impulsereader (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
impulsereader) wrote2012-03-22 12:28 am
impulsereader) wrote2012-03-22 12:28 am
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I'm not sure where this came from but it led to Sherlock
Fanfic, for me, is all about getting the characters right. I’ll state the obvious - that this is completely subjective - just to be safe. If I’m reading something and I can’t picture the character on screen doing what it is I’m reading about, I usually can’t keep on. In fact, this is why – with only a single exception so far – I don’t even attempt to write fic; it is much too difficult.
Because of this, I don’t end up reading much slash because – Ryan and Esposito on Castle, for example – aren’t gay. On the show the characters aren’t gay. I have absolutely no problem that people pair them and write about it, but in my head the characters on the show would never be together so I can’t attain the necessary suspension of disbelief I need if those two are snogging in the background – or foreground - of the fic. This also tells me we don’t have enough gay television characters.
I was iffy on delving into Sherlock fandom, because it seems overwhelmingly John/Sherlock, and I wasn’t sure about it. In this case I could see the characters possibly taking that leap because they clearly care for one another, are good friends and partners – and John very clearly has the patience of a saint - but I wasn’t entirely convinced. Then I rewatched series one, and really saw how the Show was making a point of showing me throughout the whole of The Great Game how indifferent Sherlock is to the suffering of the people strapped to the bombs – he considers the blown up, blind old lady a win anyway since he solved the problem in time – which is just – callous and wrong. I’m sure he’s a little bothered deep down, and he has a good point that in waiting until the last minute to save these people he’s buying time – and in fact keeping the victim count lower than it might have been; but, really, he’s mostly a prat about it.
But then he absolutely RIPS that coat off of John at the end and then even flings it away from him – which - the last one that went off took out part of a building and killed more than a dozen people, so I don’t really think those extra few yards are going to give you an added measure of protection there, Logic Man, and you want that bomb as far away from John as you can get it for emotional reasons alone. During the scene he asks him multiple times if he’s okay, if he’s hurt, and John’s all, ‘What? Oh yeah dude, I’m fine, just hyperventilating a touch.’ – sounding a little confused as to why he’s answering this question again. Wow.
So now I’m convinced that Sherlock loves John, and since we’re calling this character asexual per the runners of the show and the actor, I can see him being all right with either hetero or homosexual activity when in love/a relationship. John I’m still iffy about; I’m sure he loves Sherlock, but I don’t know if he loves him in a way that would make switching gender preference in bed acceptable. Before he met Sherlock he was a straight man who liked to date and have sex with women. Meeting Sherlock didn’t change that. Falling in love with Sherlock could change that, but I’m not sure how easily it would come.
Do we really think Sherlock is actually a virgin?
Sometimes I run across a fic which branches off so far from canon – now this isn’t to say the writer isn’t writing in the canon world, or is writing badly within the canon world – as an example, a Sherlock piece that I just read overlaps a bit with the end of Reichenbach, giving us a Sherlock POV, then tells us this author’s story of what happens next, Sherlock’s absence and return, etc. – this is what I call branching far from canon – broad speculation which is quite likely to be jossed, I guess.
The piece was excellent, and I read it with great enjoyment, but the Sherlock POV it gave me definitely wasn’t jiving with the Sherlock who lives in my head, the character I’ve taken from the series; and I had a hard time with John too, a good character here but he felt slightly off to me – again – completely subjective; though this Irene struck me as pitch perfect, the actress popped right into my head. I read it as a piece of original fiction, feeling a call-back to the show when Mrs. Hudson appeared on stage – pitch perfect as well - but otherwise just enjoying the writing. However; this fic is about Sherlock growing and learning new things, learning to be more ‘human’ so that he can be a better partner to John, so it’s entirely possible the character is meant to be a departure from the one on my television screen, and that’s cool too; I didn’t have to read it if I didn’t want to. :-)
I think ‘character drift’ strikes me more when a writer is writing ‘further away’ from canon like this, and I find that I lose interest if the amount of drift becomes significant and the writing isn’t enough to make up for it – as it was in this particular case.
Actually, to hop back to John loving Sherlock, this same fic handles the change of relationship from not sexual to sexual in a really excellent manner. That was probably my favorite part. The author doesn’t ignore the fact that it’s an extremely complicated sort of thing for John. And since this has somehow morphed into a blatant fic rec – the fic in question is here The Rose; The Prince; The Fox by leiascully
Because of this, I don’t end up reading much slash because – Ryan and Esposito on Castle, for example – aren’t gay. On the show the characters aren’t gay. I have absolutely no problem that people pair them and write about it, but in my head the characters on the show would never be together so I can’t attain the necessary suspension of disbelief I need if those two are snogging in the background – or foreground - of the fic. This also tells me we don’t have enough gay television characters.
I was iffy on delving into Sherlock fandom, because it seems overwhelmingly John/Sherlock, and I wasn’t sure about it. In this case I could see the characters possibly taking that leap because they clearly care for one another, are good friends and partners – and John very clearly has the patience of a saint - but I wasn’t entirely convinced. Then I rewatched series one, and really saw how the Show was making a point of showing me throughout the whole of The Great Game how indifferent Sherlock is to the suffering of the people strapped to the bombs – he considers the blown up, blind old lady a win anyway since he solved the problem in time – which is just – callous and wrong. I’m sure he’s a little bothered deep down, and he has a good point that in waiting until the last minute to save these people he’s buying time – and in fact keeping the victim count lower than it might have been; but, really, he’s mostly a prat about it.
But then he absolutely RIPS that coat off of John at the end and then even flings it away from him – which - the last one that went off took out part of a building and killed more than a dozen people, so I don’t really think those extra few yards are going to give you an added measure of protection there, Logic Man, and you want that bomb as far away from John as you can get it for emotional reasons alone. During the scene he asks him multiple times if he’s okay, if he’s hurt, and John’s all, ‘What? Oh yeah dude, I’m fine, just hyperventilating a touch.’ – sounding a little confused as to why he’s answering this question again. Wow.
So now I’m convinced that Sherlock loves John, and since we’re calling this character asexual per the runners of the show and the actor, I can see him being all right with either hetero or homosexual activity when in love/a relationship. John I’m still iffy about; I’m sure he loves Sherlock, but I don’t know if he loves him in a way that would make switching gender preference in bed acceptable. Before he met Sherlock he was a straight man who liked to date and have sex with women. Meeting Sherlock didn’t change that. Falling in love with Sherlock could change that, but I’m not sure how easily it would come.
Do we really think Sherlock is actually a virgin?
Sometimes I run across a fic which branches off so far from canon – now this isn’t to say the writer isn’t writing in the canon world, or is writing badly within the canon world – as an example, a Sherlock piece that I just read overlaps a bit with the end of Reichenbach, giving us a Sherlock POV, then tells us this author’s story of what happens next, Sherlock’s absence and return, etc. – this is what I call branching far from canon – broad speculation which is quite likely to be jossed, I guess.
The piece was excellent, and I read it with great enjoyment, but the Sherlock POV it gave me definitely wasn’t jiving with the Sherlock who lives in my head, the character I’ve taken from the series; and I had a hard time with John too, a good character here but he felt slightly off to me – again – completely subjective; though this Irene struck me as pitch perfect, the actress popped right into my head. I read it as a piece of original fiction, feeling a call-back to the show when Mrs. Hudson appeared on stage – pitch perfect as well - but otherwise just enjoying the writing. However; this fic is about Sherlock growing and learning new things, learning to be more ‘human’ so that he can be a better partner to John, so it’s entirely possible the character is meant to be a departure from the one on my television screen, and that’s cool too; I didn’t have to read it if I didn’t want to. :-)
I think ‘character drift’ strikes me more when a writer is writing ‘further away’ from canon like this, and I find that I lose interest if the amount of drift becomes significant and the writing isn’t enough to make up for it – as it was in this particular case.
Actually, to hop back to John loving Sherlock, this same fic handles the change of relationship from not sexual to sexual in a really excellent manner. That was probably my favorite part. The author doesn’t ignore the fact that it’s an extremely complicated sort of thing for John. And since this has somehow morphed into a blatant fic rec – the fic in question is here The Rose; The Prince; The Fox by leiascully