much do Mofftisson love ACD. This is ridiculous. How can people say Mofftisson aren’t invested? This is surreal.

(Everything in italics is quoted or heavily paraphrased from The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, annotations by Leslie S. Klinger.)

{SCREAMING INTENSIFIES}

Irene Adler

love-in-mind-palace

Canon Holmes and Irene Adler had literally three interactions. In two of them, he was in disguise. In one of them she was in disguise. They didn’t even have a conversation. Canonically happily married to a man. Literally moved Holmes out of her way using just her pinky finger.

Fuckbois throughout the ages : HE LOVES IRENE ADLER. HE TOTALLY WANTED TO SLEEP WITH HER. THAT’S WHY HE ADMIRES HER. #TRUELOVE #SOULMATE #STAR-CROSSED LOVERS

Sherlock Holmes in ACD canon : I wanna fly out of the window and over London holding Watson’s hand. My Boswell. My conductor of light. IF YOU TOUCH WATSON I WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR ANCESTORS.

People: They are friends. #NOHOMO #PLATONIC #JUST BROS

savory-breakfasts

Heteronormativity is a powerful drug.

holmesguy

Holmes’ canon reaction to Irene Adler getting married:

Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.

“Well, really!” he cried, and then he choked and laughed again until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the chair.

“What is it?”

“It’s quite too funny.”

Holmes’ canon reaction to Watson getting married:

“I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?”

“For me,” said Sherlock Holmes, “there still remains the cocaine-bottle.” And he stretched his long white hand up for it. 

Irene getting married made Holmes laugh for literal minutes until he choked, and then laugh again until he could laugh no more. 

Watson getting married made Holmes reach for his drugs.

love-in-mind-palace

And there it is 🙌

kako-pumpkin

I’m hijacking this post to be salty about how Irene has been treated…sorry.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, repeatedly - Irene Adler did not give a fuck about Sherlock Holmes! That’s been the most frustrating thing about her portrayal everywhere! She didn’t give a crap! She just wanted security so she could go get married to Godfrey!

I wish we had that Irene. Instead of being another character whose star is hanging in Sherlock’s solar system, she’s the person who reminds him he’s not the center of the universe - he can make mistakes, he can get cocky, he doesn’t know everything and his methods aren’t full-proof. And best of all, she teaches him these lessons…as a sort of aside. Like, it was a side-effect of her doing her own thing.

He’s the one who learned something. He was bested. They weren’t chasing after each other and she wasn’t some mysterious minx or clever coquette whose sole purpose in the plot was to be sexy and confident and then have that sexiness used against her and the confidence pulled out from under her feet so that Sherlock could be clever and prove how awesome he was (I’m looking at you, BBC and Ritchie versions).

I mean, I’m an absolute sucker for anything, anything Sherlock Holmes. I loved the stories, I love every piece of media I can get my hands on.

But Irene is my favourite character. And she. Gets. Shafted.

(John is my very close second favourite, ofc)

love-in-mind-palace

You just said what I occasionally scream in the void. The mistreatment of canon Irene Adler. Except Granada, no one got even close and that sucks. A strong feminine character reduced to damsel in distress. A Scandal in Bohemia has always been one of my favourite stories because it thrilled me that how a woman outsmarted Sherlock Holmes easily. And made him do a double take on his self confidence. Irene didn’t give a single fuck really. I bet she was kind of annoyed and did the most beautiful thing. Tricked Sherlock Holmes, happily got married to the man she loves and did everything gracefully. That is the beauty of her character.

And then I look at the modern adaptations and I just sigh.

holmesguy

Yes and yes! Irene Adler–actually, Irene Norton, because she is happily married by the end of the story–is a total badass who barely noticed Holmes getting in her way. The way she is treated in almost every adaptation is beyond disappointing. She’s such an intelligent and vibrant character and yet she gets treated as a prop for forced romance. 

Anyway, just to continue quoting from canon, here we have Holmes saying that he hopes she loves her husband:

“Irene Adler is married,” remarked Holmes. 

“Married! When?” 

“Yesterday.” 

“But to whom?” 

“To an English lawyer named Norton.” 

“But she could not love him.” 

“I am in hopes that she does.” 

He hardly seems heartbroken over it, and is more interested in dissing the King than anything at this point in the story. 

And here we have Irene saying it herself:

As to the photograph, your client may rest in peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he.

Irene Norton loves her husband. She doesn’t love the King of Bohemia. She doesn’t love Holmes. Both Holmes and the King got in her way of trying to marry the man she loves, but she outsmarted them both and got what she wanted. The whole case is about this and yet I get the impression that many adaptations fail to realize that her whole story is about her trying to be with the man she loves without all these other people interfering and trying to control her. And she is the one who saves herself in this story. Holmes is not the hero, he’s just an annoyance.

I’m going to bring the attention back to Holmes again for a moment: I want to point out too that SCAN, the story that gives us “the woman” is also the story that gives us “I am lost without my Boswell.” Holmes would be lost without Watson, he says it himself. When the story opens, Holmes is living alone at Baker Street, cycling through fits of energy and lethargy, and “alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition” after Watson’s marriage. Watson drops in on him, and Holmes does what he can to get Watson to stick around for a case. Once he finally gets Watson to stay, Holmes’s mood begins improving, going from aloof and barely talkative until we reach the point of him laughing uproariously about Irene’s marriage. I don’t want to make this post much longer, but I wrote a post about it here that analyses the story step-by-step (under the assumption that Watson’s marriage is real and that SCAN occurs after SIGN–perhaps in the future I’ll approach it from a different angle).