This thread is a focused discussion group. Please see the first post below for the current topic and upcoming book discussions. While natter will inevitably happen, we encourage you to treat this like a virtual book club and try to keep your posts in that spirit.
By consensus, this thread is reopened specifically to discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It will be closed again once that discussion has run its course.
***SPOILER ALERT***
- **Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows lie here. Read at your own risk***
What I'd like to discuss is how so many of the conventions of the modern detective novel and television show are created by Conan Doyle. I'd also like to talk about the continuing tension between science and superstition in the stories. And I don't think you can talk about Holmes without talking about the relationship between Holmes and Watson and the narrative function of an "everyman" narrator like Watson.
Oh, Ginger, I'm so glad you're leading the discussion. Um, in the sense that I know practically nothing about these things and would love to read about them, but still.
It will be the first Holmes I read in English, without the mediation of translation. Also, I've never read (or, um, heard of) any of the Holmes-world books by any writer who is not Conan-Doyle.
I have no comments about the thiming. I never took part in such discussions before, so I don't reallyknow how these things go along. So I'll go with whatever you guys say.
I've never read (or, um, heard of) any of the Holmes-world books by any writer who is not Conan-Doyle.
Gosh, there are probably dozens. I did a whole research thing for someone a while back listing just the books I have. Some are crap, of course--but still published!--and some are pretty darned good. My favorite sub-genre are the Holmes-Dracula books. Loren Estleman did a fairly straight-forward combination of standard Holmes and Stoker's Dracula (
Sherlock Holmes and the Sanguinary Count
), and Fred Saberhagen did a couple that fit into a series of his. The best one of those is
The Holmes-Dracula File.
Gosh, there are probably dozens.
One was even a best-seller during the '70s -- The Seven Percent Solution, which involved Holmes' drug habits.
The Seven Percent Solution, which involved Holmes' drug habits.
Which I have, though the sequel,
The Canary Trainer
is not as good.
I suspect I'm a Holmes geek.
I'm seconding the request for sequence and timing.
Ginger's talking points are so intriguing to me, I really want to get started on the actual discussion!
Gosh, there are probably dozens.
I think there must be thousands of pastiches. Or tens of thousands.
I liked The Canary Trainer once I got the joke. That's the third one, though. The West End Horror was the sequel.
One was even a best-seller during the '70s -- The Seven Percent Solution, which involved Holmes' drug habits.
Which had a very good movie made of it.
The West End Horror was the sequel.
Duh, yes. I even have that one, too.
There are certainly thousands of Holmes stories. I kind of know what's out there, but I haven't read too many of them, since I'm a geek and a purist. I hope Connie and others can throw in some discussions of Holmes in the hands of others.
I'm trying to figure out a schedule. I'm going to be out of pocket Labor Day weekend with Dragoncon and visiting Buffistas. How does this sound?
Begin discussion of A Scandal in Bohemia and The Red-Headed League -- 9/7
The Red-Headed League and The Blue Carbuncle -- 9/14
1st half Hound of the Baskervilles -- 9/21
2nd half -- 9/28
I'll plan to have a brief opinionated piece about Holmes and some links up by next week.
The Red-Headed League and The Blue Carbuncle -- 9/14
Ginger, do you mean the Speckled Band there? Red-Headed League was paired with Scandal already.
The schedule looks good to me.
