Impulsively Reading Since...

Magdalen College,
Oxford
Nov. 10th 1952

Dear Mrs. _________

It is a little difficult to explain how I feel that tho’ you have taken a way which is not for me* I nevertheless can congratulate you - I suppose because your faith and joy are so obviously increased. Naturally, I do not draw from that the same conclusions as you - but there is no need for us to start a controversial correspondence!
…
Yours most sincerely
C.S. Lewis

*She had left the Episcopal Church to become a Roman Catholic

-------------------------------------

I love that - "There is no need for us to start a controversial correspondence!" Imagine! Despite the fact that we begin with a Religious Difference, which has both the same and yet different connotation now, we can still conduct a correspondence which is not controversial. We reach out and we connect, there is no need for controversy.

Please note all correspondence comes from the subject volume. Any errors or typos are my own. I have left the delightful vagaries of date format intact in order to precisely identify which letter each excerpt comes from (preposition proudly at the end of this sentence, acceptable per CSL).

This post is actually a prime example of ‘preaching to the choir’, because you guys all know already how encouraging and pleasurable it can be to have a pen pal. Still, I wanted to follow through on this idea as I took a great deal of pleasure in reading this collection of letters, and I was really astonished by the extraordinarily close parallels I was able to draw between Lewis’s letters and actual LJ conversations I’ve participated in. When I first had the idea of writing up this post, I had no idea I would actually be able to cite almost identical communications.
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He never claims to be skint..."Told Mike this morning I must be a difficult man to find a flatmate for."

All the dialogue about money is either from John - or Sherlock feeding John's assumption of lack of such.

Hence - my belief that Sherlock is flush with cash gains canon ground.

In a practical sense, what is John’s skill set as a doctor? At the surgery he writes scripts and performs some triage in deciding if someone should be sent to hospital, but he’s over qualified for this. He doctored soldiers who were wounded by bullets and bombs rather than strep throat. So what sorts of injuries do we think John could successfully treat on his own, given the proper supplies?

As an example sort of a scenario – someone is stabbed in the torso. In my head, John binds the wound and then we go off to hospital because the victim needs additional scans and care. But if someone is stabbed relatively superficially in the leg, and once the wound is bound he can walk just fine, indicating no muscle damage – in my head perhaps John could stich this wound on his own if he’s not worried about internal bleeding and such. Would he set a broken bone? Probably not without an x-ray unless it was a real emergency situation, I would imagine.

Sorry, just trying to set my doctor so he shows off best in the available light...without being a show off...

Sherlock, the bastard, giggled the entire walk back to the house. “Oh, don’t worry, John, that panto you did in uni will stand you in excellent stead. I’m not at all worried about your keeping up your end.”

“Neither am I, as I’m planning to find some unemployed West End swot and pay him to take my place.”

-------

New challenge – Sherlock is feeling a bit down; talking to John – in my head they’re outside, sitting under a tree – he remembers something from childhood and they set off into the attic to see if they can find it. What object are they hunting for? Also – things which John and Sherlock will find in dotty Uncle Rocky’s attic during the search. Go!

“Now that we’ve untangled that, do you shoot, John? I’ll be gathering a party to go out tomorrow morning.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t usually do it for sport.”

“Come out with us anyway. We’ll be a jolly group and it’s sure to be better than whatever else is on this early. There hasn’t been enough time for resentment to build up yet.”

John glanced at Sherlock who shrugged at him. “I will apparently be rehearsing each morning in the solarium. Unless you’re planning on auditing that activity, suit yourself.”

“Just make sure to give me proper notice for the bit where you tutor the children in something.”

Sherlock laughed. “Yes, all right. You’ll be joining my science tutorial this year; duly noted. Will you also be participating in the lively debate which Mycroft will moderate wherein the gestational voting public of the extended Holmes family discuss transport, energy sources and digital communication as they relate to the future infrastructure of Britain?”

John blinked. “No, probably not,” he allowed.

-------

As I'm writing this I'm really struck by the fact that John doesn't have family to rely on.

So, per the above, I'm still on the hunt for an (in)appropriate experiment for Sherlock to do with the kiddies. I'm wondering if building rockets and setting them off might be good. I was thinking I wanted it to be like a normal science fair project - but twisted slightly because Sherlock would pick an experiment that he thinks would be useful to the kids. I mean, no one actually needs a baking soda volcano - except the kids don't have much occasion to determine if a substance is blood or not - whoops! I don't know. I was looking at some of the experiments Zack and Hodgins did on Bones, and that's an interesting take too. Sherlock would find it plausible that the kids might one day need to know if a woodchipper could chop up a body. I don't know where this should go.

Right - so it's been pointed out that snobby relatives would turn up their nose at John - at least before he bags all the birds at the shoot - so I need to know a little more about what sort of schooling he would have experienced. Looking into meta and found some really interesting things.


ETA - I think I've determined that the relatives can be disapproving based solely on the fact that John didn't attend a public school - Eton et al? Does that sound right to anyone who's wandered round?

So now I am Learning All About Cricket.

Is it OOC of Sherlock to be a decent bowler?

ETA - I have no idea what this means, but I'm having fun trying to puzzle it out...

The ball following a front foot no-ball will be a free-hit for the batsman, whereby he is safe from losing his wicket except for being run-out.

Edited again - sneering Mycroft aside, do we think the boys actually call their mother Mummy? as adults? I'm not sure I can make myself do that.

I have found Sherlock. I now know what he is doing in this fic. He is still finding his way home; and he is doing it through music. This is so terribly, fearfully, insanely beautiful - and I have no idea if I am capable of getting the point across.

As of my last post I cannot even decide where to set Much Ado. How can I possibly reconcile Sherlock with home? I am not even a musician. I cannot possibly relate to his character on this level.

I've been plotting this story all weekend, and I came home tonight with a perfect, guaranteed solitary opportunity to translate some of it to actual writing - and immediately found I couldn't do anything - at all - so I ate corn and watched A Scandal in Belgravia for lack of a better idea. I sulkily researched cricket, science experiments, and Bartok. Bartok turned the key.

Now it is too late to write, as sleep is actually advisable at some point, and I have even more words pressing uncomfortably into my brain. I don't know whether to be happy that I might have reached a jumping off point or upset because this story just keeps expanding. I haven't yet learned how to properly keep hold of a story; how do I know when one has gotten away from me? Right now it seems as if I have just discovered an element which was always meant to be here, but I am worried that the dictation into my brain doesn't automatically come with a side of neat organization - HA! - I fear I am a Sherlock without a John by my side.

typing both gets me in trouble and sorts out my brain.

New worry - No One is going to want to read this fic except me...Shakespeare, Bartok, crossover, and excess of original characters - WTF?

I can't believe I'm doing this.  OK.  Help me brainstorm.

Members of the extended Holmes family - be as detailed as you possibly can please, because if I'm doing this, I am not doing it alone!  Character sketches - give 'em to me! 

Go!

( The exchange which led to this insane request. )

Beauty and the Beast is stalking me. I think it feels neglected, and I can’t really blame it. This means that last Friday night we saw a production of it in which the eldest niece played Gaston’s sidekick rather than the chandelier and other various bits - double cast switched on alternate performances. Considering the age of the children involved the production was just about as accomplished and spotty in quality as you can imagine. DressedUp!Beast was the spitting image of how Hugh Hefner would have been costumed if he’d had a bit part in Saturday Night Fever – with doc martinish boots to complete the look. Select pics at the end of the entry.

Also, I suspect my KR *waves hello - don’t be scared of this entry, it’s nothing as silly as fanfic* has been lurking around the beginnings of this journal and that is possibly why I read and he computered to the backdrop of a pretty terrible – possibly Disney – Word just auto capitalized Disney – I hate that a little bit – B&tB take off with Neil Patrick Harris and Peter Krauss in bit parts on Sunday.

Well, B&tB, I was already ahead of you. I’d started Beauty sometime last week and was finishing as that fairly horrible movie played, so there!

This is a very practical book, and I think it is so very practical because Beauty herself is a very practical character. Aside from declaring she’d rather be called Beauty than Honour (her father fails spectacularly at explaining the concept of honour which prompts this decision) at a very young age, she is practically the personification of practicality. Side note – McKinley uses British spellings, but she’s American and (I believe) was living in America when she wrote this. She didn’t move to England until much later when she wrote Rose Daughter. This, as well as the Sherlock fic I've been writing - I changed my spellcheck dictionary - is why I found myself using it in this entry.
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If we continue to act like idiots, people will continue to think americans are idiots.

The new Aardman film has a different title over here.

The actual move is called: The Pirates! - In An Adventure With Scientists

I saw this advertised on buses in Edinburgh and got really excited.  New Aardman!  woo hoo!

Here, the movie has been released as: The Pirates! - Band of Misfits

I am reminded of the fact that the first HP title was changed because they thought kids wouldn't read a book with Philosopher in the title - my spin is they thought we wouldn't know what a philosopher was.

Now we (or our kids since I realize a lot of adults don't idolize Aardman as I do) don't enjoy scientists, don't want to adventure with them, and are no longer interested in searching the jungle for; Dr. Livingstone, I presume? - or alternately we wouldn't recognize a scientist if he came up and bit one of us...

And, honestly, we've given up on exploring outer space, so how can I blame anyone for thinking this?  I want to tout all the good sciencey television we watch - Nova and Mythbusters, and I'd even add Fringe - our niece currently wants to be an Ornithologist when she grows up - but I am terribly afraid that we and those like us are only exceptions which prove the rule.

Quick!  Someone replace all those: Pirates! With British Accents! with something those americans will be able to understand when they hit the theaters!  You wouldn't want to have to add subtitles!

I have one more to go before writing fanfic becomes a habit, right?  Translation - I've written a Sherlock fic.

Before I start blathering - Sherlock fic rec - A Study in Kidnapping and its companion piece A Study in Rescue by dakfinv.  Unbelievably wonderful.

Right.  On with the blathering.  Writing fic is distressing on a few levels.  One - I need to finish my trip report.  Two - if I am writing something other than my trip report, I should be working on the 'two half-written books' or the 'one really great idea' which might actually net me some money - ha! - eventually as they, you know, don't belong to someone else.  Three - I'm not clever enough to write Sherlock fic.  I am the girl who completely thought the shadowy dude in the parking garages was Moriarty the first time through A Study in Pink.  Face - meet palm.  Dammit - I've just put anyone reading this off reading my fic - must type something clever now - have completely failed to do so - perfect.
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