The Planet

Bee wrote: ↑

Sat 27 May, 2023, 11:30 pm

...did he really just reuse another draft or am I dreaming


anyway I actually really liked this story, overall! But I love the suspicious job ones, lol

In glancing over the somewhat incoherent series of memoirs with which I have endeavoured to illustrate a few of the mental peculiarities of my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have been struck by the difficulty which I have experienced in picking out examples which shall in every way answer my purpose. For in those cases in which Holmes has performed some tour-de-force of analytical reasoning, and has demonstrated the value of his peculiar methods of investigation, the facts themselves have often been so slight or so commonplace that I could not feel justified in laying them before the public. On the other hand, it has frequently happened that he has been concerned in some research where the facts have been of the most remarkable and dramatic character, but where the share which he has himself taken in determining their causes has been less pronounced than I, as his biographer, could wish. The small matter which I have chronicled under the heading of “A Study in Scarlet,” and that other later one connected with the loss of the Gloria Scott, may serve as examples of this Scylla and Charybdis which are forever threatening the historian. It may be that in the business of which I am now about to write the part which my friend played is not sufficiently accentuated; and yet the whole train of circumstances is so remarkable that I cannot bring myself to omit it entirely from this series.

I cannot be sure of the exact date, for some of my memoranda upon the matter have been mislaid, but it must have been towards the end of the first year during which Holmes and I shared chambers in Baker Street. It was boisterous October weather, and we had both remained indoors all day, I because I feared with my shaken health to face the keen autumn wind, while he was deep in some of those abstruse chemical investigations which absorbed him utterly as long as he was engaged upon them. Towards evening, however, the breaking of a test-tube brought his research to a premature ending, and he sprang up from his chair with an exclamation of impatience and a clouded brow.

“A day’s work ruined, Watson,” said he, striding across to the window. “Ha! the stars are out and the wind has fallen. What do you say to a ramble through London?”

I was weary of our little sitting-room and gladly acquiesced. For three hours we strolled about together, watching the ever-changing kaleidoscope of life as it ebbs and flows through Fleet Street and the Strand. Holmes had shaken off his temporary ill-humour, and his characteristic talk, with its keen observance of detail and subtle power of inference held me amused and enthralled. It was ten o’clock before we reached Baker Street again. A brougham was waiting at our door.

InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑

Sun 28 May, 2023, 11:45 pm

i immediately suspected something strange had to be going on because the "replying to Watson's thoughts" happens twice in the series, but one time (the Cardboard Box, which we've read already) Watson is impressed, and the other time (the Dancing Men, which we have not reached yet), Watson is like "oh of course!" and Holmes is miffed at him, so when I was reading your link and it started off with a "Watson is impressed" instance, I knew something had to be up, and when I got to the "Poe's sketches" line I was like HOLD ON. THIS IS NOT JUST A DRAFT, THIS IS THE SAME THING

Bee wrote: ↑

Sun 28 May, 2023, 11:56 pm

InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑

Sun 28 May, 2023, 11:45 pm

i immediately suspected something strange had to be going on because the "replying to Watson's thoughts" happens twice in the series, but one time (the Cardboard Box, which we've read already) Watson is impressed, and the other time (the Dancing Men, which we have not reached yet), Watson is like "oh of course!" and Holmes is miffed at him, so when I was reading your link and it started off with a "Watson is impressed" instance, I knew something had to be up, and when I got to the "Poe's sketches" line I was like HOLD ON. THIS IS NOT JUST A DRAFT, THIS IS THE SAME THING

Oh phew

Though this means Wikisource has failed us!! Who can be trusted anymore??

InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 12:00 am

Bee wrote: ↑

Sun 28 May, 2023, 11:56 pm

InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑

Sun 28 May, 2023, 11:45 pm

i immediately suspected something strange had to be going on because the "replying to Watson's thoughts" happens twice in the series, but one time (the Cardboard Box, which we've read already) Watson is impressed, and the other time (the Dancing Men, which we have not reached yet), Watson is like "oh of course!" and Holmes is miffed at him, so when I was reading your link and it started off with a "Watson is impressed" instance, I knew something had to be up, and when I got to the "Poe's sketches" line I was like HOLD ON. THIS IS NOT JUST A DRAFT, THIS IS THE SAME THING

Oh phew

Though this means Wikisource has failed us!! Who can be trusted anymore??

I've been leaving the Project Gutenberg page of whichever book we're on permanently open in a tab tbh lol

i have a feeling that wikisource might not be the failure point, but that the edition? publication? which you've been following was perhaps more heavily changed by the publication's editors than one might expect? I don't know WHY they would've decided a paragraph about Holmes doing chemistry and Watson recovering from ill health and injury needed to be changed, though

maybe the word count was too low

Bee wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 12:04 am

InspectorCaracal wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 12:00 am

Bee wrote: ↑

Sun 28 May, 2023, 11:56 pm

Oh phew

Though this means Wikisource has failed us!! Who can be trusted anymore??

I've been leaving the Project Gutenberg page of whichever book we're on permanently open in a tab tbh lol

i have a feeling that wikisource might not be the failure point, but that the edition? publication? which you've been following was perhaps more heavily changed by the publication's editors than one might expect? I don't know WHY they would've decided a paragraph about Holmes doing chemistry and Watson recovering from ill health and injury needed to be changed, though

maybe the word count was too low

... Omg I am stupid

I've been linking to the wrong edition since we finished the first book. We were using Wikisource to link to the original versions from The Strand!!! Here it is, with the right opening: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_St ... nt_Patient

thiskurt wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 7:45 pm

I'm terribly confused...

Bee wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 8:00 pm

thiskurt wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 7:45 pm

I'm terribly confused...

I apologize for my ineptitude

thiskurt wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 8:12 pm

Bee wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 8:00 pm

thiskurt wrote: ↑

Mon 29 May, 2023, 7:45 pm

I'm terribly confused...

I apologize for my ineptitude

Don't be! Just not sure what we're reading and for when now.