Comment on Intemperance

  1. seperis Tue 14 Sep 2010 05:51AM UTC

    This was wonderfully done. I'm trying to think of how to phrase how well this was narrated by John, both in language and in reactions to extraordinary events. I like that Mary understood first and John had to be explained to, but I like even more how well John assimilated events.

    There's really nothing about this that I don't like, actually, though I'm really impressed by the language and attitude of John is still Victorian in nature without being Victorian in prejudices.

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    1. Basingstoke Tue 14 Sep 2010 03:25PM UTC

      Basingstoke - Crazy Eyes

      You know, my version of Victorian tolerance comes from Dickens. He's just endlessly sympathetic to odd characters as long as they aren't complete cocks (like the Murdstones, or Uriah Heep). But characters like Miss Mowcher (the dwarf hairdresser in David Copperfield), he tried and failed to present well in a comic role; then when the real lady he used as a model wrote to him saying how hurt she was that he made her a clown, he revised the character and made her a hero in a small role.

      So I think, similarly, Watson doesn't really *get it* in a full PhD in Queer Studies way, but he loves his friend and he's willing to just take it in and try and fail and try again. (Much like I'm doing in my white, cisgender, able-bodied way.)

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      1. seperis Wed 15 Sep 2010 02:54AM UTC

        So I think, similarly, Watson doesn't really *get it* in a full PhD in Queer Studies way, but he loves his friend and he's willing to just take it in and try and fail and try again. (Much like I'm doing in my white, cisgender, able-bodied way.)

        I think that was one of my favorite things about Watson. He didn't understand--and in that time period, he probably couldn't with his mental and social framework--but he accepted that he didn't (and probably couldn't) and just took it as another part of Holmes and resigned himself to learning and stumbling.

        Though I may never get over Holmes' self-surgery. God.

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        1. Basingstoke Thu 16 Sep 2010 05:08AM UTC

          Basingstoke - Crazy Eyes

          If it helps, he was using novocaine. That's one of the cocaine derivatives mentioned in the story. Didn't feel a thing.

          SAW an eyeful, though, but that was an obscene thrill; he's fascinated by the inner structures of the body. Especially his own.

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