Chapter Text
So just in case you guys don't make a habit of reading others' comments, I'm going to devote an entire chapter to people's responses to my rant, just so it's clear that (a) I'm not the only one bothered by the casual treatment of a Strad in several Sherlock fics, but also (b) you can make a darn good argument in support of Sherlock's Strad.
So let's begin with my fellow crazy-juice drinkers.
I too prefer mango-flavored crazy juice. And have been exasperated at the dropping of the Strad name at the drop of a deer-stalker cap. So good on you for this!
It has long been a pet peeve of mine that so many fan authors give Sherlock a Stradivarius, especially when it is mentioned casually like "Sherlock threw his Strad down on the couch in a gesture of annoyance." Which is exactly how one should treat a priceless, one of a kind antique.
fangs_fawn:
THANK YOU!!! This always y s bugged me, too, and I'm not even a musician!
Logic! Authorial logic! What a novel idea! :-)
[...] I've noticed the casual references to Strads and idly pondered on the unlikelihood of Sherlock having one and treating his violin the way he does on screen (although I've seen it plausibly used at at least once but it's definitely rate). Especially after I looked up the Stradivarius instrument list (with owners/possessors where known) on Wikipedia a while back [...]
Fiona:
Thanks for the info in general as well as fic related; I have wondered how musicians (other than, say Yo Yo Ma) actually manage to afford a Strad. And I've thought that some depictions have Sherlock treating his violin entirely too casually, especially for a good musician, doing things I wouldn't do with my flute -- and that's a nice solid metal (with lots of sensitive little levers and just and...) [...]
There are also quite a few people who, while they recognize the issue, don't get as bothered about it.
[2nd comment] Well, I'm not a violinist, although I used to accompany violinists and cellists, and play in piano trios and quartets. And while I don't know of any instruments comparable in my area, I do know that a particularly fine instrument is a lovely thing. Nevertheless, I also know that rare finds of previously unknown gems are occasionally made even today, especially in the world of the arts. Also, in the few fics I've seen where Sherlock has a Strad, it's usually been inherited (non-canon of course, but it works). Sure, I agree that there are writers who haven't got the faintest idea how Sherlock might actually treat such an instrument. Still, in all of the arts, I see so much lack of understanding by writers - even published and even very popular writers - that I tend to not worry much about it unless the misinformation regarding the particular artistic plot point is especially central to the story.
Personally, I don't mind if fanfic writers use Doyle's Strad, doesn't matter whether you could or could not find one in a pawn shop back then, I think it's rather one of his endearing little mistakes (such as calling Mrs Hudson "Mrs Turner" at one point, or calling John "James").
I do however appreciate it if people take the time to research whatever they're writing about (which a lot just don't, obviously); it can be tedious at times, of course, but that's the effort one should invest, if you ask me. And as you said, nowadays it's really, really easy to look stuff up, so sloppiness due to laziness is not excuseable.
A great source for all things Sherlock is "Sherlockology" for example, and if one looks under "Props", one'll find which types of violins they used if one wants to go by BBC canon, easy-peasy. [...]
Some people have other issues with Sherlock's violin besides the arbitrary Strad-ness that appears in fanfic:
Vicki:
[in response to a comment that disagreed with the rant] True, but its overused in fan fiction.
I was actually a little disappointed in the TV show writers lack of imagination in making Sherlock play the violin instead of modernizing his music taste as well. Why couldn't he play a guitar and be a diehard Metallica fan or something like that? Not to mention they should of had a violinist show the actor how to at least look like he was playing correctly. I winced at the scenes and I'm not even a musician.
And several individuals have brought up very good counter-arguments to my rant.
You know your music background and you know from Strad. This is good. You're also right that an identified, known Strad would be more grief than it's worth to Sherlock. Mycroft hovering in full twitter mode alone would drive him nuts--and Mycroft would hover over a known, identified Strad in Baby Brother's hands. (This in spite of the fact that Baby Brother does seem to take sufficient care of his violin to give one some hope a Strad would survive his cavalier oversight...)
That said, you're ramming head-first into a combination of long-standing canon and fanon issues that *can* be explained away without exiling the legend of the Strad, and thus undoing ACD canon--which is always undesirable when playing the Great Game of rationalizing Holmesian legend.
The casual bigotry is quite true to era. That said, in terms of the realities, not just the prejudices of the period, the writer was presupposing a Jewish pawnbroker who's dealing with second-hand materials. Pawnbrokerage was a common profession for many Jews because there were laws in place that kept them from taking part in a number of other trades and professions.
Throughout much of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods huge heaps of people were in transit all around Europe and the Americas, and all sorts of treasures were changing hands. On top of that forgeries were rife, and methods of IDing them much rarer and harder come-by than currently. All you really have to do is hypothesize an *unknown* Strad, signed but not on record, sold by a poor European immigrant who may not have even known what he or she had in the first place, to a pawnbroker who may have recognized the signature but who would have no way of confirming it--and every reason to doubt it as a forgery in an era when forgeries of all sorts were common.
Sherlock, on the other hand, was a skilled and passionate musician, even if not professional grade, or of professional inclination. Further, he was and is nothing if not a passionate researcher of the entire criminal scene, including art forgeries. If a Jewish pawnbroker bought what he thought was a forgery for a pitance, and priced it at a pitance, Sherlock would nonetheless recognize it and then buy it at a pittance--and gloat ever after at his little victory, in which his deductive skills, his musical and criminal studies, and his endless time skulking around the bowels of London won him an unknown treasure--a treasure he would share with John because you've got to brag to someone, but which he'd not ever publically confirm because once confirmed it would all be such a nuisance.
The ridiculously low price? I'd lay odds you didn't get your first violin from a pawn shop in a poor neighborhood.
Modern day equivalent, again given the shifts of fortunes and families around the world, would be to pick it up from, say, the sort of person who buys up old storage lockers. All you need is one mistake--one person who thinks it's a forgery and sells it as a forgery....and a Sherlock who finds it.
So, in modern day, let's say a Russian heading for the UK brings his grandfather's violin, which is not recognized as a missing Strad by customs. He or she puts it in storage, then dies, forgets, runs out of money--whatever is needed to let a clear-out dude empty the locker. Clean-out dude doesn't recognize what he's got--assumes it's got to be a fake when he does his homework--and lists it on Craigslist. Sherlock shows up because he needs a good violin for cheap...and gloats for the rest of his life but doesn't make it public, because again, just as you've said, it is way too much grief.
Would Sherlock be respectful and decline to use it, because he's unworthy? Um...this is Sherlock, right? Would he turn it over to the Righteous and Cultured? Again...Sherlock. Would he take good care of it and play it often? It appears so.
Me, I have no vested interst in this. But I do think the fanwriters can keep Doyle's Strad.
My (meagre) reply:
That...blew me away. Very well said. Like goddamn. I will revise my earlier statement and say that if a story presents Sherlock owning a Strad like this (fully fleshed out and sensibly explained), I will have no problem with it. A very well-thought out counter argument. Thank you. *Tips hat to you*
Tammany:
Thank you. Very gracious of you--I do mean that. It's hard to have someone present a counter argument. My thanks for your tolerance and open-mindedness.
I'm going to risk adding a couple more points. I do, very much, understand your frustration, especially as quite a lot of fanfic is sloppy and can't even really be said to have been very much "thought through." I suspect a lot of writers are indeed just throwing it in because someone else threw it in, etc., and it sounds so cool for Sherlock to have a Strad. (Which in all honesty is, i suspect, why flipping Arthur Conan Doyle threw it in: Wow, I'll give Sherlock a Stradivarius he bought at a pawn shop for thruppence! Coooool!") It's annoying to see idiocy passed along mindlessly, like mononucleosis or PR spin.
That said, this one IS canon--and there have been folks far more talented than I am finding ways to rationalize the existence of that Strad for over a century. Like quite a lot of other Holmesiana, it's got history, precedent, entire articles written on it...if anything there have to be a lot of fan writers using it who are showing their literacy and understanding of the tradition by adding it in, in knowledge of its venerable standing as part of the entire "Baker Street Irregulars-style" fannish culture. Worse, you took on one that's easy for someone like me to counter: anyone familiar with pawnshops, poverty, and the culture of European immigration both then and now could come up with a plausible explanation based on a few simple points of canon and a few more simple points of history. Arthur Conan Doyle got away with the Strad the first time around because finding a treasure in a pawnshop is statistically unlikely, but not statistically impossible, especially when at least one of the folks involved may not realize what they have. From there on it it's clear sailing.
It is never wrong to take on what you think is stupid, wrong-headed, mindless bug-fuckery--and from where you stood that's what you thought the Strad had to be. I congratulate you on your courage, clarity, and spine. That said, I honestly recommend letting the Strad go. It's so much integrated into Canon and Fanon that trying to evict it, even when used badly (as it so often is) is a waste of your time. It's too easy to defend, and too hard to get rid of...and it's no more likely to be justified each time it's mentioned than is the existence of Mrs. Hudson or the Footprints of the Giant Hound. (grin)
My reply:
Thank you again for your insightful comments. Again, I'll reiterate my statements: Sherlock can own a Strad so long as an author understand the gravity of what that means and defends it (as you artfully have). I can see why Sherlock could own a Strad at the turn of the 19th century; misinformation plus the constant worry of and Sherlock's own shrewdness that allows him to tell the difference make such a scenario plausible. What I'm arguing is that What I reject is the argument that something should be canon simply because it is canon, when it cannot be rationalized for any other reason. Simply because the nature of Sherlock's violin comes from one sentence of one story out of 56 short stories and 4 novels that were written 120 years does not mean that the same realities can apply to modern day.
Mrs. Hudson is a human being; human nature translates across centuries. Footprints have been made ever since there were people who could make them :) But what you also may have noticed in the translation of the Hound of the Baskervilles to modern day, Henry is no longer a noble and does not experience love at first sight. What's instrinsic to Sherlock's character is his violin, not the fact that it's a Strad. And to me (and I think most people who've commented here), a Strad is a big deal, too big a deal nowadays to be treated as lightly as many fanfic authors do.
So I will have to respectfully disagree with your recommendation to just 'let the Strad go'. :) However, if I'd ever seen the pawnshop defense before now, I have thought twice about writing this, or I would have done a shoutout.
Thank you for this again.
[1st comment] You know, in today's actual Baker Street, there is no way Sherlock Holmes can live at 221b. So maybe that should be jettisoned along with the Strad?
Thing is, it's fiction. Doyle put the Strad in Holmes' hands, not fanfiction writers. There's no more reason, in my opinion, for writers to quit including the Stradivarius than it is necessary to move Sherlock out of his flat on Baker Street. I'm not sure how realistic a lot of other plot points, characters, and accessories are in Sherlock. I realize that someone who knows a lot about violins may find it difficult to suspend disbelief when the topic comes up, but it really is canon, after all, just like many other things in Sherlock Holmes that aren't exactly totally realistic - either in the late 19th century or today.
My reply:
Canon is important; without canon we would not have Sherlock Holmes in the first place. However, some stuff needs to be updated to fit the times. Gatiss himself has acknowledged this and he's a huge ACD nerd. For example, Sherlock uses nicotine patches because smoking in London is effectively impossible today. Watson has a sasstastic personality now, which makes more sense to modern viewers who don't think anyone (no matter how great) should be idolized and followed blindly without question (especially someone as clearly flawed as Sherlock). When Sherlock comes back from the dead in The Empty House Watson's first reaction (after fainting) is joy to see his dead companion. What's more, the entire resolution of the mystery hinges on a dummy lookalike of Sherlock and an expert sniper who apparently can't tell. Yeah. That doesn't translate to modern audiences. Furthermore, my arguments are about why owning a Stradivarius is a supremely big deal from the perspective of a musician (which Sherlock is). But I don't feel that non-musicians even feel comfortable with anyone casually owning a Strad. Having a Strad nowadays is a big deal. It may not have been in Doyle's time, but it is now. However, I'm fully for Sherlock having anything and doing anything so long as (1) it makes sense to his character, and (2) it makes common sense to me. These are not qualities intrinsically found in certain plots or details and not in others; they are developed through careful and conscientious writing. I'll accept a Sherlock fic that treats a Strad the way it should be treated. I've yet to find one though.
Merry:
I recognize that you're probably very into music. That's great. And I was aware of the Strad situation. However, I overlook it because it adds mystery to his character. How did he get it? Well, how does Sherlock do anything. Why does he treat it so casually? Well, you're projecting your own priorities on him. Why doesn't Mycroft do something about this? I think Mycroft has given up on making Sherlock do a lot, including, but by no means limited to, wearing clothes at Buckingham Palace. Would it upset Mycroft? Yeah...which is probably bonus for Sherlock. Why didn't Irene notice the quality of his violin? Well, maybe she would notice if it were a Strad known to be in circulation, but I wouldn't put it past Sherlock to have acquired one previously thought to be lost, or quietly passed down in the family from a well-meaning and eccentric relative who simply enjoyed hearing him play and would rather not attract the circus from making its ownership public. And why would Moriarty care? I guess what I'm trying to say is, Sherlock is a strange person to whom strange things happen. And it's canon. So maybe you should switch to decaf crazy juice.
My reply:
See that's the thing. I'm talking about the modern adaptation of Sherlock. 19th century Sherlock probably could plausibly own a Stradivarius - just like he could smoke all around London and take opium without much more consequence than a frown from Watson. That no longer works today.
I'm fine with Sherlock doing whatever or having whatever. But if it doesn't make sense to his character or to me at first glance, then it has to be justified.
I'm okay with something like this-
John glanced down and frowned. 'What's that say on the...the, um, side, of the violin?' he asked, fumbling for the proper technical term. Damn it, he was a doctor, not a musician.
Sherlock's eyes flickered to the violin. "Oh. Stradivari."
"Oh. Wait, what?"
"Your sudden bout of either deafness or dumbness is going to be of little help to me at the crime scene today," said Sherlock with an exasperated sigh.
"Stradivari," breathed John. "As in, Stradivarius."
"Excellent deduction, John. Your aptitude for grasping the obvious never ceases to amaze." Sherlock brushed his thumb casually across the strings of his violin. His multi-million-dollar violin. John's mouth went as dry as a bone.
"Of course you'd have a bloody Stradivarius, you pompous git," muttered John under his breath as he most emphatically did not stomp into the kitchen. Sherlock watched him and then simply shrugged.
See what I mean? That's just an example I made up now. Even if Sherlock does treat a Strad with appalling casualness, the author should not. The author should understand that a Strad is a big deal. And that's not how I've seen Strads get treated in many Sherlock fics.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I'm very happy that this has provoked so much discussion. But at the end of the day, this rant is about something that bothers me in Sherlock fics. Clearly it doesn't bother everyone. So please, while you make some very good points, I ask that you (a) understand me perfectly and (b) do not patronize my crazy juice. *strokes can lovingly*
UPDATE (18 April 2014)
Several lovely commenters have also commented with very valuable additions to Chapter 2's info page that you should be aware of:
Great piece! As a violinist myself, when I see Strads in a fic I tend to suspend disbelief and keep reading, because I don’t read fic for believability. Not everyone is aware of its significance. Furthermore, there are a lot of specialisms referenced in Sherlock and used in fic (like military, chemistry, police force, etc.) and yelling over every mistake is rather useless. Education is worth so much more. That’s why I enjoy this very much. Very good research!
I do have to add some things. In your discussion of prices, you are confounding price and worth and you gloss over two very important factors affecting it: the age of the violin and whether the maker of it is still alive.
First of all, an unknown violin maker might make heaven’s own violins, but he (or she) won’t be able to ask a price fitting its quality, simply because no one knows him. Only if professional violinists are starting to buy his violins and gushing about them, he can safely raise his prices. A higher price will also give the suggestion that, yes, this is quality, so more violinists will start to check out his violins. If they really are that angelic, there will be more demand and he can raise his prices even more. Imagine what he can ask if he only builds a violin every five years or so. The moment he dies, his violins will be worth more than before, because now there are a fixed number and he can’t make any more. Worth is not the same as price, though. Prices can be made up. Worth is determined by various things, like quality of its making, age, and the maker (and sometimes also the history of the violin). For example, my violin is worth € 3000 (I really do need a better one), but I’ll never be able to sell it for that price, because the maker is not well-known. Interestingly enough, how the violins sounds (quality of its tone, playability, etc.) barely factors in its worth! So, for example, my violin is not worth much, but it sounds great! It sounds like its worth at least double. But it’s not, because sound is barely taken into account when determining its worth. (On a side note: Anyone care to give me €10.000 for a better violin?) (On a different side note: Stradivaris are an exception in everything. The worth and price of a Stradivari is affected by a lot of things, including past owners).
Secondly, age is very important. A violin changes A LOT in its first few years. Like really, you have no idea. A friend of mine is trying out a newly built violin and you can hear the difference EVERY DAY. The wood, glue, varnish, and every else, needs to settle. The violin adapts to the strong vibrations that playing it generates and the tone can vary a lot in the process. The more you play on it, the better, especially heavy stuff like playing fortissimo and double stops. Violins need to be played. A violin that isn’t played for a couple of years will need to adapt too and will sound better after being played on for a couple of hours, days or weeks. [editor note: I bolded this, not thevanishingtwin, because this is super duper important for understanding the value of Stradivarius' if such interests you.]
What am I trying to say with all this? A lot of professional violinists prefer old masters because their quality is steady and reliable after (sometimes) centuries of being played on. A new violin can be a gamble, especially with unknown violin makers. On the other hand, a new violin can be a lot cheaper than an old one and a good investment, because its worth might rise with the reputation of its maker. The same goes for bows. I bought an amazing bow for € 2000 from a talented young bow maker and it will probably be worth a lot more in a decade or so.
So deciding if your character (in this case Sherlock) has an old violin or a new one, might tell the reader a lot about that character. Maybe he prefers tradition or he inherited his violin. Maybe he wants to support a young violin maker he thinks is promising. Maybe he wants to experiment with just how much and in what way a violin changes when played on. There is so much you can do with it.
Sorry, this got very long. I could say so much more about this. I didn’t research any of this recently; this is what I remember from what I’ve read or I’ve been told, so please let me know if any of it is incorrect. I don’t know about the US, but this is more or less the situation in Europe.
ChapBook [editor note: a legit music historian!!]:
I could write Sherlock a Strad by giving him one of the supposedly lost ones that maybe had misattributed as a fake and/or possibly held in an old family (like the Holmeses, whose fortunes over the centuries could have waxed and waned) who hadn't had the curiosity to check it out. Discovery of a new instrument would theoretically be a media event, but only if it was publicized in some way. Or heck, have him play on a fake Strad, one that he associates with a case. :)
Of course, as a musicologist (or music historian--you most likely are quite familiar with the term, but most people outside of academia give me blank looks if I use that academic label), I'd probably choose a violin by a different maker for Sherlock. Maybe an old violin that escaped being altered for later musical tastes, or a high quality reproduction of a Baroque violin and bow. I've also thought about him encountering other musics as he travelled during the Hiatus, including having him take up the Arab oud, or learn how to play the violin for a rather different musical style: Arab classical, Hindutani, or Carnatic musics, for example. Learning an entirely different musical system could be a major challenge for SH. Many more modes to deal with in those music-cultures, the use of intervals foreign to most Western art music, plus the notion that improvisation as the rule, rather than trying to reproduce what's on a score.
As for worrying about the overuse of the Strad, I'm personally more annoyed by abues of an instrument, or misuse of musical terminology. One common error: Sherlock and his brother would never call a violin sonata a "song" and even when SH plays an arrangement of a piece of vocal literature, I think he'd think of it as that, an arrangement. I'm not even sure if John would think of every piece of music as a "song", because a) he had some training in instrumental music as a kid, b) he may be just old enough that he may have missed the influence of music downloading altering the definition of the word "song", and c) not sure if this change in definition has spread to the UK (or to the UK in time to influence John). C) of course would need confirmation by a Brit-picker.
So in conclusion:
1. I'm not the only one bothered by the casual treatment of Strads in many fanfics, so please do not dismiss my arguments simply because you disagree. You could be alienating a large portion of your readership without even realizing it
2. That being said, while I personally do not believe that modern Sherlock would own a Strad, I would be more tolerant of a fic that justified his ownership. I'd be fine with a fic showed that an author understands the gravity of owning a Strad, even if Sherlock doesn't. Sherlock's allowed to be careless; an author is not.
3. Doyle's Sherlock did what Doyle's Sherlock could do in that time period. Times have changed. Some things have to be updated to fit a modern context. Not everything, just a few things. Like the Strad.
4. DIVERSITY OF OPINION IS FANTABULOUS. DISCUSSION IS FANTABULOUS. THOUGHTFULNESS IS GLORIOUS. YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGREE WITH ME. JUST BE THOUGHTFUL, Y'ALL.
So.
THANK YOU ALL AGAIN FOR YOUR OVERWHELMING RESPONSE TO THIS META RANT. IT'S BEEN AN ABSOLUTE PLEASURE DEBATING AND COMMISERATING WITH Y'ALL, AND I'LL HAPPILY CONTINUE TO DO SO. HUGS AND CUPCAKES FOR ALL.
CHEERS!
- ladysassafrass