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contxt_lounge2012-07-01 12:36 pm
melannen) wrote in contxt_lounge2012-07-01 12:36 pm
Con.txt panel report: Sherlock vs. Sherlock
Or, as we came up with too late to change the program, "What Makes a House A Holmes?"
This is going to be a fairly short panel report, since when I mod a panel, my public-speaking persona goes on read-only memory as a self-defense mechanism, but I want a place for people to share and continue the discussion.
And also to add the most important thing: I mentioned Lord Peter Wimsey as a canon that has a Holmes cameo, and others in the panel were incredulous about this, and as some of them ought to know Lord Peter canon better than I, I assumed I'd misremembered something.
No, I was right! It was written for BBC Radio by Dorothy Sayers to be read during the program "A Tribute to Sherlock Holmes on the Occasion of his 100th Birthday", and broadcast on 8 January 1954. The text of the story was published in the book "Sayers on Holmes", (but does not appear to be in any of the "Complete Lord Peter" compilations).![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mayhap was kind enough to post it full-text online a few years back, which is probably how I saw it: DLS does crack; or, The Young Lord Peter Consults Sherlock Holmes. It is a very short story, telling the tale of a very young Lord Peter going to consult Holmes about a matter of a small black kitten which has gone missing. (spoiler: (skip) But don't worry, Holmes saves the day and the kitten is perfectly okay.)
So Lord Peter gets to go on the list of official Sherlock Holmes-related canons after all. :P
We spent the beginning of the panel discussing these many canons, which ones we liked, and which ones only arguably belong on the list. There was also quite a bit of discussion of pre-internet Holmes fandom, especially the more "male-dominated" parts that concentrated more on things like timelines than on Holmes and Watson's epic romance, but also that there has been Holmes/Watson porn being written for over a century, and also how Holmes fandom as an umbrella has changed over time and incorporated all of the new adaptations and theories and media (both for published works and for fandom.)
Unfortunately, I have no notes for this part, so instead, I invite people (whether participants in the panel or not!) to share anything they want about their favorite Holmes-related small fandoms (other than BBC Sherlock and the ACD stories) in the comments to this post, and also any links they have to fics that were mentioned in the panel or that you would like to recommend in small Holmes-related fandoms.
Most of the rest of the panel was spent discussing what it is that makes a canon a Holmes pastiche or homage instead of just being a detective story, and what are the essential elements of the Holmes character.
Here's the list I generated from memory after the panel, in rough order of importance as we voted by show-of-hands:
The ones that are vital (if he does not have most of these, he is not a Holmes):
1. Holmes' methods of detecting: forensic, scientific, logical, and deductive.
2. The Holmes figure is very detail-oriented, and this is a major part of the deductions.
3. There is a Watson figure: dear friend and companion, biographer, doctor, etc. (It was decided that there could be a discussion almost this long on what makes a Wilson a Watson, too. But we know one when we see one.)
4. The equivalent of what Watson calls "bohemian tendencies": he obeys social conventions only when, and only because, he chooses to.
Important but not vital (usually has many of these, the more the better):
5. The Holmes figure is very focused on the work, often to the detriment of other parts of life; major issus with boredom when there is no work.
6. The Holmes figure has a non-conventional relationship with sexuality for his culture (whatever that might be.)
7. The violin, or an equivalent: that is, an artistic outlet, usually musical
8. An addictive personality, or a drug-based coping mechanism
9. There is a framing story (often based on the Watson figure's notes) establishing how and why the account came to be recorded.
Often get thrown in, but not necessary:
10. An Irene figure ('The Woman')
11. Issues around family
12. Master of Disguise
13. Apt. 221B
14. Boxing and Baritsu or other physical skills
Least important:
15. A Mycroft figure
16. A Moriarty figure
17. A version of the Reichenbach story
18. Beekeeping.
This is going to be a fairly short panel report, since when I mod a panel, my public-speaking persona goes on read-only memory as a self-defense mechanism, but I want a place for people to share and continue the discussion.
And also to add the most important thing: I mentioned Lord Peter Wimsey as a canon that has a Holmes cameo, and others in the panel were incredulous about this, and as some of them ought to know Lord Peter canon better than I, I assumed I'd misremembered something.
No, I was right! It was written for BBC Radio by Dorothy Sayers to be read during the program "A Tribute to Sherlock Holmes on the Occasion of his 100th Birthday", and broadcast on 8 January 1954. The text of the story was published in the book "Sayers on Holmes", (but does not appear to be in any of the "Complete Lord Peter" compilations).
mayhap was kind enough to post it full-text online a few years back, which is probably how I saw it: DLS does crack; or, The Young Lord Peter Consults Sherlock Holmes. It is a very short story, telling the tale of a very young Lord Peter going to consult Holmes about a matter of a small black kitten which has gone missing. (spoiler: (skip) But don't worry, Holmes saves the day and the kitten is perfectly okay.)So Lord Peter gets to go on the list of official Sherlock Holmes-related canons after all. :P
We spent the beginning of the panel discussing these many canons, which ones we liked, and which ones only arguably belong on the list. There was also quite a bit of discussion of pre-internet Holmes fandom, especially the more "male-dominated" parts that concentrated more on things like timelines than on Holmes and Watson's epic romance, but also that there has been Holmes/Watson porn being written for over a century, and also how Holmes fandom as an umbrella has changed over time and incorporated all of the new adaptations and theories and media (both for published works and for fandom.)
Unfortunately, I have no notes for this part, so instead, I invite people (whether participants in the panel or not!) to share anything they want about their favorite Holmes-related small fandoms (other than BBC Sherlock and the ACD stories) in the comments to this post, and also any links they have to fics that were mentioned in the panel or that you would like to recommend in small Holmes-related fandoms.
Most of the rest of the panel was spent discussing what it is that makes a canon a Holmes pastiche or homage instead of just being a detective story, and what are the essential elements of the Holmes character.
Here's the list I generated from memory after the panel, in rough order of importance as we voted by show-of-hands:
The ones that are vital (if he does not have most of these, he is not a Holmes):
1. Holmes' methods of detecting: forensic, scientific, logical, and deductive.
2. The Holmes figure is very detail-oriented, and this is a major part of the deductions.
3. There is a Watson figure: dear friend and companion, biographer, doctor, etc. (It was decided that there could be a discussion almost this long on what makes a Wilson a Watson, too. But we know one when we see one.)
4. The equivalent of what Watson calls "bohemian tendencies": he obeys social conventions only when, and only because, he chooses to.
Important but not vital (usually has many of these, the more the better):
5. The Holmes figure is very focused on the work, often to the detriment of other parts of life; major issus with boredom when there is no work.
6. The Holmes figure has a non-conventional relationship with sexuality for his culture (whatever that might be.)
7. The violin, or an equivalent: that is, an artistic outlet, usually musical
8. An addictive personality, or a drug-based coping mechanism
9. There is a framing story (often based on the Watson figure's notes) establishing how and why the account came to be recorded.
Often get thrown in, but not necessary:
10. An Irene figure ('The Woman')
11. Issues around family
12. Master of Disguise
13. Apt. 221B
14. Boxing and Baritsu or other physical skills
Least important:
15. A Mycroft figure
16. A Moriarty figure
17. A version of the Reichenbach story
18. Beekeeping.
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I can't get the link in your link to work, though. Or any of my other links to it. ): I hope the online copy hasn't been taken down!
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The ones I talked about a lot
Miss Madelyn Mack, the one where they're lesbians in pre-WWI New York City: Meet Miss Madelyn Mack
Their Majesties' Bucketeers, the one where they're aliens who do everything in threes and the Watson figure is a surmale and rhe marries Holmes and Irene at the end: Mymy/Mav/Vyssu, OT3 4eva (post also includes reviews of books in the Irene Adler series and the Mrs. Hudson mysteries.)
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There were two Holmes-related panels. The first one was about BBC Sherlock specifically. I jotted notes so I could tell my F-list about it.
One woman in the panel had a glowing arc reactor under her T-shirt. At the beginning of the hour, the moderator asked her, "Aren't you really Iron Man?"
She replied, "Yes. I am Iron Man."
We all applauded.
We got into lots of analysis of Reichenbach and How Sherlock Did It. I've read tons of stuff so I only reminded them of the mannequin at the beginning of the ep and then shut up so others could speculate. We quickly agreed that there were a lot of red herrings in the ep, a lot of "clues" which weren't how Sherlock really did it. One person said there was a plant in the flat or somewhere at some point in the ep and she looked it up and it was some weird herb that can temporarily stall your heartbeat or something, but someone else said, "The plant was just a plant."
I did point out the apparent vampire bite at the end and suggested that the makeup people were having fun there. Everybody laughed.
Someone reported that Martin Freeman (who plays John) said that the stunt man really wanted to punch Benedict Cummberbund in the Irene Adler ep, "but that was my job."
The next day there was a Sherlock vs. Sherlock panel where we discussed the various iterations. The mods brought up the 2009 non-RDJ movie with the dinosaurs in it. Someone declared that she has actually read Holmes/Watson that was written a century ago. We all pelted her with requests of where we can find this pioneering work, but she couldn't remember.
One person said with disapproval that the early Baker Street Irregulars (the fan club, not the street urchins) were mostly upper-class English gentlemen. She said, "They really liked the idea of the Diogenes Club." I did not speak up and tell everyone that I love the idea of the Diogenes Club, but I totally do.
Seriously, we oughta bring those kinda clubs back. There can be ones for women, co-ed ones if that's what floats your boat - I'll start an all-Lesbian one, just so long as we can have an oak-paneled library where other dykes and I can drink brandy, smoke cigars, and denounce the state of the world. I love the idea of those old clubs, but especially the sublimely antisocial Diogenes Club. A place where it's against the rules for people to talk to you - if I want to talk to someone, I'll go to a slash con.
I plugged The Zero Effect, an overlooked movie where Bill Pullman played a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. You can watch it on youtube, plus it's one of my sources for my upcoming Irene Adler vid. I can see what it wasn't a big hit: the Holmes character lacked the sympathy which normally makes Watson and the audience put up with him, and Holmes and Watson didn't have a properly affectionate bond. Really, they could barely stand each other. But it's still very enjoyable and serious Holmes fans need to watch it. Hardly anyone's ever even heard of it.
I also plugged The Angel of the Opera, a novel about Holmes and the Phantom of the Opera. There was another such crossover, The Canary Trainer, which depicted the Phantom as an evil horrible person, so phooey on that. TAotO was very sympathetic to the Phantom. I have quibbles with its portrayal of Holmes, but there wasn't really time to get into all that.
Oh, at one point we discussed works that are clearly derivative of Holmes, like the Nero Wolfe novels, and I pointed out that Ichabod Crane the movie Sleepy Hollow is clearly strongly influenced by Sherlock Holmes. (In fact, when the previews started showing, that was the first thing that got me interested.) People were actually surprised. I think they hadn't even seen it! How is that even possible? What kind of fan skips movies made by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp? OK, I skip them sometimes *coughDarkShadowscough*, but at least I always know what those guys are up to. No wonder the fandom has remained tiny.
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And I agree, I love the idea of a Diogenes Club, although not so much the misogynist classist parts. (And TBH though the public library covers most of that need. :P)
A proper, wood-panelled Lesbian gentlemen's club would be amazing, though.
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Just so long as we get to keep the oak paneling and the leather-bound books and the brandy snifters. That's what really matters.
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