BBC Sherlock is the best adaption of Sherlock Holmes because it succeeded in making me despise the character of Sherlock Holmes for the rest of my life (and eternity) and made me never want to touch the stories ever again and that’s what Arthur Conan Doyle would have truly wanted.

I stg at this very moment Arthur Conan Doyle’s ghost is probably floating in front of Steven Moffat’s bed violently sobbing in gratitude and mumbling things like ‘you did it. You finally did it. They all hate Sherlock Holmes. Thank you’

This was so fucking funny.

the intro for the baker street file contains several quotes that feel like they're directed entirely at jeremy (which he definitely did not listen to at all):

"although this series is intended to be a straight and faithful adaptation of the sherlock holmes stories conan doyle's writings cannot obviously be regarded as holy writ; neither can this list be thought of as a set of absolute instructions."

"it is pointless to adhere slavishly on film to every word that doyle wrote."

"however it is important to know when (and why) we intentionally disregard what doyle writes."

Not to be "this couldnt be made today" but Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes could not be made today. The copyrights to the characters would be scattered all over the place or owned by one large entity.

I think people forget how unnatural to human creativity modern copyright is.

"Sorry Apollonius, Orpheus is sadly copyrighted, please refrain from publishing your poem"

Argonautica was based on earlier works by Homer, Pindar and Mimnermus.

It saddens me for this modern restriction only benefits corporations, a tool to protect authors has become a tool to restrict them.

I'm going to be a pedant here for a moment and note that every source we have from antiquity except Aristotle believed Orpheus was a historical figure. In fact, the majority of people said to be Argonauts in antiquity would be either historical figures or mythical figures with accepted historicity like Herakles or the Dioskuri. Many of them would also be figures of cultic devotion.

All of those things would be in the public domain under modern copyright law, leaving aside that Apollonius's sources lived hundreds of years before he did, well outside the range of modern copyright law. I said this was pedantic, but it's actually not a small point- figures that are truly fictional or novelistic, like Trimalchio, the protagonist of Lukian of Samosata's *A True Story*, or the protagonist of *The Golden Ass*, didn't tend to be reused in writings in antiquity as compared to historical/mythical "public-domain" figures.

There are better examples. Arthuriana, the canons of derivative literature around the Four Classic Novels- these works blended the historical and mythical figures with novelistic/fictional figures, Xuanzang and Guanyin with Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy, Arthur and Kay with Lancelot and Perceval, and the novelistic ones carry forward into the later literature. That is something where copyright would interfere, neglecting time intervals.

But treating religion and mythology in antiquity as fictional misses the point dangerously.

Here’s a more one-to-one example for you:

William Gillette’s 1899 play Sherlock Holmes versus 2020’s Enola Holmes.

How William Gillette got permission, only six years after the end of the (then) final story, to write his play: asked Arthur Conan Doyle nicely, since he intended to do something that might be out of character for Holmes. ACD’s response was the now-famous (and should be more famous) “you may marry him, or kill him, or do any thing you like with him.”

Although the first copyright law in England (the Statute of Anne) was passed in 1710, copyright-as-we-know-it wouldn’t exist in England for another few years after Gillette’s play. Yes, I’m saying the first Sherlock Holmes stories were technically not under copyright as such when they were first printed, which is why stories like “My Evening With Sherlock Holmes” were completely and unambiguously legal and published by respected magazines, and the famous “Sherlock Holmes Baffled” mutoscope performance of 1901/1903 was so titled with no involvement from ACD whatsoever. I should note that as far as I’m aware, ACD had no rights to any royalties from Gillette’s play. They may have had a financial agreement between them, but this would have been at Gillette’s discretion. Technically he didn’t even have to ask Conan Doyle’s permission, he just felt like it would be the classy thing to do.

How the writers of Enola Holmes got permission to write their movie: used public domain stories and promptly got sued by the estate for “copyright infringement.”

It was easier to be not-ACD and write a Sherlock Holmes story in 1893 than it was to be not-ACD and write a Sherlock Holmes story in 1993.

If that doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what does.

I have to say this now, because Sherlock Holmes is trending and I am celebrating more than I did this Christmas. I watched Knives Out and Glass Onion and it made me realise something crucial about Holmes. He is fundamentally a good person. Does he sometimes behave a little bit like he doesn't care? Yeah. And does he solve cases because he wants the thrill and the mystery? Yep. But I would argue that he mainly solves cases because he wants to help people. His first case was when he helped his friend. Later we see multiple instances of this happening again and again (him being a genuinely good person). I have said it once and I will say it a million times— Sherlock Holmes is interesting because he is a smart guy who is NOT an asshole. He is (mostly) considerate to people, and their feelings. He takes cases to help people. The prime example that springs to mind is Copper Beeches, where he didn't think Violet Hunter had anything interesting to say about her case. But he still agreed to hear her out. And many times, he has done things for people, solved their mysteries without any money. Now you could say that he is not concerned about money at all, except we have seen him squeeze the king of Bohemia. He takes high profile cases to pay the bills, normal cases to solve puzzles, and the really simple mysteries because he wants to help people. I may have talked about this in another post and used the example of Twisted Lip, and Blue Carbuncle to say how he let criminals (of a sort) go solely based on his moral judgement.

The reason why I bring this up in the same breath as the Knives Out films is because of Benoit Blanc's character. That man is very polite unless he absolutely needs to be rude or has been driven to the ends of his patience. You know, like a normal person? And I loved how it just completely avoided the trope most modern mysteries, crime thrillers, and detective stories fall into. I like to call the trope "The Genius Asshole Syndrome". And it just sort of stigmatises really really smart people for not having social skills by twisting them into something mean and uncaring. And so many modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes fall into that. And yes, BBC is one of them. So do the Ritchie!verse movies. They make Sherlock Holmes act flippant towards other people, because such a genius cannot possibly care for the normal people. He cannot possibly appreciate other different versions of smart, because he is obviously a genius and a genius is always an asshole, and not empathetic at all. So it was really refreshing to see a detective who cared about his clients, and vulnerable people. It was nice to see a detective get angry on behalf of a defenceless person. And it was very nice to see a detective not wanting to fuck a female client who is maybe half his age. (Plus the gay thing worked out great). I really feel like we need more genuinely good, kind, and helpful people in fiction, and now that Sherlock Holmes is completely in public domain, we can hopefully get something that is faithful to his actual character instead of the two dimensional grim dark detective dynamic. And maybe modern media can give us other detectives who are actually human, and have all basic human emotions? Just a thought.

Madames and Monsieurs. Poirot has seen much evil in the world, but the evil of this man is in a category all it’s own. His crimes are those of which Poirot cannot speak of in polite company, and they stretch the limit of discretion and manners. And he flees his persecution but cannot resist to remind the world of his existence. To brag about the money his filth has brought him. To try and, how you say, “flex” on a girl who’s concern is for the future of this planet by touting his many fast cars. But she is not so easily cowed and came back strong against his crude message with one of her own. Poirot may not condone the language, but he cannot deny it may have been called for. And there, there he let his hubris lead him to make his mistake. In his video, there, there is his pandora’s box. It does not look like much, it is after all a pizza box and such food is popular among the masses today. But this box…this box proved where he was hiding away. What hole this rat crawled into!

I claim no deductive prowess on my part, Watson. Our quarry is a braggart and a fool and he has proclaimed his location for all the world to see. But the prey is still afoot, dear doctor, and we must be swift. Bring your pistol.

Batman, how can you be so sure we can find him with just that tweet?

Well, Boy Wonder, a single picture can say a thousand words but in this case we only need one. Did you see the pizza that fuel-burning fiend ordered?

Jerry’s? Why, I’ve never heard of them, where in the world could you get a slice of that?

That’s the perfect question, the cheesy clue we need to apprehend this terrible tweeting menace. I happen to know for a fact there’s only one place in the world you can get a fresh slice of Jerry’s pizza…and we’ll need some extra Bat Garlic for this trip.

Great Ratios, Batman, you don’t mean!?

That’s right, Robin, let’s not waste any more time, the citizens of Gotham are already thrashing him in the Quote Retweets.

[PERCEPTION - Formidable 13] Look closer at the video

PERCEPTION [Formidable: Success] - Now hold on. There’s something strange about that pizza box.

VISUAL CALCULUS - The name of the store that box was ordered from is “Jerry’s”.

SHIVERS [Easy: Success] - In another time, you have eaten at nearly every one of the myriad pizzerias that mark the streets of Jamrock, but never heard of a place by such a name.

VOLITION - Maybe the lieutenant has.

YOU - “Hey Kim, have you ever eaten at a place called Jerry’s?”

KIM KITSURAGI - “I have not heard of such an establishment, much less eaten there. Does this really pertain to the current investigation, detective?”

YOU - “It has to be.”

[ENCYCLOPEDIA - Heroic 16] Where is Jerry’s?

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Heroic: Success] - Then it comes to you. Somewhere, far from the insulidian isola, in Romania, is the only “Jerry’s” Pizzeria.

HALF LIGHT - You have him.

Fun Fact: in one month (1/1/23), all Sherlock Holmes stories hit the public domain and the Conan Doyle Estate can't do shit! I say this for absolutely no reason but also congrats in advance to the happy couple.

the virgin "don't use Sherlock Holmes (a fictional character) as a name cause your version of him is showing too much emotion" Doyle estate vs the chad "yeah our real life ancestor? put him in the gay lawyer game lol whatevs" Soseki family

[id in alt]

Sherlock Holmes is a dog, your Benedict Cumberbatch is invalid.

#guys #guys guys #let’s think about the fact #that they haven’t hugged yet #that it’s still coming

love godtiss forever. throw moffat in a fire.

The Glee fandom is complaining that they have to wait a month. We Whovians have to wait a year for new episodes (not counting the Christmas special), and Sherlockians have ALREADY been waiting a year. Glee?

twopastfive:

when people say they hate irene adler

thegestianpoet:

Lets be perfectly clear. Irene Adler might be the Faith Lehane of Victorian England. God, that is an awesome image.

I am SO looking forward to seeing her from Steven Moffat's perspective. And lets see, John will be flirting with her, while all her love is for Sherlock. Who may have a teeny-weeny crush on her, but only because she's a fascinating criminal.

DO THIS! (please)

dreaminghour:

Right. I see how it is. 

You understand I will write ANYTHING even things I don't ship, right?