Random thoughts of a Sherlock addict
Aug. 2nd, 2012 09:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Wrong userpic, but I don't have a Sherlock icon. Yet. But I will be. You see, I'm a convert. And it's all
saki101's fault. Had she (at least I think she's a she) not posted all those intriguing Sherlockfic snippets at
picowrimo in the last 2 months, I'd never have bought the series while in Hamburg and never gotten addicted. As things are now, I believe I've reached the stage beyond all hope.
I've never fallen for a new fandom this fast and this hard; and those who know me also know that I'm not interested in contemporary stuff, as a rule. Unless it's vampires, of course. Sherlock has swallowed me as a whole. Most other DVDs I bought in Hamburg and Lübeck, and I bought an indecent lot of them, never got beyond the checking phase (had to see it they're okay). Sherlock, OTOH? I've already watched both seasons twice, plus once all episodes with the audio commentars, and the Making of extras, and so on. And I've read tons of fanfiction, some of it truly excellent. I put those on my favourites list on FF.Net. I can't get enough of it.
So, what's that caught me so irresistibly in Sherlock? I think it's the friendship between the two main characters. It's something truly unique in todays television. And this is what makes the whole series so authentic to the source, despite the modernization. This friendship originates in an earlier time when bromance was a completely natural and accepted thing in society, without people thinking of a gay relationship by every touch, every fond glance. When two men could simply and honestly have a deep friendship, without tingled with sex.
Moffat and Gatiss called it man-love in one of the audio commentaries, teasingly saying that it could be abbreviated as MOVE. And that's a beautiful thing to watch, especially as Cumberbatch and Freeman bring it over. Those two guys are absolutely brilliant.
Now, those who know me also know that I'm not against slash. In fact, I read - and write - a great deal of it. However, there are some "pairings" where the mere idea rings wrong for me. Frodo and Sam in LOTR is one of those things. Sherlock and John is another one. This is just my personal feeling, mind you, and I don't judge anyone who ships them; in fact, a few of the stories I favourited are slash. But I find the friendship aspect much more appealing - especially in the current inflation of slash stories, too many of them concentrating on how to put Character A into Character B with a minimum of fuss.
Friendship is something that ought to be explored a lot more than it is nowadays. I ruefully admit my own sin by neglect in this area. Aside from being supremely entertaining and visually beautiful, Sherlock has also opened my eyes on the relative one-sidedness of my own writing, and for that, I'm grateful.
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I've never fallen for a new fandom this fast and this hard; and those who know me also know that I'm not interested in contemporary stuff, as a rule. Unless it's vampires, of course. Sherlock has swallowed me as a whole. Most other DVDs I bought in Hamburg and Lübeck, and I bought an indecent lot of them, never got beyond the checking phase (had to see it they're okay). Sherlock, OTOH? I've already watched both seasons twice, plus once all episodes with the audio commentars, and the Making of extras, and so on. And I've read tons of fanfiction, some of it truly excellent. I put those on my favourites list on FF.Net. I can't get enough of it.
So, what's that caught me so irresistibly in Sherlock? I think it's the friendship between the two main characters. It's something truly unique in todays television. And this is what makes the whole series so authentic to the source, despite the modernization. This friendship originates in an earlier time when bromance was a completely natural and accepted thing in society, without people thinking of a gay relationship by every touch, every fond glance. When two men could simply and honestly have a deep friendship, without tingled with sex.
Moffat and Gatiss called it man-love in one of the audio commentaries, teasingly saying that it could be abbreviated as MOVE. And that's a beautiful thing to watch, especially as Cumberbatch and Freeman bring it over. Those two guys are absolutely brilliant.
Now, those who know me also know that I'm not against slash. In fact, I read - and write - a great deal of it. However, there are some "pairings" where the mere idea rings wrong for me. Frodo and Sam in LOTR is one of those things. Sherlock and John is another one. This is just my personal feeling, mind you, and I don't judge anyone who ships them; in fact, a few of the stories I favourited are slash. But I find the friendship aspect much more appealing - especially in the current inflation of slash stories, too many of them concentrating on how to put Character A into Character B with a minimum of fuss.
Friendship is something that ought to be explored a lot more than it is nowadays. I ruefully admit my own sin by neglect in this area. Aside from being supremely entertaining and visually beautiful, Sherlock has also opened my eyes on the relative one-sidedness of my own writing, and for that, I'm grateful.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-02 11:56 pm (UTC)(Or if you don't have the time to wade through 700+ icon posts right now, check out my userpics as a stopgap-measure! :D)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-03 09:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-03 02:28 pm (UTC)Friendship is a wonderful thing to have explored in fic - it does seem that fandom focuses loads on romance (and sex) - it is really interesting to see all the different ways people see relationships based on the same canon facts :)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-03 05:05 pm (UTC)I haven't actually read any Sherlock Holmes stories aside from "The Hound of Baskerville", although I saw random TV-interpretations, none of which impressed me too much. This one, however, just blew me away.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-05 02:34 am (UTC)I'm really fascinated by your take on them as friends. Because left to my own devices, I don't really see them as a slash couple either; I have a long and involved theory why which I won't bore you with :) But the dynamics of their relationship are fascinating; the push and pull of a friendship that they unexpectedly find means the world to them.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-05 08:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-08 09:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-08 10:53 pm (UTC)I've been spending more time than I expected watching the Olympics. Good thing they didn't start in the middle of pico.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-08 09:35 pm (UTC)From my snippets you've gathered that I have taken a slash approach to their relationship, but even with that interpretation, I feel that their friendship is a key element and I can certainly see writers and readers preferring to focus mainly on that aspect. It is perhaps a modern flaw that all close relationships have to be viewed as sexual as if intimacy and devotion cannot exist in any other context. I just have a fondness for combining it all! Well, at least trying to.