jai jai shiva

[lotesse]

It's an odd thing that, as so many of y'all have argued, Sherlock's central flaw lies in its absolute infatuation with Sherlock Holmes - considering how much Holmes' actual c19th author disliked and was tired of him! Final Problem/Empty House used Holmes as a proxy for a conversation between ACD and his readership - "if you won't stop loving him so much I'll kill him off, see if I don't," and then three years later "all right all right I'm sorry he's not dead he's just been to Tibet and other whatnot and hey look wax dummies! air guns!" - and it's interesting that a century later the character can still be said to serve a proxy function, mediating between the audience's perverse desire and the show's starstruck narcissistic neoliberal power trip. Also interesting that the resonance between Victorian Holmes' drug use and the repeated "hit" of serial fiction seems to have shifted over into abuse/codependency territory instead of addiction: the author as dom, the viewer who only thinks she knows what she wants. I mean, speaking for myself, watching Sherlock does sort of feel like getting negged.

I enjoy the instance of "The Empty House" - I feel for ACD in a comical sort of way, like, the poor guy! but I also like it when readers' desires come out on top. No matter how many times I try to engage with Sherlock I always end up bouncing solidly off of the much more authoritarian textual power dynamics.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

These are some of the reasons why I keep watching despite feeling deeply ambivalent about the show.

Thanks for links, the one about neoliberal private vs. state ideology worldbuilding is fantastic.

[lotesse]

Do you keep watching because you yourself enjoy participating in the show's dynamic with its viewers, or are you more in observer territory? I can't make myself watch, but as with several other big recent media properties I don't watch myself (Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones), I spend a lot of time reading about Sherlock, watching people watch it.

[king_touchy]

Negged, yeah. And yet I keep coming back for more. "Maybe this time…!" Ow. But my greatest enjoyment is the fanfic, which is just another adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, isn't it. And the stories I enjoy the most leave off the negging. So there's that.

Oh, and the Russian adaptation. I've seen a couple episodes of that. So far, it's a lovely series of stories much about Watson, and Holmes is a real boy.

I wonder how reading the ACD stories might affect my experience of BBC Sherlock (or any version of the character). Yes, I have not read them. Well, a graphic novel adaptation of A Study in Scarlet, but that's it.