Discussion: What makes Holmes Holmes?

[goldvermilion87]

Saw this interesting interview on PBS:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/sherlock/producers.html

All of it's interesting, but you have to select "True to the original" in which Moffat briefly states why he thinks it is true to the original.  (also "Embracing Technology' applies)  Here is my very sloppy transcript of the lines I'm interested in:

"

Comments

[goldvermilion87]

Two things:

One. I like to think that ther eare some other points in time in which Holmes expresses affection for his friend, but Watson's exact words are, "For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation," which doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room.

That being said, I DO think that there should be other moments, (one of the reasons I am so thoroughly in love with Sherlock...I think they've already opened the door to a teeny bit expressive Sherlock. :-D) and I do think that's what fanfiction is all about.

Two. I was talking with a friend who writes a lot of LotR fanfic, and thinking about the fact that I really don't write much, and when I do I find it difficult, even though LotR is definitely my main fandom. I think it's because Tolkien put so much hard work and time and tender loving care into LotR that I can't bring myself to add to it. Now ACD clearly wasn't that fussed about it. So I feel free and easy to write and make his characters my own, and have things happen that would actually contradict (the already absurdly self-contradictory) canon. Basically, ACDs weaknesses are assets for fanfic, I think. :-)

[capt_facepalm]

Your quote does not leave a lot of wiggle room. unless you consider why Watson would actually write that to his audience in the Strand. His motives must be considered as separate from those of ACD. (... this conversation has just switched to ultra-weird...) It is easy to forget that Watson is a writer, as well as a doctor and a crime-fighter. The same fudge-factor which excuses ACD's detail inconsistencies, namely the obscuring of names and dates to protect the yadda yadda yadda... can also be used to justify the lack of personal details in his other stories.

[goldvermilion87]

This is why in my burgeoning head-canon Watson doesn't exist at ALL and is merely the figment of imagination of the wife of a much older and nicer man named Sherlock Holmes who is not in fact the Sherlock Holmes of the story.

Yes, my head canon does whatever it wants.

[capt_facepalm]

Head canon are like that.

Mine says that Dr Doyle stole the stories from from a non-verbal, disassociative, severely crippled soldier in a veterans' hospital, whose only form of communication were the stories he wrote. Doyle published them as his own, without bothering to iron out the details.

[goldvermilion87]

You have awesome head canon, my friend.

Sort of messed up, but also awesome.

[capt_facepalm]

Oh, I am taking that as a compliment!
It's the nicest thing I've seen in a long time!

[goldvermilion87]

HAHAHAHA!