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magnetic_poleEvery age gets the Holmes it deserves.
Everything I know about the twenty-first century I learned from Sherlock (BBC, 2010):
*
All problems have solutions.
All solutions are rational.
Everything that is rational can be comprehended, analyzed, and discarded.
By you.
You know everything worth knowing.
You are the master of the universe.
*
Merit rises to the top. Raw intelligence, that's what matters.
You can't look for intelligence in the Metropolitan Police Force. Why even bother? The private sector is where insight is found. Trust the consultants.
The state is there to facilitate your work. And defuse bombs. And take the bodies to the morgue.
*
People respond to intelligence. They desire intelligence. They answer the text messages that intelligence sends. They fetch things for intelligence. They are willing to put up with the rudeness that occasionally accompanies intelligence. They ask intelligence out on dates.
Intelligence is sexy.
Intelligence is power.
*
It used to be that clients would show up on your doorstep with a story, a plea, a mystery. This used to be how the game started.
Now victims show up dead.
Easier that way, to assess their problems.
More efficient.
Besides, you'd rather text than talk.
*
Look at London. Bright lights, big city. It's beautiful.
The light is beautiful. The colors are beautiful. The clothes are beautiful. This whole show is beautiful.
*
London is safe. Clean. Well-lit. Seen through a plate of glass, a kaleidoscope of reflections.
*
This is a city of well-maintained classical buildings (distant past) and high-tech modernism (present and future).
No one of interest ever lived or worked in something built in the sixties, anyway.
*
Some people say London is a battlefield. You see it more as a playground.
*
Money is no object.
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Buses and subways are for people whose time is less valuable than yours.
*
The vast majority of people in London are white. People who are not white are statistically more likely to be blood-thirsty, murdering villains. Or dead, victims themselves.
What? You're just counting. Numbers, hard numbers, that's what you want.
*
You just happen to be white.
*
Did that man just call his hostage a "stupid bitch?" Did he really? What right does anyone have to call any woman...
But, wait. He's a psychopathic murderer. That's how we know he's crazy.
Because no sane man would ever say that out loud.
*
Once, famously, a woman got the best of you.
Now, you get the best of the woman, every time.
Freak. Ha!
That was then, this is now.
*
Women protest that they don't want to take care of you, but they really do.
*
He taught me, rather than he learned me.
I was, not I were.
Hanged, instead of hung.
The man has killed his wife in a brutal stabbing, but what really rubs you wrong is his dialect.
Nothing like a death sentence to cure someone of being working class.
*
Homeless people, your "eyes and ears" around the city, emerge when they might be useful. Otherwise, they are invisible. Disinfect yourself after contact.
*
It doesn't help anyone to care.
*
Sometimes a disguise will gain you entry to an important place. Discard it as soon as possible. Don't even bother to keep up the pretense. You don't want anyone to mistake you for a working man.
*
On the other hand, people may assume you're gay. Don't worry. Don't protest. We won't go there.
*
Text flashes before you. Clues flash before you. Fast. Disorienting. Don't get distracted. The crucial details here are not factual, not for anyone except the master of the universe.
The key to this show, for lesser mortals, is character. Watch for Sherlock's expression. How does he feel about the situation at hand?
You spend a lot of time watching Sherlock's face.
Sometimes, you watch John watching Sherlock's face.
Funny how riveting a cold man's face is.
*
Selling drugs is dangerous; you can get out of your depth before you know it, in trouble, in debt, you'll kill your near-brother-in-law on the off-chance that you'll be able to sell something of his for a profit. Selling drugs leads to a life of crime.
Buying drugs and occasionally enjoying them, on the other hand, would be entirely fine. It would be interesting, actually. It would add to your mystique.
But of course, you're clean. Did everyone hear that? You're clean.
*
You are untouchable. Your friends are untouchable. The law exists to facilitate your investigations. When it's convenient.
The state itself is outdated. You have the world in your hand, on a mobile or a laptop. The new order is conflict-free and flexible.
*
Even when someone dies, it's not your fault.
People die, that's what they do.
Oh, sorry. Other people die. That's what they do.
*
You, on the other hand. You solve problems. Lestrade and Donovan and Dimmock have tried, but your methods have been tested in the open market, proved to be the best.
No problem is ever solved collaboratively. No assistance is helpful. No other types of intelligence are acknowledged.
There is no such thing as society, only individual problems, and individual problem solvers.
They should take your word as gospel.
*
People are taken hostage. Bombs are detonated. People are killed. A child's life is on the line. A roommate deals with loss. A woman grieves the man who would have married her. A man shakes in terror. A head sits in the refrigerator.
Their names and stories pass by too quickly to catch. None of them really matter, anyway. Only ninety minutes, total. Still two mysteries to go. Real problems are abstract, logical, and impersonal, unconnected to daily life, personal experience, local knowledge, or the vagaries of chance.
This is the great game. The one thing that matters in this game--
No, it's not that we win. We always win.
The one thing that really matters is that Sherlock Holmes might...
God, is that John?
He's got a vest! He's covered in explosives!
...the one thing that really matters...
Look at Sherlock Holmes' face. Watch carefully for any register of emotion. This is what we've been waiting for: a hint of anger, fear, or compassion. The show has been training you to do this for more than four hours, training you to search for the slightest sign of emotion in this man's face. You are riveted.
...the one thing that really matters is that Sherlock Holmes just might have a heart, after all.
Because that's what important. The master of the universe loves and suffers like the rest of us.
*
P.S. Thanks to
rose71 for listening and, well, being rose71.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 02:04 am (UTC)Thanks for reading! M.
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Date: 2010-08-11 07:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 03:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-08-11 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 04:37 pm (UTC)That's all without even getting into the fact that the arch-criminal is an Irish bomber who doesn't care about the lives of innocent people. Pshaw, this isn't colonialism, this is just a couple of geniuses playing a game with their cellphones.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 11:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 05:16 pm (UTC)I love the way you point how the emotional investment in the lead is intimately tied to the show's political world-view. (Here via heather's rec, btw.)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 02:19 am (UTC)*nods* True! In this case, I think the message is particularly insidious because we're distracted by the apparent "requirements" of adaptation--"they had to do it that way," we say. The racism in the second episode was awful, and yet fandom minced its words, calling it "orientalism" or an "updating" of 19c tropes. (Gah, sorry so many scare quotes.) In any case, thanks for giving this a try, even without an investment in the source material. Maggie
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Date: 2010-08-11 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 02:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-08-11 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 08:49 pm (UTC)Honestly, I have no idea what to do with Sherlock. I really want to like it -- and there are aspects I love about it -- but it's so blatantly, casually offensive sometimes that I almost hoped it was trying to be ironic. Unfortunately, no. It's being very serious. Chinese people really are only about exotic circuses and smuggling rings! Women are only there for you to talk about them as sexual objects in relation to men! The sociopathic white man is a god, and should be treated as such! (I don't know enough about classic Sherlock Holmes to comment on this, but it almost seems like the way the premise is set up to idolise the protagonist, it paves the way for problems.) If we wrap it all up in a shiny package with desaturated colours & visual flair, and encourage everyone to identify with the dismissive gaze of the white male protagonist, no one will notice!
/rant ;)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-13 02:31 am (UTC)*nods* Exactly. I was still reserving judgment after the first episode--I thought they could have gone with a POV that was less enamored of Sherlock and given Donovan some real heft as a character and critic, for example, without losing their audience. But as the second and third episodes aired, it became clear that Sherlock is not a single, troubling aspect of ourselves but an entire universe in which other values are lost, complemented by a slick, post-welfare state London. *sighs* Not that that first option would have been great, but still.
but it almost seems like the way the premise is set up to idolise the protagonist, it paves the way for problems.
You are wise, R. The better half looked at me after the series had finished and said "I told you so." I guess I should know better.
I *do* think that the writers were trying to be hip and ironic with the racism of the second episode, personally, but that doesn't make their racism any better! And I hate the fact that, as fans, we're calling it "orientalism" or a "19c trope" rather than racism, which is what it is, hip or otherwise. There are some links to good commentary at the very beginning of this post, if you're not sick of this conversation already.
Here I haven't see you in months, and I'm ranting at you. Hope you're doing well, otherwise, R! It nice to discuss again. M.
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Date: 2010-08-11 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:44 pm (UTC)*nods* Slash. Teaching us how to occupy our subject positions and like it, while we do. (And I say this as someone who reads and writes slash.) Thanks for reading. Maggie
no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 10:00 pm (UTC)But the political constructs and role of women and appalling levels of racefail... yeah, I noted them and mostly attempted to separate it from the elements of the show that I do enjoy. This meta brought all those problematic areas into sharp clarity. Thank you for opening my eyes. :)
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Date: 2010-08-12 04:42 pm (UTC)I feel as if I spend a lot of time compartmentalizing genderfail and racefail etc. just to get the daily tasks of life done, and to enjoy myself occasionally. But when the show actually thematizes social hierarchies and asks me to identify solely with Sherlock's subject position...gah! I felt just awful, by the end.
In any case, thanks for reading, lizard. M.
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Date: 2010-08-11 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-11 11:54 pm (UTC)Neoliberalism makes so much sense, it's so rational, it hides in plain sight by coopting us before we've realized it and never quite showing itself, in most if not all of the industrial democracies. And its messages are reinforced everywhere.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:30 pm (UTC)Yes, yes, yes! And the fact that it was an adaptation of a character we *think* we know and mystery plots that *seem* straightforward somehow made the whole mix particularly effective and insidious. Thanks for reading! Maggie
no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:26 pm (UTC)In Sherlock the State is dead. Thatcher wins.
Ah, there it is, in eight words! And part of the reason it's so insidious is that you're distracted by the issue of canon compliance--cabs for carriages, texts for telegraphs, etc. It's all so plausible and similar and clever--and then you realize there are huge parts of canon that are only adaptable because we've come full circle. Thanks for reading.
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Date: 2010-08-12 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 08:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 09:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:15 pm (UTC)Oooh, yes, that's a wonderful way of putting it. I enjoyed the show, in the sense that I watched it and was really emotionally engaged in it, but the things that made me uncomfortable about it were difficult to parse. Thanks for reading! Maggie
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From:no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 09:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 10:08 am (UTC)I just finished watching episode three myself and ugh. I had high hopes for this series, but there is so much that bugs me. :(
no subject
Date: 2010-08-12 04:10 pm (UTC)here via heather
Date: 2010-08-12 10:19 am (UTC)I enjoyed the show on a superficial level but was unable to get into it, and this just covers every bit that caused me discomfort, as well as some things I didn't even realise were off.
Re: here via heather
Date: 2010-08-12 04:09 pm (UTC)