A Swarm of Bees

[capt_facepalm]

Title:  A Swarm of Bees
Author: capt_facepalm
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (Gaslight)
Characters: Dr Watson (very tenuously)
Summary: propaganda and racism
Warnings: (narrow research at best; revisionist history at worst)
More Warnings: (this one is seriously strange)
Word Count: 100
Author's Notes: July 27th prompt: (Use a random description or simile)

Upon hearing the news of the Maiwand disaster, the indolent public was up like a swarm of bees. How dare the ignorant savages defy the Empire and refuse our kind benevolence?

What audacity to take on Her Majesty’s troops, and perpetrate such horrors upon the survivors! How like the native forces to flee, leaving the Queen’s finest regiment to face the Ghazian wrath!

Too late, the masses galvanised in support of old Disraeli’s imperialist vision. See what comes of Gladstone’s moderate position?

To arms! To arms! Avenge the Empire! Avenge our blood! In Africa. In India. Avenge on every front!

.oOOo.

Please sign the petition

---

Author's Notes:
Taken from The Sign of Four, which I have been re-reading, due to committing two canonical errors so far this month. John Small describes the Indian uprising, the Great Mutiny:

"The whole country was up like a swarm of bees. Whenever the English could collect in little bands, they held just the ground that their guns commanded."

Comments

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting take on this!

[pompey01.livejournal.com]

nice tribute to the anniversary of Maiwand today!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, funny how people get all indignant over genocide, abuse and exploitation perpetrated by their invaders - scuse me, *colonists*.

(Whatever you do, don't tell Texans that the white guys who died at the Alamo were fighting to KEEP slavery, battling the Mexican government's abolition of it.)

[med_cat]

Good use of the simile, I thought

[debriswoman]

Good use of the phrase, and really quite scary!

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

Very interesting.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Thank you!
Maiwand is always on my mind in July, and I especially tried to write about it today. It took a while to figure out the right approach, since the "bees" aspect pointed so obviously in the direction of a Sussex retirement vignette.
The result: a drabble without Watson, yet affecting his situation profoundly.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This one was a bit of a departure for me.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

It gets scarier if you consider the political conflict between England and Russia was known as "The Great Game", and as in chess, one might sacrifice a piece here and there in order to win.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Thanks!
The comparison between a swarm of bees and public opinion was an interesting leap.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Today's entry had to be a Maiwand fic even though I had already written Stragglers.

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Thanks!
Yeah. Don't scratch the surface... you too may be living on stolen land...
(I am.)

Today's entry had to be a Maiwand fic even though I had already written Stragglers.

[med_cat]

Indeed it was :)