Greil- Eek

Apologies if you have answered this before, but where have you found R.L. Stevenson’s responses to Myer’s letters about Strange Case? I want to read them but I am unable to find them. I might just be bad at googling.

After some digging, I finally found the full exchange between Myers and RLS!

the sheer AUDACITY of this bitch to write multiple letters to the author about how he’s mad that his headcanons weren’t canon in the text is a level of fandombrain that I had thought to be nonexistent in the days before twitter. some of his gripes are understandable (ex. why did hyde keep half of the murder weapon, why was carew in that part of town, etc) but most of this is just…complaining about the characters having self-contradictory traits. in the People Have Self-Contradictory Traits book.

FR I gotta admire Stevenson’s patience though. I feel like a lot of his self admitted mistakes can have Watsonian explanations, though. Hyde wasn’t thinking straight at the time of the murder. Carew, like all other characters, might have things to hide and do things that don’t fit the reader’s image of a well-liked MP. Humans are contradictory and strange and a little dumb; to me Strange Case is a celebration of how life isn’t as simple as we’d like it to be, and why life is truly celebrated by reveling in said complexity. But it would be weird if I walked up to Stevenson while he was alive and demanded he concede that’s the message when he might have had other things in mind. Such as, for instance, that he forgot to clarify a lot of stuff because he had to turn a massive incoherent manuscript into a sixty page mystery book in like four months, while feverish.

ya!!! that was my reaction to a lot of it— just. did myers understand the twist??? what was his understanding (or misunderstanding) of the nature of hyde and of what Stevenson was trying to say??? especially his comment about “style too elevated for hyde” in the reveal scene to lanyon. I always read that section as a deliberate part of the reveal— hyde using more jekyll-like language as he reveals his true identity, along with saying “OUR profession” rather than just “YOUR profession” to lanyon. it’s like a split second foreshadowing. maybe it was a mistake on stevenson’s part, but saying that hyde is acting out of character because he’s talking like jekyll is just baffling to me

I have compiled so much in my mind the past month and with nowhere to put it down I’m now biting my nails that I’ll forget something! ARSGHSGSG

OH MY GOD