Fic of the Week
I have to apologize for my total lack in posting recently. My little one has been sick for a week now, and it has not been easy dealing with everyday life, let alone internet life. However, despite recent difficulties, I have not been able to get this week's Fic of the Week, or more appropriately, story arc of the week, out of my head. After I featured kate_lear a couple of weeks ago, she sent me a message with several authors she thought I might find interesting. The first on the list was wordstrings , and I have become an obsessed fan.
Wordstrings's "Paradox Series" focuses on Sherlock and John's developing relationship, and the rather unhinged quality that is its leading characteristic. The arc begins innocently enough, with the short and sweet (at least for Wordstrings) "An Act of Charity" which first introduces us to the terrors of Sherlock's mind and the absolutely brilliant "Fine" vs. "Not Fine" lists. In the second story, "The Paradox Suite," John contemplates the paradox that is his room-mate/lover. " The Death and Resurrection of the English Language" comes third, poignantly depicting Sherlock's supposed inability to make John understand exactly what he means, and the series is finished off with the stunning "Entirely Covered in Your Invisible Name" in which Sherlock solves crimes, loses himself, and comes back again, while John prays that he never comes to his senses.
Wordstrings preps the series as being "very strange slash" and containing plenty of smutty kink. It is true that three of the four stories are a heavy NC-17. There is also a caveat to the last story, a sort of disclaimer, warning against the "not fine" aspects of Sherlock and John's relationship in the fiction. In this reader's humble opinion, however, one would have to be a truly narrow-minded and somewhat bigoted not to recognize the beautiful balance that exists in the dependency each has on the other. There is a constant undercurrent of push and pull, a method to the madness and, most appropriately, a somewhat paradoxical equality to the dominant and submissive aspects in the relationship. I was put in mind of Shainberg's "Secretary" time and again, if for no other reason than because of Wordstrings's continued ability to portray the sense and sanity in what many would view as psychotic.
The Paradox Series is deliciously dark, and decidedly deranged, and is a must read for any Sherlock BBC fan. From what I have understood, we can expect a sequel as well. I can only say, that I look forward to it with bated breath, and I hope that Wordstrings may choose one day to grace the world with equally brilliant original fiction.
I would buy that book in a second.
Wordstrings's "Paradox Series" focuses on Sherlock and John's developing relationship, and the rather unhinged quality that is its leading characteristic. The arc begins innocently enough, with the short and sweet (at least for Wordstrings) "An Act of Charity" which first introduces us to the terrors of Sherlock's mind and the absolutely brilliant "Fine" vs. "Not Fine" lists. In the second story, "The Paradox Suite," John contemplates the paradox that is his room-mate/lover. " The Death and Resurrection of the English Language" comes third, poignantly depicting Sherlock's supposed inability to make John understand exactly what he means, and the series is finished off with the stunning "Entirely Covered in Your Invisible Name" in which Sherlock solves crimes, loses himself, and comes back again, while John prays that he never comes to his senses.
Wordstrings preps the series as being "very strange slash" and containing plenty of smutty kink. It is true that three of the four stories are a heavy NC-17. There is also a caveat to the last story, a sort of disclaimer, warning against the "not fine" aspects of Sherlock and John's relationship in the fiction. In this reader's humble opinion, however, one would have to be a truly narrow-minded and somewhat bigoted not to recognize the beautiful balance that exists in the dependency each has on the other. There is a constant undercurrent of push and pull, a method to the madness and, most appropriately, a somewhat paradoxical equality to the dominant and submissive aspects in the relationship. I was put in mind of Shainberg's "Secretary" time and again, if for no other reason than because of Wordstrings's continued ability to portray the sense and sanity in what many would view as psychotic.
The Paradox Series is deliciously dark, and decidedly deranged, and is a must read for any Sherlock BBC fan. From what I have understood, we can expect a sequel as well. I can only say, that I look forward to it with bated breath, and I hope that Wordstrings may choose one day to grace the world with equally brilliant original fiction.
I would buy that book in a second.