"The Valley of Fear," by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
New episode out now! We are finally covering the original literary Sherlock Holmes, after reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s book "The Valley of Fear". We discuss the textual characters of Holmes and Watson, and realize they are both very dramatic characters in their own ways. We analyze the way Sherlock investigates and how he shows his work, debate his ethical judgment and how his need to show off may have led to more death, and discuss the obsession with Moriarty compared to his presence in the books. We also talk about the contextual history of these stories concerning Victorian attitudes towards male relationships and how they were - or were not- allowed to bond, lament the way women are written about by Doyle and debate Holmes’ attitude towards them, and wonder at the patriarchal male need to create opportunities to feel powerful and earn status. Katy pronounces denouement wrong yet again, Carrie gives some eyebrow waggles, Maddy deserves a large amount of credit and grace, and Mack does not care about being rude to us. We also cover the exceptional Knowledge of London cabbies and how it changes their brain, make guesses about what is in an almanac, and one of us even wrote a mysterious haiku. Listen to hear more about men-only clubs, “rubber ducking”, old shady banks, mob pensions, and sawed-off shotguns in Red Dead Redemption 2. And ONE of us quotes Brennan Lee Mulligan - but it’s not Mack! Enjoy!
PS. Thank you to Maddy for completing the assignment on time - she deserves all the credit and the other three are horrible procrastinators.
TW: Misogyny, Victorian views on homosexuality, shotgun wounds, indigenous trauma concerning forced removal, union gangs