alchemistdoctor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alchemistdoctor) wrote2017-11-10 08:10 pm
alchemistdoctor) wrote2017-11-10 08:10 pm
Entry tags:
Musing on Holmes, Fandoms, and Community: An Introduction to Me
As one might surmise from my first entry on this DW, I'm a Holmesian, and recently arrived out of a wish to connect with community.
However, as a fan, I did slowly become disappointed in the show itself. The racism, sexism, and homophobia only seemed to increase. The twists on Doyle's stories went from fun to offensive. The most recent season made me feel ill at some of the themes portrayed in ways that I couldn't reconcile.
I've never let go of the original stories; the canon holds a special place in my heart. Granada Holmes is perhaps my favourite Holmes of all time. It's hardly as though BBC Sherlock has ruined my enjoyment of the entirety of Holmesian lore. It never eclipsed it. It simply had the strongest community aspect.
However, as BBC Sherlock degenerated, so did large amounts of the community I had found. I'd had that community since 2011 and watching it dissolve was heartbreaking. I didn't agree with all of the people, and there were quite a few I was glad had left, but the sense of community was fractured and broken, and remembering the joy from the beginning now made my chest ache at the loss.
I suppose I'm trying to find a semblance of community here, with a more balanced perspective, with the same love of the canon stories and victorian Holmes that I've kept since I was 8 years old and first read A Study in Scarlet for the first time.
AO3 is a marvellous site for reading, but not as much a community site. Tumblr is very large and easy for me to get lost in. LiveJournal has so many nested comment threads that I completely lose track of what's going on. DW seemed well-organised for a newbie.
So here I am, wobbling my way through the new terminology (is a reading page like a dashboard? What's the difference between subscribing and joining? How do the tagging systems work? What can people see on my profile? What is going on????) and messing with the theme like a 13-year-old on myspace. It's all very new and exciting and I feel a bit silly, but that's part of the fun, I suppose.
This won't only have Holmesian things; I'm sure I'll have knitting notes, random pictures, rants about my Uni (I'm reading Chemistry with a Pre-Med track, and finals are going to be murder). So you'll get to know a bit more of me, if you want to continue reading.
In the meantime, my sincerest greetings to the people here. I hope to interact and connect here, and hopefully find joy in our friends, Holmes and Watson.
It's quite odd, because Holmes has been in my life since I was around eight and first read the novels and short stories. Since then, he's been around in various incarnations; from films to telly shows to more books, fanfic, and pastiches.
I quite liked BBC Sherlock when it first came out. I believe this was for several reasons.
- I had just moved out of my mother's place, and Holmes felt like home.
- I needed community.
- I'd only recently been told by one of my mother's therapists that I was sociopathic (I'm not, but it hurt quite a lot to be told I was. My mother is an entirely different can of worms). BBC's Sherlock spoke to that hurt.
- It was a new take on an old friend.
However, as a fan, I did slowly become disappointed in the show itself. The racism, sexism, and homophobia only seemed to increase. The twists on Doyle's stories went from fun to offensive. The most recent season made me feel ill at some of the themes portrayed in ways that I couldn't reconcile.
I've never let go of the original stories; the canon holds a special place in my heart. Granada Holmes is perhaps my favourite Holmes of all time. It's hardly as though BBC Sherlock has ruined my enjoyment of the entirety of Holmesian lore. It never eclipsed it. It simply had the strongest community aspect.
However, as BBC Sherlock degenerated, so did large amounts of the community I had found. I'd had that community since 2011 and watching it dissolve was heartbreaking. I didn't agree with all of the people, and there were quite a few I was glad had left, but the sense of community was fractured and broken, and remembering the joy from the beginning now made my chest ache at the loss.
I suppose I'm trying to find a semblance of community here, with a more balanced perspective, with the same love of the canon stories and victorian Holmes that I've kept since I was 8 years old and first read A Study in Scarlet for the first time.
AO3 is a marvellous site for reading, but not as much a community site. Tumblr is very large and easy for me to get lost in. LiveJournal has so many nested comment threads that I completely lose track of what's going on. DW seemed well-organised for a newbie.
So here I am, wobbling my way through the new terminology (is a reading page like a dashboard? What's the difference between subscribing and joining? How do the tagging systems work? What can people see on my profile? What is going on????) and messing with the theme like a 13-year-old on myspace. It's all very new and exciting and I feel a bit silly, but that's part of the fun, I suppose.
This won't only have Holmesian things; I'm sure I'll have knitting notes, random pictures, rants about my Uni (I'm reading Chemistry with a Pre-Med track, and finals are going to be murder). So you'll get to know a bit more of me, if you want to continue reading.
In the meantime, my sincerest greetings to the people here. I hope to interact and connect here, and hopefully find joy in our friends, Holmes and Watson.
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