sherlock: a qualified yes

So I've now watched all three episodes of Sherlock and I have THOUGHTS and FEELINGS which are perhaps not as organized as they could be. For those of you in the US being good, Sherlock was a co-production with Masterpiece Mystery so it will be airing on PBS later this year. I'm not sure why, given that it's a coproduction and not a rights buy, that PBS couldn't just air it when it aired in the UK, but that might be a wanting content for the fall thing.

I've read all the Sherlock Holmes stories and books within the last six months or so, having put them on my phone, and certainly when you think about that canon you think about the British Empire. So much of what is going on in them is about the intense fear within the central imperial city of the impurities that are being brought in from the conquered lands, be they artifacts, foods, goods, customs or people. So much of the villainy in Holmes was connected to empire—disputes between men of good breeding and education but no money who went to India/South Africa/Australia/the Middle East to make their fortunes. The central city has to hold firm against the regressive uncivilizing forces of the conquered countries. There are pygmies with blow darts and trained exotic animals that cannot be entirely controlled by the white men they came to England with. Men go away from England and See Things—Watson included.

In addition, and I know mardia touched on this but I think I may need to disagree with her here, Holmes is deeply misanthropic but also specifically misogynous, mostly because he can't predict the behavior of women nor clearly discern their motives. In other words, and Watson is very clear on this, Holmes doesn't like women because they fuck up his system. He can sometimes get them to do things for him, but only by subterfuge and misdirection. He says about women, at one point, "Who knows why they do anything?"

( on episodes one and three )

( on episode two )

I'll definitely watch future episodes, though if they start to irritate me I'll feel free to fast forward through them. So, a qualified yes.

oh and also, um, i'm done?

My draft of the Hollywood AU is done! Editing, editing, editing, but the draft is done!

This is what happens when you have the big mo and they haven't figured out what to do with you at your new job yet: you sit around writing fic on googledocs. I still need to go through the final chapter and get it in better shape for the betas, but here's the final status of my startrekbigbang fic:

103.03%

66968 / 65000 words

Now to write 10,000 words of Rymon for rpf_big_bang before 3 September. I can do this.