Neurodiversity in Holmes & Watson 2016 panel outline
Apologies once more for being extremely late on posting this after Sherlock Seattle/Watson Washington. Life, motivation, and executive functioning issues have been playing against me the past few months.
As such, the accounts may not include everything that was discussed during the panel.
Under the read more, the outline will be divided into two parts:
Part 1 covers my 15-minute uninterrupted infodump on Sherlock Holmes (Elementary), Fiona Helbron (Elementary), and Joan Watson (Elementary)
Part 2 covers @pennypaperbrain’s account that includes bipolar representation (BBC, Guy Ritchie, Granada), and common stereotypes shown in neurodivergent characters
PART ONE
The first thing that I did (because like Sherlock Holmes, I am at times a bit dramatic), was bring out my large ASIE binder (last seen at 221B Con 2015) and my small pile of papers on Fiona Helbron, and placed them side by side.
The point for that was to compare the work that falls to the fans for autistic coding (ASIE binder for seasons 1-3), to the work that falls to the fans for autistic representation (papers on Fiona Helbron).
I got about 2 minutes in to my infodump until I realized that I forgot to turn on the audio recorder that I brought with.
I didn’t freak out. Quite the opposite. Instead I turned on the recorder, and started from the beginning (including the dramatic “slamming” of the ASIE binder on the table, which earned some genuine laughs and applause).
Other topics I discussed included:
Autistic stereotypes in “Murder Ex Machina”.
Fiona’s self label of “neuroatypical” and why self-identifying is important.
Sherlock Holmes “passing” as NT via Fiona’s “I’m not sure what you are”.
My disagreeing with Fiona that Joan Watson is NT - while Joan’s PTSD (witnessing a loved one get murdered, her being kidnapped, etc.) is largely ignored in canon, Joan would be allistic, not neurotypical.
Fiona breaking down stereotypes in “A View With A Room” (ex. lying via cats).
The dynamics of social rules conversations between Fiona and Joan that occur at the same time (throughout S4E9, S4E12, and S4E18) -
Joan, the non-autistic character out of the pair, isn’t trying to change the way Fiona conducts conversations or change Fiona’s routine
I made sure to emphasize that fellow Elementary fans rightfully told me prior to the panel that these conversations are also racist - a white woman telling a Chinese-American woman about the importance of social norms
Autistic safe space between Sherlock and Fiona and seeing that blossom into a romance.
Fiona scripting the almost-breakup in “Ready or Not”.
Sherlock researching neuroatypical relationships (and how the writers really missed the ball by NOT having him talk with autistic people).
Sherlock’s “because I’m different” echolalia, and how some people, myself included, have read that as him saying that he’s just like Fiona (re: being autistic), but good luck with that being admitted canonically.
Lastly, I talked about the reveal from Rob Doherty at NYCC 2016 that Fiona Helbron was originally supposed to only be in one episode.
[Given the events of S5E6, which aired after the Neurodiversity panel, it’s no surprise that the fans cared about Fiona more than the writers did.]
PART TWO
[The following is a word-for-word recount provided by @pennypaperbrain who I thank very much for for sending this to me]
I know of three Sherlocks who are either canonically bipolar or quite strongly presented as so -
BBC Sherlock: Pronounced mood swings, arrogance, intensity, cocaine use, long periods of silence, downswings. He’s never definitely characterised as one thing, but it doesn’t take much to stretch him in your preferred direction
RDJ/Guy Ritchie: His Watson actually says he’s manic in Game of Shadows
Brett/Granada: Bipolar Holmes played by a bipolar actor
Interpretations
I’m a fan of giving BBC Sherlock every neuroatypicality under the sun. Make him yours. The lines between different forms of neurodivergence are fuzzy anyway.
Fic
One of the greatest joys of BBC Sherlock fandom in my experience is reading and writing fic of this kind. There are many hundreds of fics depicting him as bipolar, ADHD, autistic, or a number of other conditions, often highly sophisticated depictions written by neuroatypical fans. This community helped me immeasurably in dealing with my own diagnosis of bipolar, and periods of acute illness.
Granada
This is a canonically bipolar Sherlock played by a bipolar actor. This makes it both validating and disturbing to watch. Sometimes Brett’s illness informed his portrayal; other times it overshadowed it.
Stereotypes
Tormented Genius: The idea that a mental imbalance fuels genius hangs particularly strongly around Jeremy Brett’s portrayal. From Bending the Willow: Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, “After being in the Maudsley [hospital] for 10 weeks, Hardwicke [who played Watson] says: ‘I remember him saying a terrifying thing to me at this time. Terrifying for an actor. He told me one day that he was really frightened and I asked him why. He said, “Because by balancing me and subduing me, I may have lost it - lost the ability to act.” I understood that fear and it was very real for Jeremy.’” So the idea of mania giving him an edge was a real one to Brett.
The Weirdo: One thing common to all the adaptations I know is that Sherlock Holmes is loved and admired, by his Watson and by others, in spite of some very odd behaviour. This has a particular resonance for some neuroatypical people because we know we can be hard to live with at times; that certainly applies to me as bipolar. Interpreting the character this way gives us a model of someone who has those palpable downsides, but is still loved, and wanted, and useful.
The Special White Male: The one point where I feel uncomfortable about readings of Sherlock as neuroatypical is where that intersects with other identity issues. I’m thinking particularly of the BBC version, my home fandom. I feel that, for the benefit of the casual audience, Sherlock’s neuroatypicality - otherness - is presented simply as a stock element in a package demonstrating that he is the Special White Man who should be allowed to get away with bad behavious because of his specialness. That’s not representation, but appropriation of neuroatypicality to create a persecution fantasy for the dominant group.
Outside of Part 1 and Part 2, there was also discussion of PTSD present in Watson from the BBC adaptation, which was conducted by the very resourceful @ormondsacker.
It wasn’t until after I arrived back home after the convention that I realized that the audio recorder didn’t work at all. Hence, this outline. I hope this suffices, and again, I apologize for being this tardy.
