victorian detective

smithy. 27. literature graduate. "is it possible that you succeeded in climbing out of that awful abyss?" the empty house, sir arthur conan doyle header by the-junkie-and-his-doctor.

[starfleetholmes]

how to lose a guy in 10 days // a study in pink

[nathanbates]

Where Orpheus lost Eurydice.

[gayeddies]

Your damsel in distress

[john-watson]

[putridcrow]

DAY 7: FATHERHOOD

john h watson has got two babies to care for

[prokopetz]

I think we need one of those popular read-along blogs to tackle The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the same way that's been done for Dracula and Moby-Dick. The number of folks around here who appear to be under the impression that reading a queer subtext into Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a subversion rather than being straightforwardly material to the plot is frankly embarrassing, and I'm assuming this is because nobody's actually read the damn thing.

[prokopetz]

A brief refresher for the folks asking "what queer subtext": though this element is often dropped from modern adaptations owing to audience familiarity, in the original book, the fact that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person is framed as a twist. The front half of the novel concerns a friend of Jekyll's named Gabriel Utterson investigating the nature of the relationship between Jekyll and Hyde, and trying to figure out why Jekyll appears to be protecting Hyde. Though Utterson seems to have arrived at a conclusion early on, this conclusion is disclosed neither to other characters nor to the reader.

Later, once the cat is out of the bag, it's explained that the original motivation behind Jekyll's scientific research was not to create a transformative serum, but to purge himself of a certain flaw in his character, the nature of which is not described. It's additionally alluded to that this character flaw led him to commit a series of shameful indiscretions in his youth, the nature of which is not elaborated upon.

Questions for further discussion:

Prior to the big reveal, what does reading between the lines suggest Utterson thinks is going on between Jekyll and Hyde, and why is he so reluctant to disclose this belief?

What is the significance of the fact that the nature of the character flaw of which Jekyll sought to rid himself is never specified, nor the particulars of the shameful acts it led him to commit?

Why are there so many older unmarried men – including both Utterson and Jekyll himself – kicking around in this story, anyway?

[alicexz]

[chocolate1elise]

[userchappell]

CHAPPELL ROAN photographed by Kirt Barnett for Polyester (2023)

[generalsolo]

You’ve found something!  It’s what I haven’t found that interests me.

[granada-brett-crumbs]

Sherlock Holmes postmarks.

[thinwhitedoc]

SHERLOCK | Martin Freeman as John Watson

[bluebellinbakerstreet]

46/100 Sherlock in black and white

[madcat-world]

Unknown Constellation - Artem Chebokha

[antiquedeuce]

The forest ✸ the library

[serial-unaliver-deactivated2024]

it's kind of crazy climate change has occurred at such a remarkable pace that I and everyone else around my age can remember a completely different climate in our childhoods. I truly watched winter gradually disappear in my life.

[room429]

"You're too young to remember this, but there used to be so many insects outside that you would have to clean them off the windshield after a long car ride" is the kind of sentence that would have been in a cheesy scifi short story earlier in my life, perhaps submitted to a literary magazine and accepted to show support for its environmentalist message - now it's something I've said in earnest.

[bookofjudith]

history keeps pulling me down

Falling, Florence + the Machine // The Fall of Icarus, Rene Milot // Fallen Angel, Andreas Birath