Sharing the mindset around...
So I was watching the small set of Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes DVD's that I picked up a few weeks ago, and it's like my Dad can sense Black and White television or something because as soon as he came home he walked in and said, "oh, this looks like something good" and sat down to watch the last twenty minutes of 'Dressed to Kill' with me.
We'd been talking earlier about how we both dislike Nigel Bruce's Watson because the weaker Watson is made to look, the more negative impact it has on ones perception of Holmes as hero, because why would a genius spend all his time hanging out with a bumbling fool who can never do anything right? (Coincidentally, this same discussion can be had regarding Classic Doctor Who Companions VS Modern Who Companions, and while both suffer from certain scripting disadvantages since they are generally female and generally the Doctors Achilles Heal, there is no doubt that when RTD chose to make Rose and her predecessors stronger, he made the Doctor stronger as well).
So of course, about two minutes after my father has sat down, Bruce's Watson does something embarrassing and Holmes just sort of ignores it as usual.
I huff and tell my father, "You've got to admit, the only reason to keep somebody this dumb around is because he is dynamite in the sack"
"Holmes and Watson are not gay" came my fathers long suffering reply.
Which for some reason, resulted in the DVD being paused and us launching into a very detailed debate about hidden homoeroticism in the original text, and a fairly lengthy discussion on the hidden nature of homosexuality in Victorian London and the result of the change of laws due to the Labouchere Amendment in 1885 - which I told my father was only a year or so before the original publication of Arthur Conan Doyle's work.
To which my fathers every so sweet reply was, "Two men can be friends without being in love with each other. Men used to be much closer than they were now, friendships more intimate. Educated men like Doyle would have has reverence for the Greek Model of male friendship."
To which I looked at him for a long moment, "If you need to bring the Greek's into an argument about men not having sex, I think you're on some pretty shaky territory"
And it was funny, because as we talked, Dad slowly dropped his side of the argument and started to concede. Because yes, many artists are gay or have homosexual friends that they support, even then, but you couldn't talk about it, especially as a published writer. And yes, if things are to be believed, a lot of people were unhappy with the way Oscar Wilde suffered, and who knows where Conan Doyle actually stood on this whole matter.
Finally, my dad said, "You may be right. Doyle may have secretly been writing these guys as gay"
I may have teared up just a little. I'm so proud.
As for me? I firmly believe that Holmes and Watson is one of the greatest love story's never told outright, regardless of whether they were shagging or not, they were dysfunctionally in love with each other. I still remember being 12 or 13 and reading 'The Empty House' for the first time, and right after Holmes assumes that Watson will be moving back into Baker St, I put the book down and went out to my mother and asked if Holmes and Watson were a couple, because why else would somebody assume they would just be moving back in together?
My mother looked at me and shrugged, "I don't know, but I've always had my doubts about those two" and returned to chopping up carrots.
Really, what chance did I ever have? :D
We'd been talking earlier about how we both dislike Nigel Bruce's Watson because the weaker Watson is made to look, the more negative impact it has on ones perception of Holmes as hero, because why would a genius spend all his time hanging out with a bumbling fool who can never do anything right? (Coincidentally, this same discussion can be had regarding Classic Doctor Who Companions VS Modern Who Companions, and while both suffer from certain scripting disadvantages since they are generally female and generally the Doctors Achilles Heal, there is no doubt that when RTD chose to make Rose and her predecessors stronger, he made the Doctor stronger as well).
So of course, about two minutes after my father has sat down, Bruce's Watson does something embarrassing and Holmes just sort of ignores it as usual.
I huff and tell my father, "You've got to admit, the only reason to keep somebody this dumb around is because he is dynamite in the sack"
"Holmes and Watson are not gay" came my fathers long suffering reply.
Which for some reason, resulted in the DVD being paused and us launching into a very detailed debate about hidden homoeroticism in the original text, and a fairly lengthy discussion on the hidden nature of homosexuality in Victorian London and the result of the change of laws due to the Labouchere Amendment in 1885 - which I told my father was only a year or so before the original publication of Arthur Conan Doyle's work.
To which my fathers every so sweet reply was, "Two men can be friends without being in love with each other. Men used to be much closer than they were now, friendships more intimate. Educated men like Doyle would have has reverence for the Greek Model of male friendship."
To which I looked at him for a long moment, "If you need to bring the Greek's into an argument about men not having sex, I think you're on some pretty shaky territory"
And it was funny, because as we talked, Dad slowly dropped his side of the argument and started to concede. Because yes, many artists are gay or have homosexual friends that they support, even then, but you couldn't talk about it, especially as a published writer. And yes, if things are to be believed, a lot of people were unhappy with the way Oscar Wilde suffered, and who knows where Conan Doyle actually stood on this whole matter.
Finally, my dad said, "You may be right. Doyle may have secretly been writing these guys as gay"
I may have teared up just a little. I'm so proud.
As for me? I firmly believe that Holmes and Watson is one of the greatest love story's never told outright, regardless of whether they were shagging or not, they were dysfunctionally in love with each other. I still remember being 12 or 13 and reading 'The Empty House' for the first time, and right after Holmes assumes that Watson will be moving back into Baker St, I put the book down and went out to my mother and asked if Holmes and Watson were a couple, because why else would somebody assume they would just be moving back in together?
My mother looked at me and shrugged, "I don't know, but I've always had my doubts about those two" and returned to chopping up carrots.
Really, what chance did I ever have? :D