Amateur Holmesian Scholarship

I was talking with some friends on the IRC #holmes channel about Richard L. Vaught’s article on Holmes’s eyesight awhile ago and this is what led me to speculate that he could be dyslexic.

I’m far-sighted and wear glasses all the time (otherwise I walk into things and it gets quite comical), I followspot with my specs on the end of my nose (a bad habit I know) so I can see the stage clearly and also read my cue sheet (which is close to me).

If Holmes was far-sighted that would explain why he gets Watson to read things to him (he can’t see them very clearly…) but then the big argument against this is the part in HOUND where he examines a document “holding it only an inch or two from his eyes.” If I take off my glasses and try this I can’t see a thing (actually even with my specs I can’t see this close up), so not only does this imply otherwise but he has excellent accommodation for thirty-five year old (HOUND was winter 1889, we generally accept Holmes being born in Jan 1854).

Perhaps he did wear spectacles for reading and wouldn’t allow Watson to ever publish this fact. Perhaps the line in HOUND originally said: “Holmes, putting on his reading glasses, held the paper only an inch or two from his eyes.” then Holmes pounced on Watson and scribbled madly on the said line, turned to face him and said “If you ever publish the fact I need glasses, I will make sure the public find out about your collection of lacy Edwardian undergarments.” And thus Watson kept quiet.

I’d imagine that it would be practically impossible to find your reading glasses in a sitting room as untidy as 221b, so that’s why Watson has to do all the reading. One of my friends amusingly said that Holmes would probably sit reading his book with his feet and just dare Watson to comment before making an effort to find his specs.

Personally, I think that Holmes had pretty good eye-sight and the reason he makes Watson read aloud is one of two:

1) He’s slightly dyslexic and so struggles getting the sounds in the right places in words when reading aloud. He’s too embarrassed by this to let Watson know and so avoids reading aloud anything he hasn’t first of all read thoroughly and practised a few times.

2) Watson has an incredibly sexy voice

Instead of talking about the new film, thought I’d post a few things that I’ve scribbled over the past couple of years, maybe at some point soon I’ll write about walking SIGN that I did with a friend last year.

A question was posed on a Holmes discussion group about what sort of upbringing that our two friends could have had, this was my response.

I subscribe to the belief that the Holmes family is not a rich one, typical middle-class. This is mostly based on the fact that both brothers work for a living and Sherlock can’t afford to rent on his own and probably has an income around the same as Watson’s when they first meet (11shillings, I’ve read).

Perhaps Mr Holmes was a teacher, who would raise his boys to be disciplined and instil in them a love of learning and books. Maybe a geography teacher, quick eye for detail and a passion for maps and place names. A proud man, with whom reputation matters greatly. Essentially quite hard to live with, but he loved his sons and his wife.

Mrs Holmes I see as being the more artistic, a painter or a musician. She was calm, loving and loyal to her husband, but essentially being a woman she had a typical female role within the household. Maybe this is why Sherlock doesn’t hold much thought for women, he watched his mother a wonderfully intelligent, witty and talented women reduced to merely a baby-making/support the man role. I don’t know how to word what I mean.

I’ve recently heard some compelling arguments that Mycroft has Asperger’s Syndrome and if this was the case he would be a difficult child to cope with as he would show much upset with any change around him, or a different routine. He would be difficult to interact with, but brilliant with anything requiring logic or technical thought (ie mathematics). I suspect that they saved up to send him away to a boarding school being at a loss with him – I’d imagine that the routines of boarding school appealed very much to Mycroft and he was able to cope quite well.

I’d imagine it would be very difficult for Sherlock, rarely seeing his elder brother and when he did he couldn’t quite interact with him. I suspect that he would have been one of those children who are fascinated with everything and wanting to know how everything works. Eventually I can see him and Mycroft getting on quite well from a purely intellectual POV – Mycroft finds someone to discuss maths, science and amuse with deductions and Sherlock learns to observe.

Sherlock is quite artistic, he acts and plays the violin so he probably formed an close attachment to his mother and had a respect for his father. Maybe they didn’t send Sherlock to boarding school (financial reasons) and he attended a grammar school. He’s intelligent so I can see him becoming very bored with his education and perhaps becoming a bit of a trouble maker which strained his relationship with his father. As he grew older he’d become more eccentric and soon became an embarrassment to his father.

[I've since revised this theory, I think perhaps that Sherlock showed signs of dyslexia. Dyslexia wasn't really something named and described until the 1870s so most likely Sherlock would have been labelled as 'slow' if he found difficultly with reading. Most likely he did go to a grammar school briefly but was sent away to the normal parish school where he became a bit of a trouble maker as he was bored and objected to being treated as a simpleton.]

Sherlock eventually follows his brother with a scholarship to either Oxford or Cambridge (I don’t know enough about either to make a comment). I think whatever happened between him and Victor turned sour, and unable to cope he dropped out or was sent down (he says he was only at university for two years). I can see the relationship with his father breaking down completely at this point, and was probably disowned.

I suspect that Mrs Holmes keeps an eye on her boys careers – especially Sherlock’s. Maybe she writes to him at Baker Street, following his accomplishments in the Strand – maybe that’s why he gets pissed at Watson’s ‘romanticising’ him? His mother does the ‘she seemed like a lovely girl, and she seemed taken with you – perhaps you could see her again.’

As for Watson… well I suspect he had a interesting upbringing as he seemed to travel a bit when young (the thing about Australia).

I think his father was a doctor and a respected one – someone that young Watson would admire and aspire to be like. I suspect he was a tough man and had little room in his soul for ‘soft’ actions – since I suspect Watson was quite a sensitive child I can see his father beating him for ‘weakness’ but Watson admiring his father would punish  himself more for his ‘weakness’.

Watson’s brother was probably less intelligent than him and privately resented John and his father which would cause a lot of family tension.

Mrs Watson would be a typical Scots woman (heh, I like the idea of Watson being a Scot) – warm, open hearted and full of love and praise for her children. I can see Mr Watson getting angry with her over her        indulgences, especially of young Watson – blaming her for encouraging his sensitive side. Maybe a young Watson once expressed a desire to become a writer, Mr Watson got angry but Mrs Watson encouraged him.

I think that something happened in Australia to dishearten Watson’s father and they returned to England where he became colder, perhaps their return to England is prompted by the death of Mrs Watson which sends Mr Watson into a dark cycle. I think that Watson is quite young at this point, maybe 9 or 10 and was greatly affected by his mothers death. His father tolerating no weakness wouldn’t exactly help poor Watson cope – as we have no idea how old his brother is, if we take him to be 4/5 years older perhaps he was sent back to England some time before and becomes an ‘angry young man’.

Mr Watson would probably send John away to a strict public school (where he would later meet Phelps) to learn how to ‘become a man’ and take care of himself. Which of course, Watson does and becomes a fine young man and remembering how much he admired his father he would decide to become a doctor – not to please his father mind, but because he wants to take care of people and help them.

I think something then happened between Mr Watson & John, some argument or huge disagreement which led to him being left alone in the world. This explains why upon his graduation from medical school he takes a job in the army – he doesn’t have the capital to start his own practice and because of what happened between his father and him he doesn’t expect to inherit his fathers practice.

Maybe John never made up with his father before his death and perhaps blamed himself. I think his father died soon after he moved in with Holmes because there are times in STUD where he seems quite depressed.   I think the relationship with his brother was strained but amiable.

I think his brother left the UK hence the line in STUD ‘no kith and kin’ but yet we find in SIGN that the watch has only recently come his way.Maybe the brother returned to Australia or elsewhere to ‘make his fortune’, which sadly never happened.

I think if you shook the Watson family tree you would find a long time of loyal men and women – all of them proud and involved in a respectable profession.