adaptations

Sherlock Holmes

Posted on September 9, 2015 Updated on September 9, 2015

This week’s episode of Novel Ideas is about three short stories from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes canon, discussing “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” “Scandal in Bohemia,” and “The Final Solution.” We discuss the light characterization, feminism, various adaptations, and Victorian writing style. We also talk about Sherlock Holmes as a prank show, Holmes’s dickery, whether its secretly a monster of the week show, and badass Irene Adler spin offs.

A couple of administrative notes: This episode was recorded in the spring, so some of the information is out of date. I think most of the inaccuracies are self evident. For example, it is no longer May and we already posted our episode on Andy Weir’s The Martian. There are some minor technical issues, but hopefully nothing too distracting. I erased a long stretch of Gabs’s voice skipping like a scratched CD, but left in some our comments afterward because they amused me. Also, the Novel Ideas e-mail is no longer in service. Oh yeah, and we didn’t plug Minerva! We’re part of the Minerva Mag Podcast Network! Check it out!

The music bump is “Discombobulate” by Hans Zimmer, the theme from the 2009 Guy Ritchie film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes – Victorian Gentleman Bro

Our ratings:

It’s been quite a while, so no numerical ratings. We’d have to split them across three different stories anyway. We both thought “The Final Problem” was pretty uninteresting, but the other two stories were pretty good. If you haven’t ever read any Holmes, check out “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” which is probably the most representative of the overall Holmes canon.

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged adaptations, Adventure in Bohemia, Arthur Conan Doyle, cool story Ben, feminism, Guy RItchie, Holmes is a crack fiend, Holmes is a dick, Holmes is a misogynist douche, homoeroticism, interesting married people, Irene Adler spin off, light characterization, monster of the week, most important thing, motor noises, non-protagonist narrator, outsmarted by A WOMAN?, powers of observation, technical difficulties, tell don't show, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Final Problem, The Woman, Victorian gentleman bro, Victorian pranks, writing bored.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Posted on October 29, 2013

Welcome to a spooooooky Novel Ideas Halloween episode, featuring “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. This ~~book~~ short story is about an awkward, lovestruck schoolteacher who is terrorized by a headless horseman. Actually, it would be more accurately described as a a very silly person falling for a very silly prank. Probably. Irving doesn’t really commit himself to it one or the other. Listen to the episode to hear us discuss whether this is actually a horror story, adaptations of the story, general silliness, and why this story became a classic.

Also, there’s a little bit of schedule housecleaning to square away this week. Ben is going to be out of town next week, so there won’t be an episode the week of November 4. However, we’re going to air two episodes the following week, aiming for a Monday and Thursday drop date for those two episodes.

The music bump is Psalm 105 “Unto the Lord Lift Thankful Voices.” The Puritan version would be something like this, only more boring. This applies to the Puritan version of most things.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – 1700’s Dudebro

Recommendations:

5/10 Not long enough to warn you against it, but not good enough to recommend reading it.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Just your friendly annual reminder that November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a novel during the month of November, so it’s an exercise in masochism as much as anything. Actually, the goal is to write 50,000 words during the month, which is closer to a novella, most commercial novels being in the 90,000 word range. That being said, averaging approximately 1,700 words per day for an entire month isn’t easy. Novel Ideas will be attempting to defeat NaNo (as it is frequently abbreviated) this year, for the first time in Ben’s case, and AGAIN in Gabs’s case because she is crazed. Feel like trying with us? Let us know!

This entry was posted in Admin, Episodes and tagged 1700's dudebro, adaptations, Ben's a nerd, black authors, feminism, Halloween, high school comedy, horror standards, period appropriate, poking fun, psalmody, racism, schedule, short story, silliness, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, tongue in cheek, Washington Irving, why is this a classic?.