these inconvenient fireworks

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Thu, 18 Apr 2013 23:39:42 -0500

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Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:57:17 -0500

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Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:51:52 -0500

The Adventure of the Yellow Face

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:41:00 -0600

I don’t have much to say about this case. That tends to happen for the ones where half of the story is the client narrating their experiences. I appreciate a good mystery on occasion, but I’ll be honest, I’m just here for Holmes and Watson.

I was fully prepared to dislike this case. I remembered enough from reading this story years ago to know that Holmes’ guess about blackmail was wrong, but I’d forgotten the whole issue of the child being multiracial. That - and Watson’s soppy description of the scene - won me over. Racial issues! Social commentary! Broken families accepting each other!

Of course, I’m still annoyed that the entire “mystery” was easily solved by - wait for it - COMMUNICATION. I might be a hypocrite because I am often reluctant to speak my mind, but one of my least favorite tropes in fiction is when a significant conflict exists because a character decides not to communicate their thoughts, feelings, or an important piece of information with another character, and then drama ensues. Usually it’s pretty obvious that withholding this information will cause more problems in the long run. (Why would you marry someone you haven’t told about your child from a previous marriage because you think they would judge you? If you never tell, you’ll be miserable because you can’t see your child and you’re keeping secrets. If they do find out, they’ll either break it off like you thought they would from the start, or they won’t judge but you’ll have shown that you don’t trust them. Win-win right?)

…I wrote the above paragraph and then found out there’s a page on TV Tropes called Poor Communication Kills. So yeah.

komiyataki: The new game begins.

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:08:46 -0600

komiyataki:

The new game begins.

“…That’s quite beautiful.”

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 16:02:30 -0600

“…That’s quite beautiful.”

itsfeelingbyzantine replied to your post: The Five Orange Pips I recently finished S1 of Elementary...

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:44:05 -0600

itsfeelingbyzantine replied to your post: The Five Orange Pips

I recently finished S1 of Elementary and find that I prefer JLM’s portrayal of Sherlock over Cumberbatch’s, mainly for reasons that you have listed. CBS Gregson is better established as well.

Yeah, I really like what they’ve done to develop the characters beyond a formulaic crime procedural show! There are aspects of each Sherlock characterization that I like better than the other, and I like the variety of interpretations because they make me think about character motivations and narrative and people in different ways. I really do appreciate JLM’s Sherlock’s more human moments.

The Five Orange Pips

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:00:00 -0600

[Belated as usual. Classes are getting me down.]

[…] others have no offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of these papers to illustrate.

I like how Watson’s reasoning for sharing their cases with the public is essentially “my friend is awesome and I want everyone to know it!” And it’s quite reciprocated as well:

“Some friend of yours, perhaps?”

“Except yourself I have none.”

And one last note:

“I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me with some details as to your case.”

“It is no ordinary one.”

“None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of appeal.”

Fond as I am of BBC Sherlock, this is one aspect where I prefer CBS Elementary’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and his attitude towards cases. The montage of rejected cases at the beginning of A Scandal in Belgravia is pretty damn amusing, but it’s used to emphasize his scorn for other people and their petty human problems. Elementary’s Sherlock can be scornful and tactless, but he hasn’t refused to take a case because he finds it beneath him. I like the thought of Sherlock Holmes appreciating all the cases that reach his consideration because they would not have come if they weren’t unique.

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Sat, 23 Feb 2013 18:27:25 -0600

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:57:05 -0600

For the first time, I can sympathize with Sherlock Holmes’s criticisms of the sensationalist manner in which Watson records their cases. It’s a devils-foot root, but of course “The Adventure of the Devil’s-Foot Root” sounds much less exotic and interesting than the current title. Well played, Dr. Watson.

I adore the description of Holmes energetically scouring the scene of the crime because I can perfectly visualize both Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller playing out this scene fantastically.

I stubbornly skip over Doyle’s/Holmes’s ridiculous opinion of women as “the more sensitive organism” and arrive at Holmes being a terrible scientist. You may be in the Cornish countryside far away from anything resembling a chemistry lab, but even with your limited tools, you could have come up with a better plan than placing both yourself and Watson in a closed room with a substance you suspect of being a deadly poison and no observers. At least Holmes realizes this afterward:

“I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for one’s self, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry.”

“You know,” I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen so much of Holmes’s heart before, “that it is my greatest joy and privilege to help you.”

Holmes recovers enough from the effects of the devil’s-foot root to show some sass:

“How do you know that?”

“I followed you.”

“I saw no one.”

“That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.”

What intrigues me most is Holmes’s justification for letting Dr. Sterndale walk free. “I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I love had met such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion-hunter has done. Who knows?” I can picture JLM’s Sherlock saying this but not Cumberbatch’s. But then, JLM’s Sherlock loved Irene Adler, while Cumberbatch seemed to come out on top and mostly unscathed (open to some interpretation) versus Irene. Will we see any vulnerability from him in season 3? I’d like to, and I hope that his return after he said all those lies to John on the rooftop will be some sort of catalyst.

fishingboatproceeds: A++, would hire again for role of Person...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 22:17:35 -0600

fishingboatproceeds:

A++, would hire again for role of Person Who Can No Longer Bear the Vapidity That Surrounds Him.

rjinswand: theonion: Person One Season Ahead In TV Show Doling...

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:06:29 -0600

rjinswand:

theonion:

Person One Season Ahead In TV Show Doling Out Counsel Like Wise Elder: Full Report

sometimes i see a little bit too much of myself in onion headlines

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 22:12:43 -0600

Watson, I’m not sure what your definition of “comedy” is but it certainly doesn’t match mine.

At the beginning of this story, we learn that Holmes sometimes spends days in bed (sounds like an amazing life to me) and that he probably takes some cruel delight in getting Watson excited over a series of Garridebs, none of which are actually going to make him rich. I repeat: you, sir, are a dick.

I’ll keep this short because I’m several weeks late, but I have to make the obvious joke that Nathan Garrideb is the internet: “My doctor lectures me about never going out, but why should I go out when I have so much to hold me here?”

I really do need to write that essay on “let me help you” because Holmes and Watson keep hitting all my buttons for trust and friendship:

“This is a more serious matter than I had expected, Watson,” said he. “It is fair to tell you so, though I know it will only be an additional reason to you for running your head into danger. I should know my Watson by now. But there is danger, and you should know it.”

“Well, it is not the first we have shared, Holmes. I hope it may not be the last. What is the particular danger this time?”

I have nothing more to add that this passage can’t say for me:

In an instant he had whisked out a revolver from his breast and had fired two shots. I felt a sudden hot sear as if a red-hot iron had been pressed to my thigh. There was a crash as Holmes’s pistol came down on the man’s head. I had a vision of him sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons. Then my friend’s wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair.

“You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!”

It was worth a wound—it was worth many wounds—to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.

“It’s nothing, Holmes. It’s a mere scratch.”

He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.

“You are right,” he cried with an immense sigh of relief. “It is quite superficial.” His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. “By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive.”

megalong: I JUST FEEL LIKE IT’S IMPORTANT TO TALK ABOUT HOW SHE...

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 21:29:10 -0600

megalong:

I JUST FEEL LIKE IT’S IMPORTANT TO TALK ABOUT HOW SHE PUT ON THE EXACT OUTFIT HE PICKED OUT.

The Final Problem

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:55:26 -0600

[catching up to #canonfodderfriday posts that have fallen by the wayside because grad school]

“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinking. He has a brain of the first order. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them.”

I liked that BBC Sherlock mirrored the structure of this story: it starts right off with Watson reporting Holmes’ death, and then going back to fill in the details that led up to the events at the Reichenbach Fall. This version is even more heartwrenching in some ways because a significant amount of time has passed since “the event which has created a void in [Watson’s] life which the lapse of two years has done little to fill” and Watson really hasn’t recovered. He records the last adventure of Sherlock Holmes not by choice but out of necessity to protect Holmes’ memory, and reading this record is all the more painful for that knowledge.

Remember that when this story starts, Watson had been preoccupied with his own life recently and they hadn’t seen much of each other. Does Sherlock ask him to come along as a last fling before the end? He has the plans for Moriarty’s capture in place, but I don’t doubt that he suspects it won’t end as easily as that. Thinking of Holmes asking Watson along in a moment of weakness, the one part of his plan that came from emotion rather than logic, breaks my heart. As their situation grows more dire, Holmes might bluntly discuss the end of his career with Watson, but if his mood or resolve ever waver he keeps those thoughts to himself.

For a charming week we wandered up the Valley of the Rhone, and then, branching off at Leuk, we made our way over the Gemmi Pass, still deep in snow, and so by way of Interlaken, to Meiringen. It was a lovely trip, the dainty green of the spring below, the virgin white of the winter above; but it was clear to me that never for one instant did Holmes forget the shadow which lay across him. In the homely Alpine villages or in the lonely mountain passes, I could tell by his quick glancing eyes and his sharp scrutiny of every face that passed us, that we was well convinced that, walk where we would, we could not walk ourselves clear of the danger which was dogging our footsteps. […] And yet, for all his watchfulness he was never depressed. On the contrary, I can never recollect having seen him in such exuberant spirits.

I second finalproblem that this part is sadder than the ending. That and “the best and the wisest man whom I have ever known.” I’m just going to lie down and never get up again.

The Adventure of the Empty House

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:27:00 -0600

“My dear Watson,” said the well-remembered voice, “I owe you a thousand apologies. I had no idea that you would be so affected.”

You are a DICK, sir.

“You’ll come with me to-night?”

“When you like and where you like.”

Insert a link here to my not-yet-existent essay about how variations on “let me help you” (see: Star Trek) are the most romantic sentiment to me. I just. I have a lot of feelings.

Several times during the last three years I have taken up my pen to write to you, but always I feared lest your affection regard for me should tempt you to some indiscretion which would betray my secret.

I’m not sure how reassuring Holmes means to be here. I thought of you, Watson, but I don’t trust you because of your emotions?

But on the other hand, he does know about Mary’s death and attempts to be attentive to Watson’s feelings in his own way (“Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson”), so he probably means well.

I swear there’s more hand-holding and wrist-gripping in the original canon than the BBC adaptation. And people says the Victorians were repressed…

Holmes’ glee at the accuracy of his dummy is endearing and lightens the tone somewhat in the face of archenemies and global criminal networks.

“But you handled the Molesey Mystery with less than your usual—that’s to say, you handled it fairly well.”

Getting soft in your old age, Holmes? Or coming back to life has given you renewed appreciation even for Lestrade?

I found the resolution a bit anticlimactic: Moran’s capture is extremely straightforward. I suppose the thrill is in hearing how Holmes survived the Reichenbach Fall, but once you know that he never died, never even fell in fact, it’s not quite as gripping a tale.

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Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:09:21 -0600

happy valentines day!

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:45:48 -0600

happy valentines day!

ladyhistory: seanbeanery: You Say (Hobbit Version) |...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:27:45 -0600

ladyhistory:

seanbeanery:

You Say (Hobbit Version) | (X)

THIS CAST.

Watch the video—-you won’t regret it.

bobbryars: bobbryars: i have no sympathy towards sherlock fans because fall out boy are still on...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:16:56 -0600

bobbryars:

bobbryars:

i have no sympathy towards sherlock fans because fall out boy are still on hiatus who has it worse here i think it’s me

i would like to issue a formal apology to the sherlock fans