This is LOW TAR

Panting red pants into the West - Francis Thompson.

[thisislowtar]

That Curious Love of Green

I am reading The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde and it has some things to say about green, which, as we’ve noticed, is used heavily in the Sherlock Special material that has been so far released, as well as the regular series

It’s not just carnations. It’s everything green.

Most importantly, Oscar, again like Wainewright, “had that curious love of green which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxitity, if not a decadence of morals.” This was a coded and deliberate reference to sex between men. There was a widespread belief in nineteenth-century Europe that one of the distinguishing characteristics of men who loved men was a preference for the colour green. Indeed, men who loved men themselves seemed equally convinced that their preference for green was in some way bound up with their sexuality.

Havelock Ellis’s Sexual Inversion details several case histories where men who love men claim that they have what Oscar called “that curious love of green.” :  “Case VII remarks that he cannot whistle and that his favourite colour is green” and “Case XII has a special predilection for green: it is the predominant colour in the decorations of his rom, and everything green appeals to him. He finds that the love of green... is very widespread among his inverted friends.”  Ellis himself was convinced that a preference for green was very marked among men who loved men, and offered an historical precedent: “It has been remarked,” he wrote, “that inverts exhibit a preference for green garments. In Rome cinaedi  where for this reason called galbanati”  Cinaedus meant “catamite” and galbanatus meant “effeminate wearer of green clothes”  As a classical scholar Oscar would have been well aware of the symbolism of the colour green in ancient Rome. And rather closer in time and space, Oscar knew too that white carnations, artificially died green, were worm as badges of sexual preference by men who loved men in Paris. “The colour green and Hell,” he said, “are both made for thieves and artists”

Neil McKenna (2003) The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde

[skulls-and-tea]

MOFFAT: The thing about Sherlock Holmes is, you’ve understood nothing if you haven’t understood… that sex, for him, is thinking. Right? That’s where he’s dislocated, that’s his problem. He’s like a genetic experiment where they’ve wired up someone’s libido to the brain, instead. So he doesn’t really think in those terms. He thinks all he has to do is go and solve stuff. So, it’s not that kind of a relationship. It’s kind of limiting — why do we have to make it [about] sex? You know: there are love stories; [and] there are sex scenes. Love is a bigger subject. And it’s certainly a love story — it’s just not a sex scene. […] GATISS: It’s also back to the whole thing about why characters are compelling. In the end, the ambiguity is what’s interesting, and not the solution. If you just say it … it’s obviously much more fun for people to assume [a sexual relationship] and for them both to get slightly affronted, but they’re not really seeing the obvious, which is—they are—they love each other. But not in a sexual way. MOFFAT: —Series Four, Series Four! [laughs]

—

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, when asked about “the gay thing” at a 2011 Q&A.

(Clapham Picturehouse Sherlock Screening & Q&A, January 2011. Video clip: [x] Full synopsis: [x])

[mild-lunacy]

I think the commentary so far has focused on Moffat saying that Sherlock and John’s relationship isn’t physical— which is fine, it’s not— and I haven’t seen a lot of discussion of the idea that this is after Moffat says that for Sherlock, sex isn’t physical. That is to say, my mind immediately went to  prettyarbitrary’s idea that Sherlock and John have a  non-sexual BDSM relationship, specifically in ‘The Empty Hearse’, which certainly influences one’s reading of the train car scene (and beyond). You can have a queerplatonic relationship where sex is dislocated: sublimated into some other activity (in Sherlock’s case, detective work as dating, with dinner as a metaphor for sex). I think applying the word dislocate to Sherlock is fascinating; it implies he’s got a sort of psychological barrier. It’s aproblem; naturally, in fiction, problems are generally made to be addressed.

However, that’s not what interests me most: rather, it’s Sherlock’s utter disconnection from himself. He thinks all he has to do is go and solve stuff. I’m interested in how this intersects with deducingbbcsherlock’sreading on virgin!Sherlock: him being afraid (of pain, heartbreak, loss,death). See: responses to Redbeard, Sebastian Wilkes, Baskerville. Whenever Sherlock’s at risk emotionally, he reroutes and tries to take refuge in deduction, to the point where deduction has become sexual (see: O-faces of epiphany). Moffat’s saying that the question of sex isn’t about right or wrong, isn’t about who he likes and who he doesn’t, which is all equally irrelevant; as of Series 1, Sherlock doesn’t think in those terms. John (or Molly) really had a long, uphill row to hoe, in a sense. In another sense, Sherlock was doing it with John the day they met. Deducing, I mean.

The deduction-as-sex link is quite blatantly demonstrated by Sherlock’s rapid-fire plane deduction for Irene’s benefit in ASiB: Mycroft certainly thought he was trying to impress a potential conquest (‘watch him dance’). It’s even more interesting to see that performance as being directly fulfilling for Sherlock. He’d already rerouted his system in that direction, so the breathless deduction while staring into John’s eyes takes on another kind of weight in this scenario.  I don’t want to say it was equivalent to an actual peep show performance for John’s benefit (the money shot is extra), but well, I’m saying it anyway.

I can’t help seeing this in light of my thoughts on Sherlock’s embodiment: his general disconnection from his body in the show. Series 3 breaks down this established dynamic, of course: as professorfangirl brilliantly noted, Sherlock spends the entire time in abject embodiment. He eats, drinks, bathes, dances, throws up, shoots up and even pees in a cup. The body is no longer a thinking machine; the impurities have invaded the system, and consequently the thinking is corrupted. Sherlock makes mistakes, allows sentiment to cloud his judgment, and even admits his feelings— and his failings— in public. These things are surely interconnected: feelings with failings, thinking with ‘purified’ sexuality, food and dancing with abject, embodied, and corrupt sexuality.

For so long, Sherlock didn’t think in terms of hunger: not for food, not for sex, not for companionship. He told Irene he was ‘sorry about dinner’, and he was, but he still wasn’t hungry. In ‘The Empty Hearse’, on the other hand, Sherlock admits he’s lonely. He wants to eat: with Molly, if necessary, since he wasn’t invited at John’s table (quite literally). He wanted to be invited. He wanted. Sherlock in love is an embodied brain, after all.

[thisislowtar]

In The Great Game, Sherlock’s O-face of deduction is followed promptly by John’s breathless “Ah.. ah... Sherl....” 

Seems like it worked for him, too, that time.

[thisislowtar]

NPR Interview from Jan 2015

DAVIES: (Laughter). That's Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.

OK, tell us about this Sherlock. What's your kind of psychological profile of this guy?

CUMBERBATCH: Well, the same as the books. You know, a very flamboyant, flawed, brilliant human being. Somebody who sacrificed a lot in order to gain an exceptional ability to interpret the world and the detail of the world around him. Someone who can look at the mundane and create pop-up adventure, potential outcomes and adventures. Somebody who is irascible, flamboyant, arrogant and bullish. Vicariously, pleasurably intolerant of mediocrity and the mundanity of bureaucracy. Somebody who underestimates the true value of kinship and friendship and being part of a world rather than just being the best in a field in the world, and gets his comeuppance and slowly matures into somebody with, you know, a humanized edge to his otherworldly brilliance.

DAVIES: Yeah, that's him. (Laughter).

http://wuwf.org/post/benedict-cumberbatch-alan-turings-awkwardness-and-sherlocks-sex-appeal

[thisislowtar]

Those legs though

http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/2007/all-about-my-mother/

[thisislowtar]

In additional proof of the ongoing discussion of Holmes’ sexuality, Bert Coules, everyone.

From this long 1998 Usenet conversation on alt.fan.holmes

[thisislowtar]

My friend [Doctor Who, Jekyll and Coupling writer] Steven Moffat and I, we're big Holmes fans, we've become obsessed with the notion that those Universal films of the 1940s, updated, are the best versions of the stories. Funnily enough, there's something that captures brilliantly the essential love affair - non-sexual - between Holmes and Watson. They adore each other. They are devoted to each other.

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/still-time-to-play-1-91319

His other abiding passion was for Sherlock Holmes. "I became obsessed with the idea of having read all of Holmes, so I read them in a very short space of time and what I did was deny myself the pleasure of having a few left unread. I still often read bits of them, like the opening of The Greek Interpreter, where we meet Holmes's brother. The idea of Holmes having a brother is thrilling. It's so beautifully written, so economical, the way Doyle introduces it is fantastic, and it still gives me a little frisson - the idea of Watson going, 'What?!' I've known you all these years and now you tell me you have a brother?' " Who is his favourite screen Holmes? "It would once have been the most obvious answer: it's Basil Rathbone.

Found this long 2007 interview with Mark Gatiss when I was down the Usenet mines searching for quotes. 

[thisislowtar]

What this fandom does to me.

[jessfink]

[consulting-bees]

[alifetimeaheadtoprovethat]

Poor Mike. He tried. He really did.

[suggamiin]

[mydwynter]

I fucking love this moment so much I can’t even tell you.

[so-glam-i-snort-glitter]

The Granada Studios are now a major attraction in England, something like the Universal tours here. “Queues stretch right around the block in Manchester. I can’t believe it. There on the back lot is Baker Street and we have to pay to get on it. As I dart into 221-B I turn into a pizza parlor. Mrs. Hudson’s Pizza Parlor,” he says for emphasis. “It’s a huge success but I think it’s absolutely ghastly. I haven’t done the tour, I must be absolutely honest.” Those who have, he says, are sometimes startled when they turn into Sherlock Holmes’ tiny bedroom. “I sleep on the bed during the lunch break because I only ever eat an apple, and sometimes people come through and see this `dummy’ lying on the bed. And they talk as though I were a `dummy.’ And I suddenly go `HUL- lo’ and they go `Aaaaaaaaah!’ and I looove that,” his British actor’s voice plays out the scenario with relish.

Jeremy Brett, The Incredibly Serious and Mature Full-grown Adult (“Sherlock Holmes in America”- The Morning Call, 10th of November 1991)

[wellthengameover]

@cumber-trash may i add:

mary: she says she’s real… but (spoiler) she’s not. she’s a rat. a stuffed rat. working for the feral cat and masquerading as a real animal.

[thisislowtar]

Thank you, Thank you. But it hasn't all been champagne and caviar. I've had my share of adversity, thanks to that miserable second-rate detective, Sherlock Holmes. For years, that insufferable pipsqueak has interfered with my plans. I haven't had a moment's peace of mind. But, all that's in the past! This time, nothing, not even Sherlock, can stand in my way! All will bow before me!

[loki-cat2]

[jonny-august]

Wilde

[thisislowtar]

Carefully placing a card on the Trial Theory table where John Sholto Douglas approaches Holmes and Watson to follow and investigate Wilde. 

[mollybrooks]

just saw the first two eps of the 2013 russian sherlock holmes series. holmes has little glasses, mrs. hudson’s a fox, and watson is here to punch injustice in the face, like a gentleman.

[thisislowtar]

BAMF Watson from the SHSPESH has an air of Russian Watson about him in the photos I reckon