Readathon for mindfulness + why I don't watch BBC Sherlock

[starlady]

magnetic_pole has two posts, one old and one new, that sum up why I have no desire to so much as touch the BBC's Sherlock with a ten-foot pole:

• Neoliberal Holmes, or Everything I Need to Know About Modern Life I Learned From Sherlock
• A Scandal in the Blogosphere

Life's too short, y'know? I'd rather watch anime.

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rachelmanija is holding a two-day readathon to raise the funds so she can go on an academic trip to Kyoto, Japan, which we all know is dear to my heart. You donate money, she (hilariously and/or brilliantly) reviews books!

Additionally, rushthatspeaks is also offering to participate in the readathon. Rush's reviews are some of the finest I've read (as are Rachel's), and the cause is certainly worthy. If you can afford to donate for a review, please do!

Comments

[gwenbasil]

THANK YOU because through that link to excellent meta I found excellent fic and stayed up reading all night - something I haven't done in a dog's age :)

[marina]

Oh yes, not touching that show with a TEN FOOT POLE.

[seekingferret]

Hmm... my problem with magnetic_pole's second post is that its paraphrase of the first paragraph of "A Scandal in Bohemia" didn't seem like a really significant deviation. The original opening paragraph is one of the more frankly misogynistic paragraphs in popular literature, for all that it's more politely worded, and "A Scandal in Bohemia", for all that Irene is awesome, is a really misogynistic story.

I told verity that I expected the BBC series to botch the episode and what we got instead was... a lot more complicated than a pure botch. There were some really exceptional things about the episode: The way Mrs. Hudson got adopted into Sherlock and John's found family, and in particular the way the show gave her a remarkable moment of bravery; The way Mycroft and Sherlock's familial relationship was developed; The way the triangle of John, Sherlock, and Irene oscillated between sexual and nonsexual attractions that were really powerful and compelling.

Were there things that it did wrong? Yes. Are there huge misogynistic fails? Yes. I'm not entirely sure what to make of the ending, but consensus among my friends who liked the episode was that you need to build a lot of fanon around the ending for it to make any sense. But I disagree with the way magnetic_pole sets this up as some betrayal of the text. The text needed to be betrayed, and I thought there were parts of it that the show did a really thoughtful job of subverting. For example, turning "The Woman" into a professional title, so that it's not a backhanded sneer at all of womankind but instead an acknowledgment of the way Irene embraces her femininity. It's a name she assumes, not a name Sherlock assigns to her. That's a small difference, but it's a meaningful one.

So yeah, you're certainly justified in staying away, and I don't want to convince you to give the episode a try because there's plenty I'm sure you'd hate, but if you don't form an opinion of your own, I wouldn't want you to go away thinking that the show is some Doyle-ruining abomination.

[nijibug]

This. This. All of this.