Astronomical Department

[capt_facepalm]

Title:  Astronomical Department
Author: capt_facepalm
Rating: PG
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Gaslight)
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson
Summary: A vignette
Warnings: (none)
Word Count: 100
Author's Notes: July 21st prompt: The Lost Comet

‘Watson, could you read this and give me your opinion,’ said Sherlock Holmes as he handed me a slim monograph entitled “The Dynamics of an Asteroid”.

The item in question had been published two years prior by The Oxford University Press.

‘James Moriarty, of Durham University? I’ve never heard of him. Should I have? This isn’t stuff of the Strand. It’s academic,’ I settled in to read the introduction. ‘Well beyond my ken. Why do you want my opinion?’

‘The solar system is your department.’

‘I thought the fair sex was my department.’

‘You, my dear fellow, can have both!’

.oOOo.

Please sign the frontispiece

Comments

[methylviolet10b]

Very kind of Holmes, to grant Watson both fields. ;-) *giggle*

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

And why not? He wants nothing to do with either of them!
Thanks!

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

And anything else that I don't happen to know anything about. Apart from baking - that we can leave to Mrs Hudson.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Mrs Hudson can have the baking.
:-)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

As I recall, Isaac Asimov was allowed to join the Baker Street Irregulars (the first official Sherlock Holmes fan club) after he'd written a monograph on Moriarty and the Binomial Theorem - an expert in both as a Sherlock Holmes fan and a mathematician.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the old boys in the Baker Street Irregulars think about fanfiction. I bet it is not looked upon with delight, nor would be the (mostly) women who write it.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Like any old-boys-club, the BSIs did not take easily or kindly to women taking an interest. And membership in the BSIs was by invitation only, old boys welcoming old boys (fantasy writer Poul Anderson was invited to join in 1960; his wife Karen, also a wonderful writer and Sherlockian ... in 2000.)

For a very long time the subtext of any comment like "Fanfiction is garbage" was "because it's written by WOMEN." It's only changing now because (surprise, surprise) men are writing fanfic now.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

I don't know any guys writing FF now. The only one I knew, left.

[ancalime8301]

I'm tickled by your use of the OUP in this context, haha (I'm a librarian, so I see a lot of their stuff). And that last line is awesome.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

You must be an academic librarian, then! It seems there are a bunch of us L-Spacers here in this fandom! Thank you and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[med_cat]

Hahahaha, how generous of Holmes! ;)

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

"Bleargh!" said Holmes. "You can have the turnips department too!"

[med_cat]

...But not the wine and pheasant department, eh? ;)

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Actually, Holmes was more interested in trifles...

Belatedly edited because, apparently, I could not spell trifles

[med_cat]

I hadn't even noticed...;)