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pollaidh · 8 years

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6 Thatchers - what do Mycroft’s code names imply?

In the opening scenes of TST Mycroft has Sherlock at the Cabinet Office, and he’s explaining how they’re going to rewrite the history of the Magnussen killing. There are 4 people in the room apart from Sherlock and Mycroft explains that the info in the meeting is for Antarctica, Lansdale, Porlock and Love codenames. It is not clear whether the secretary, Norbury, and Sherlock themselves have code-names - Norbury because she’s practically invisible, and Sherlock because he’s not one of that group.

We learn later that Lady Smallwood is ‘Love’. But the other codenames are equally interesting:

Porlock: ‘The person from Porlock’ was a visitor to ST Coleridge whilst he composed the poem ‘Kubla khan’ (”A vision in a dream: A fragment). Coleridge claimed he had received the poem in a dream (some claim actually an opium-induced haze) but when he was writing it ‘the person from Porlock’ arrived and he lost most of the words. Since then ‘the man from Porlock’ has been a literary allusion to unwind intruders who disrupt creativity. It is related to the similar literary illusion, a letter from a friend.

The story behind the poem was covered in ‘Confessions of an English Opium-Eater’ (Thomas de Quincey) but others think Porlock was a fictional creation and intended as a credible explanation of the poem’s seemingly fragmentary state.

The person from Porlock has been referenced by Douglas Adams and Conan Doyle amongst others: In Conan Doyle’s ‘Valley of Fear’ Holmes is interrupted in his work by Fred Porlock, an informant in Moriarty’s organisation, whose identity is never revealed.

The poem’s text does have some watery references including ‘streams’ and ‘ponds’.

What can we make of this?

Whichever one of these is Porlock - either the unknown (?) man at the desk, Mycroft himself, or possibly Sherlock if he’s one of the 4 (possibly the secretary was ignored). And Porlock is an informant in Moriarty’s organisation.

This may also be an indication that what happens in all or part of T6T, perhaps even further, is a dream/creation, hence its ‘seemingly fragmentary state’, though of course, it could just be an echo of the rewriting of history in the Magnussen case. However, as that rewriting is overt, there’s little literary need to reinforce it. And if it is imagination, whose? Sherlock fits the opium-induced haze ok, and the Thatcher case is mainly from his pov.

Antarctica:

I’m probably going with Mycroft here, as he is known as ‘The Ice Man’. On the other hand:

(1) Would he refer to himself when discussing codenames? (indeed, why are they using them in this context at all - the meeting is not being minuted, and presumably they all know each other). If we remove Mycroft from the mix then Antarctica would be Sherlock or the unknown man.

(2) Looking at the Eurus - four winds = 4 siblings theory, I had Mycroft down as the North Wind, but Antarctica would indicate the South Wind god, Notus, who is very dangerous and a friend of thieves (I thought Moriarty).

Langdale:

Langdale Valley is a valley in the Lake District of England. This could refer to The Valley of Fear again, but Langdale Pike (a mountain) was used by Conan Doyle himself in “The Adventure of the Three Gables”, in which: Sherlock is asked to help a mother whose son has recently died abroad in dodgy circus. Amongst the woman’s belongings are a manuscript of a novel in which the son inserted himself into the story. The story is a thinly-veiled account of a romantic affair, and is sensitive because everyone in London would be able to figure out who it was about.

SH discovers Susan, a wheezing maid, eavesdropping.

In A Grenada TV adaptation of the story, they changed Lansdale Pike to be a benevolent counterpart of Milverton (Magnussen), a blackmailer who suppresses more than he expresses.

What can we make of this?

Langdale Pike could be a tall character.

Lansdale could be:

Sherlock - tall. But doubtful.

Norbury - secretary/maid - someone who can flit in and out without people really noticing they’re there.

The unknown man - he looks fairly tall.

More interestingly the insertion of someone into a story, and a thinly-veiled account of a romantic affair may be relevant for the JohnLock conspiracy.

All thoughts welcome...

#tjlc #@cow-now the six thatchers meta

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bug-catcher-in-viridian-forest · 3 years

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BBC SHERLOCK

I figured out people on mobile can’t see my pages and so cannot access my bbc sherlock meta, ergo a post.