Meta: Neoliberal Holmes, or, Everything I Know About Modern Life I Learned from Sherlock

[magnetic_pole]

Every age gets the Holmes it deserves.

Everything I know about the twenty-first century I learned from Sherlock (BBC, 2010):

*

All problems have solutions.

All solutions are rational.

Everything that is rational can be comprehended, analyzed, and discarded.

By you.

You know everything worth knowing.

You are the master of the universe.

*

Merit rises to the top. Raw intelligence, that's what matters.

You can't look for intelligence in the Metropolitan Police Force. Why even bother? The private sector is where insight is found. Trust the consultants.

The state is there to facilitate your work. And defuse bombs. And take the bodies to the morgue.

*

People respond to intelligence. They desire intelligence. They answer the text messages that intelligence sends. They fetch things for intelligence. They are willing to put up with the rudeness that occasionally accompanies intelligence. They ask intelligence out on dates.

Intelligence is sexy.

Intelligence is power.

*

It used to be that clients would show up on your doorstep with a story, a plea, a mystery. This used to be how the game started.

Now victims show up dead.

Easier that way, to assess their problems.

More efficient.

Besides, you'd rather text than talk.

*

Look at London. Bright lights, big city. It's beautiful.

The light is beautiful. The colors are beautiful. The clothes are beautiful. This whole show is beautiful.

*

London is safe. Clean. Well-lit. Seen through a plate of glass, a kaleidoscope of reflections.

*

This is a city of well-maintained classical buildings (distant past) and high-tech modernism (present and future).

No one of interest ever lived or worked in something built in the sixties, anyway.

*

Some people say London is a battlefield. You see it more as a playground.

*

Money is no object.

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Buses and subways are for people whose time is less valuable than yours.

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The vast majority of people in London are white. People who are not white are statistically more likely to be blood-thirsty, murdering villains. Or dead, victims themselves.

What? You're just counting. Numbers, hard numbers, that's what you want.

*

You just happen to be white.

*

Did that man just call his hostage a "stupid bitch?" Did he really? What right does anyone have to call any woman...

But, wait. He's a psychopathic murderer. That's how we know he's crazy.

Because no sane man would ever say that out loud.

*

Once, famously, a woman got the best of you.

Now, you get the best of the woman, every time.

Freak. Ha!

That was then, this is now.

*

Women protest that they don't want to take care of you, but they really do.

*

He taught me, rather than he learned me.

I was, not I were.

Hanged, instead of hung.

The man has killed his wife in a brutal stabbing, but what really rubs you wrong is his dialect.

Nothing like a death sentence to cure someone of being working class.

*

Homeless people, your "eyes and ears" around the city, emerge when they might be useful. Otherwise, they are invisible. Disinfect yourself after contact.

*

It doesn't help anyone to care.

*

Sometimes a disguise will gain you entry to an important place. Discard it as soon as possible. Don't even bother to keep up the pretense. You don't want anyone to mistake you for a working man.

*

On the other hand, people may assume you're gay. Don't worry. Don't protest. We won't go there.

*

Text flashes before you. Clues flash before you. Fast. Disorienting. Don't get distracted. The crucial details here are not factual, not for anyone except the master of the universe.

The key to this show, for lesser mortals, is character. Watch for Sherlock's expression. How does he feel about the situation at hand?

You spend a lot of time watching Sherlock's face.

Sometimes, you watch John watching Sherlock's face.

Funny how riveting a cold man's face is.

*

Selling drugs is dangerous; you can get out of your depth before you know it, in trouble, in debt, you'll kill your near-brother-in-law on the off-chance that you'll be able to sell something of his for a profit. Selling drugs leads to a life of crime.

Buying drugs and occasionally enjoying them, on the other hand, would be entirely fine. It would be interesting, actually. It would add to your mystique.

But of course, you're clean. Did everyone hear that? You're clean.

*

You are untouchable. Your friends are untouchable. The law exists to facilitate your investigations. When it's convenient.

The state itself is outdated. You have the world in your hand, on a mobile or a laptop. The new order is conflict-free and flexible.

*

Even when someone dies, it's not your fault.

People die, that's what they do.

Oh, sorry. Other people die. That's what they do.

*

You, on the other hand. You solve problems. Lestrade and Donovan and Dimmock have tried, but your methods have been tested in the open market, proved to be the best.

No problem is ever solved collaboratively. No assistance is helpful. No other types of intelligence are acknowledged.

There is no such thing as society, only individual problems, and individual problem solvers.

They should take your word as gospel.

*

People are taken hostage. Bombs are detonated. People are killed. A child's life is on the line. A roommate deals with loss. A woman grieves the man who would have married her. A man shakes in terror. A head sits in the refrigerator.

Their names and stories pass by too quickly to catch. None of them really matter, anyway. Only ninety minutes, total. Still two mysteries to go. Real problems are abstract, logical, and impersonal, unconnected to daily life, personal experience, local knowledge, or the vagaries of chance.

This is the great game. The one thing that matters in this game--

No, it's not that we win. We always win.

The one thing that really matters is that Sherlock Holmes might...

God, is that John?

He's got a vest! He's covered in explosives!

...the one thing that really matters...

Look at Sherlock Holmes' face. Watch carefully for any register of emotion. This is what we've been waiting for: a hint of anger, fear, or compassion. The show has been training you to do this for more than four hours, training you to search for the slightest sign of emotion in this man's face. You are riveted.

...the one thing that really matters is that Sherlock Holmes just might have a heart, after all.

Because that's what important. The master of the universe loves and suffers like the rest of us.

*

P.S. Thanks to rose71 for listening and, well, being rose71.

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

why I find this update even more problematic and closed off to The Other than the original stories were...Maybe it was too much to hope for the same from the new show, but it seems like the creators were drawn to exactly those problematic dynamics and said "yeah, except we need more of that."

Yes, exactly. And I'm amazed at how well it works here (or at least how smoothly the transition from late 19th c to early 20th is) and how obligingly we've all said, "That's just how Sherlock is!"

I *adore* fic that deconstructs some of the power dynamics and characterizations we see in canon. Have you found any in this fandom? M.

[epicene]

I don't think I've read any for Sherlock yet, except for the lovely Molly/Sally fic you linked to (which was pure <3.)

I seek out a lot of fic for book/movie-verse Holmes, which is my real fandom, that has Holmes's dickishness comes back to bite him in the butt. (I've found some good post-Reichenbach fics where Watson is all "What. You selfish ass. GTFO.") I also often end up reading a lot of h/c fic (not usually my genre) that hurts Holmes and puts him into a position where he's forced to rely on others and deal with his own helplessness. It's not a systemic deconstruction of the story dynamic, which I would be very interested in reading, but it usually scratches the itch for me.

One fic that I love and that I consider somewhat deconstructive (not sure how intentional it is on the author's part) is Feather Fish's The Baker Street Record. It's a crossover with House of Leaves and I really love how it puts Holmes in contact with something supernatural that categorically resists being rationalized, and in the process shows how ill equipped Holmes is to deal with that, and how his attempts to proceed rationally anyway are kind of wrong-headed and dangerous.

[magnetic_pole]

Oh, wasn't that Sally/Molly fic fabulous? Glad you enjoyed it, as well.

Thanks for the recs and for articulating some of the things I might be looking for in SH fic myself, more generally. I would love to read fic that challenges his mastery and his ability to define and solve problems. I think my conflicted feelings are due to the fact that my childhood and teenage self saw him as a hero, albeit a flawed one, while my adult self questions the kind of world in which he would be effective. So I'm not quite ready to give up on the character, but I really want to read him against the grain.

There was an interesting fic today that dealt with the homophobia implicit in John's "I'm-not-gay" protests: Black Hole and Revelation by unsentimentalf (John, Sherlock, R, 5600 words). John finds out something about his flatmate that he really didn't want to know. I'll add a warning for some gendered violence the fic itself doesn't acknowledge. It's interesting to see folks start sorting through some of the issues of the series. M.

[epicene]

Yeah, it's always difficult to revisit something you loved when you were younger and see its problematic aspects for the first time. (My favorite books in the world when I was ten were Narnia. Yeah.)

I got into the SH stories quite recently (through the movie, actually), so my fannish feelings have been complicated from the start--there's sort of this weird push-pull when I read the stories where I'm torn between loving Holmes as this really, just, fun character and also being very wary of all this Great Man ideology that comes attached to him. I'm especially drawn to the way he sort of embodies all these contradictory impulses of the Victorian psyche, both highly romantic and coldly rational--and while the juxtaposition is really appealling to me, he embodies the problematic aspects of both impulses as well their strengths, especially the whole "Promethean figure who has special knowledge the rest of the world knows not" element.

Now that I think of it, the rationalist side of Sherlock Holmes got a really interesting postmodern deconstruction in The Name of the Rose (which has a main character clearly based on Holmes). I'm not sure if the problematic Romantic aspects of Holmes (the drugs, the bipolar disorder) have had a thorough deconstruction yet. I'd really like to see it.

I found one good fic that explored the effects Holmes's cocaine addiction had on Watson in more depth. There's a lot pain and guilt tied up in being in love with someone with a substance abuse problem--I think the fic captured that quite nicely. I'll see if I can find it again.

Heh, anyway, it's really been interesting talking about this stuff and it's helped me articulate a lot about my ficcish impulses too. Thanks again! Mind if I friend you?

[magnetic_pole]

Gah! There are quite a few things I want to say in response here, but I won't have a chance for a few days, I'm afriad. For now, I've just friended you on LJ (and will do so DW, if you intended to start using that journal, too). It pleases me to no end to see a comment on the contradictory impulses of the Victorian psyche, you have no idea! M.

[epicene]

Go right ahead. I don't have any particular plans to start using my DW journal, but you never know. Eight months ago, I didn't think I'd even be LJing.

Looking forward to hearing more from you!

[magnetic_pole]

(Sorry, didn't mean to drop this. It's the start of school here, and somehow that always knocks me flat on my back.)

when I read the stories where I'm torn between loving Holmes as this really, just, fun character and also being very wary of all this Great Man ideology that comes attached to him

Did you see the meta post on the myth of genius earlier this week? (What did I do with that link? Ah, here it is. Wow, last Friday. It feels like yesterday.) I didn't have time to read all the comments or reply myself, but it's worth taking a look at, if just to see the philosophical divide (and strong opinions) amongst the folks who replied.

I'm especially drawn to the way he sort of embodies all these contradictory impulses of the Victorian psyche, both highly romantic and coldly rational

Yes! Exactly. I think that's another area where the BBC version disappointed me in a way I couldn't quite articulate: Sherlock doesn't come across as embodying much of anything--the brooding is merely (post-)adolescent pique, the rationalism just a vague, fetishized "intelligence" (which is cheaply bought, considering that the show's writers can validate any of his conclusions through the manipulation of the plot). Intelligence as opposed to what? In the ACD stories, rationality held onto concrete facts in the face of social assumptions and the chaos and anonymity of modern London. In the series, there were a few good moments with forensic evidence, but very little sense of why we ordinary, non-intelligent people might not be able to deduce the answers to social problems. On the whole, intelligence was contrasted with bureaucratic ineptitude, which seems to me to be a cheap shot.

And that's a great point about Name of the Rose. Would love to see a fic taking apart the moods and the drug use.

Have you been writing at all? I'd love to read something of yours, if you're so inclined. M.