An Experimental Application of Homospectrality

So @heimishtheidealhusband wrote the world’s most amazing meta about homospectrality. I highly recommend reading it, because they were spot on, and also just for some sweet, sweet education. I am also hoping they’ll be writing a post TAB meta soon about how it all played out but I thought I might try my hand at using some of the understanding I got from them to explain something in TAB that bothered me.

Ok, so, after Sir Eustace is killed, Holmes gets very angry and shouty toward Watson. And I kept asking myself, why is he so angry? On one hand, I know that Sherlock hates it when he can’t save people (I think it’s why he prefers to investigate crimes, he can manage bringing justice to people but it’s too much for him emotionally to try to protect living people all the time) but it still seemed to me like there might be something else going on, he is specifically angry about Watson’s belief in ghosts.

When Watson first brings it up in the train carriage, Holmes mocks him and states, “There are no ghosts in this world save those we make for ourselves.” If ghosts are taken to represent the threat of homosexual impulses, then this line could be read as stating that homosexuality is only monstrous if we make it out to be that way, the danger is in believing it’s dangerous. 

Later, when they’ve gone into the house to find out what’s happened Holmes charges Watson with guarding the escape route of the window, but in Holmes absences, Watson succumbs to his belief in the ghost and leaves his post. Watson can’t stand guard against his acceptance that homosexuality is monstrous. Remember, this is all in Sherlock’s mind, this is a reflection of Sherlock’s subconscious belief that John chose straight marriage as an antidote for his feelings for Sherlock. John’s closetedness is his fear of the specter of homosexuality, and it causes him to abandon his guard. 

Holmes shouts at Watson, “There are no ghosts!” “There is no reason to fear homosexuality!”

Then:

Lestrade: “You really musn’t blame yourself you know”

Holmes: “No you’re quite right.”

Watson: ”I’m glad you’re seeing sense.”

Holmes: “Watson is equally culpable, between us we’ve managed to botch this whole case.”

They’ve managed to botch their whole relationship with misunderstanding and fear. 

Watson: “I saw the ghost with my own eyes.”

Holmes: “You saw nothing you saw what you were supposed to see.”

Watson: “You said yourself I have no imagination.”

Holmes: “Use your brain such as it is to eliminate the impossible in this case it’s the ghost and observe what remains which in this case is a solution so blindingly obvious even Lestrade could work it out.”

Sherlock is angry that John has given in to seeing what he was “supposed to see”, to choosing a “normal life” with Mary. But if the fear of homosexuality were eliminated, what obvious solution would remain? Well, even Lestrade has probably worked out that they belong together. 

Further, several people have already pointed out that Sir Eustace is a mirror for John. I think Sherlock’s anger, beyond that he thinks John is afraid of his feelings for Sherlock, is that Sherlock feels by giving into that fear, John has actually put himself at great risk. Just as Sir Eustace was a victim of the Bride, so John is in danger from Mary and it’s the danger to John that Sherlock really can’t handle. 

I don’t mean to imply that Sherlock in real life has been ready to run off with John if only John were out. Obviously, Sherlock has many layers of his own hang ups to work through, and since this is all in Sherlock’s head anyway, it is equally possible to level the accusations at Sherlock himself, that he allowed his homosexuality to be made into a specter and it his fear that has botched everything. 

This is awesome, thank you!!! I’m always so pumped to see people writing on homospectrality and I think you’ve got some great thoughts here. (And to answer your question, yes, there will be a great big gay ghosts essay at some point in the future!)

i've reblogged this before, but tonight i had this thought pop into my head, that both sir eustace and lady carmichael are john mirrors. it's been a while since i watched TAB, or even read meta about it, so i'm not even sure if i am remembering ttis from someone else... anyway, i always felt like it didn't make sense that lady c was the one begging sherlock to keep her husband safe, and then sherlock accuses her of killing him (and then reveals moriarty under the veil) but if other pairs of characters are dual john mirrors (e.g. the out of work fisherman and his mother at the next table at the cross keys in THOB, i forget who wrote that), then why not both carmichaels?

An Experimental Application of Homospectrality

So @heimishtheidealhusband wrote the world’s most amazing meta about homospectrality. I highly recommend reading it, because they were spot on, and also just for some sweet, sweet education. I am also hoping they’ll be writing a post TAB meta soon about how it all played out but I thought I might try my hand at using some of the understanding I got from them to explain something in TAB that bothered me.

Ok, so, after Sir Eustace is killed, Holmes gets very angry and shouty toward Watson. And I kept asking myself, why is he so angry? On one hand, I know that Sherlock hates it when he can’t save people (I think it’s why he prefers to investigate crimes, he can manage bringing justice to people but it’s too much for him emotionally to try to protect living people all the time) but it still seemed to me like there might be something else going on, he is specifically angry about Watson’s belief in ghosts.

When Watson first brings it up in the train carriage, Holmes mocks him and states, “There are no ghosts in this world save those we make for ourselves.” If ghosts are taken to represent the threat of homosexual impulses, then this line could be read as stating that homosexuality is only monstrous if we make it out to be that way, the danger is in believing it’s dangerous. 

Later, when they’ve gone into the house to find out what’s happened Holmes charges Watson with guarding the escape route of the window, but in Holmes absences, Watson succumbs to his belief in the ghost and leaves his post. Watson can’t stand guard against his acceptance that homosexuality is monstrous. Remember, this is all in Sherlock’s mind, this is a reflection of Sherlock’s subconscious belief that John chose straight marriage as an antidote for his feelings for Sherlock. John’s closetedness is his fear of the specter of homosexuality, and it causes him to abandon his guard. 

Holmes shouts at Watson, “There are no ghosts!” “There is no reason to fear homosexuality!”

Then:

Lestrade: “You really musn’t blame yourself you know”

Holmes: “No you’re quite right.”

Watson: ”I’m glad you’re seeing sense.”

Holmes: “Watson is equally culpable, between us we’ve managed to botch this whole case.”

They’ve managed to botch their whole relationship with misunderstanding and fear. 

Watson: “I saw the ghost with my own eyes.”

Holmes: “You saw nothing you saw what you were supposed to see.”

Watson: “You said yourself I have no imagination.”

Holmes: “Use your brain such as it is to eliminate the impossible in this case it’s the ghost and observe what remains which in this case is a solution so blindingly obvious even Lestrade could work it out.”

Sherlock is angry that John has given in to seeing what he was “supposed to see”, to choosing a “normal life” with Mary. But if the fear of homosexuality were eliminated, what obvious solution would remain? Well, even Lestrade has probably worked out that they belong together. 

Further, several people have already pointed out that Sir Eustace is a mirror for John. I think Sherlock’s anger, beyond that he thinks John is afraid of his feelings for Sherlock, is that Sherlock feels by giving into that fear, John has actually put himself at great risk. Just as Sir Eustace was a victim of the Bride, so John is in danger from Mary and it’s the danger to John that Sherlock really can’t handle. 

I don’t mean to imply that Sherlock in real life has been ready to run off with John if only John were out. Obviously, Sherlock has many layers of his own hang ups to work through, and since this is all in Sherlock’s head anyway, it is equally possible to level the accusations at Sherlock himself, that he allowed his homosexuality to be made into a specter and it his fear that has botched everything. 

This is awesome, thank you!!! I’m always so pumped to see people writing on homospectrality and I think you’ve got some great thoughts here. (And to answer your question, yes, there will be a great big gay ghosts essay at some point in the future!)

Gay Easter Eggs in BBC Sherlock

(I trust the above requires no explanation.)

Perhaps someone has done this before, but I wanted to put together a compilation of gay easter eggs in the show that I’ve seen other people point out and/or have thoughts on myself. So here it is!

When I say “easter eggs,” I’m thinking of small clues that the show creators included in the set designs, music choices, and other details of the show to reference that Sherlock and John are in love. I’m thinking of things you could miss at first, especially little clues that often require a bit of extra information or require observations across episodes to understand.

Of course, there’s also lots of subtext woven into the show, moments where interpreting the dialogue or visuals in a certain way tells us something about Sherlock, John, and/or the state of their feelings for one another. I’m not sure if I can clearly define “subtext” versus “easter eggs” and explain what distinguishes them, but at least to me, several of the things I’ve listed here seem a bit different from what people often refer to as subtext. Maybe subtext is about uncovering the layers to a piece of dialogue or an action that takes place in plain sight and seeing how that impacts our interpretation of the story, but easter eggs are about spotting smaller, hidden details. I’m not trained in literary or film studies, though, and I’m not trying to be doctrinaire about this at all! This list is just for fun, anyway. (The above image might not actually count as an easter egg, but I couldn’t resist including it here. Indulge me.)

The more I read about this show and the harder I look, the more I think that hardly anything is there on accident. All these easter eggs must have been included on purpose. The creators knew they were telling a love story all along.

I’ve linked to the posts where I initially saw people point these out or to other good sources, and for some of these I’ve added my own commentary/observations/interpretations. I’m sure there are many other easter eggs that I’ve missed! What have you spotted?

John’s PIN in TBB – When John tries to pay for his groceries at the beginning of the episode, we see that his PIN is 743. In ASIB, Irene’s code to unlock her phone is SHER, which would be 7437 on a phone keypad. So, John’s PIN is a clue that he is or will be in love with Sherlock. Source: @loudest-subtext-in-tv, here.

Shaftesbury Avenue, 20m from Piccadilly Circus in TBB – While investigating in Chinatown, Sherlock and John bump into each other at what used to be a cruising spot for gay men in London. Source: @the-signs-of-two, here.

Archer the American in ASIB – In the scene where the American CIA agents try to get Sherlock to open Irene’s safe, the head CIA agent pressures Sherlock by threatening to have one of his men shoot John. The agent says: “Mr. Archer, on the count of three, shoot Dr. Watson.” Ordering someone named “Archer” to shoot John could be a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle’s poem “The Blind Archer,” which is about Cupid and describes Cupid shooting two men who sound an awful lot like Sherlock and John. Source: couldntpossiblycomment, here.

“¿Dónde Estás, Yolanda?” in TEH – The song that plays during the scene with John and Sherlock’s disastrous reunion at the Landmark restaurant is a cover of the song “¿Dónde Estás, Yolanda?” performed by the band Pink Martini. The Spanish lyrics to this song are about searching for a long-lost lover, which is fitting for the scene where John sees Sherlock again for the first time since his fall. Notably, the creators didn’t use the first of the two versions of this song that Pink Martini has released. The band’s first version appears on their 1997 studio album Sympathique and features a man singing about a woman. Instead of using that version, the creators used the version from Pink Martini’s 2011 compilation album A Retrospective, in which China Forbes performs most of the vocals. So, the creators deliberately chose a remade version of the song in which a woman sings about a woman. They chose a gay song about searching for a long-lost lover for Sherlock and John’s reunion. abrae (@tea-and-liminality on tumblr) has a meta with more to say about the use of this song here.

John’s “oscillation on the pavement” in TEH – In TSOT, John observes a potential client standing outside 221B and trying to make up her mind as to whether to come in. Sherlock tells John “I’ve seen those symptoms before. Oscillation on the pavement always means there’s a love affair.” In the previous episode, John came to visit Sherlock at 221B but hesitated on the pavement outside, staring at the door and trying to decide whether to go in. Sherlock’s comment, “I’ve seen those symptoms before,” is a hint that we, the audience, have also seen those symptoms before—with John in the previous episode. Source: @bidoctor, here. (I saw someone else point out that last part about Sherlock’s hint to the audience, but I can’t find that post, sorry!)

Lilac dresses in TSOT – While planning John and Mary’s wedding, Sherlock chooses lilac-colored dresses for the bridesmaids. When John tells Sherlock that he likes the bridesmaids in purple, Sherlock pointedly corrects him by stating that the dresses are lilac. Apparently, “In Victorian times, giving a lilac meant that the giver is trying to remind the receiver of a first love.” So by dressing the bridesmaids in lilac, Sherlock is trying to remind John of his first love: himself, Sherlock. My heart breaks. Source: @asherlockstudy, here.

Putting the horns on Mary and Janine in TSOT and HLV – In TSOT, there’s a shot where Mary gives Sherlock and John a thumbs up before they head out on a case. The way Mary is standing, the horns on Sherlock’s cow skull thing on the wall behind her are placed right over her head. (I always thought this shot looked pretty weird, but now I see that it must have been intentional!) In the HLV scene with Janine at 221B, there’s a moment when Janine steps in front of John in the frame to kiss Sherlock, and her movement positions the horns right over her head. “Putting the horns” on someone means cheating on them. So in both cases, placing the horns right above Mary’s and Janine’s heads indicates to the audience that Sherlock and John are the real relationship in this show. Source: this post from multiple users on the @sherlockmeta blog.

The architecture of Sherlock’s mind palace in HLV – In the mind palace scene after Mary shoots Sherlock, the architecture of Sherlock’s mind palace is based on locations from ASIP. Sherlock literally built his mind palace out of places from his first case with John, illustrating that his relationship with John is what grounds him and that it means everything to him. abrae has some very helpful screencaps of this here (and I would recommend that whole meta, btw!)

The glasshouse scene in TAB – In TAB, the Victorian John tries to ask Sherlock about his sexuality and sexual history while they’re sitting in a glasshouse. In Victorian Britain, “glasshouse” was another term for a military prison. So John, a military veteran, asks Sherlock about his sexuality in a setting that represents where he would have been sent if he had acted upon his homosexual desires at a time when homosexuality was criminalized. Source: @haffieliesel, here.

What do we say about coincidences? The universe is rarely so lazy.

This one coming to you sponsored by a lack of sleep and a big pot of coffee.

The Abominable Bride

A mystery killing alongside

A murderous zombieish bride.

But it’s not really real

Is the constant reveal.

Mind palace is where they reside.

#married

You may always survive a fall, Sherlock,

but it's John Watson whom it kills.

I just really want to say, for anyone there who read the original Reichenbach Fall, you know John is deceived and Sherlock is left alone with Moriarty, but in the bbc Abominable Bride episode, when everything goes in Sherlock's mind, John is fucking there with him. In Sherlock's mind, it's ALWAYS HIM AND JOHN. THEY'RE THERE TO SAVE EACH OTHER NO MATTER WHAT. THAT'S ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE, MATE.

Countdown to S4 Day 10     TAB throwback

» Candy Cane Christmas Edition

Two Stories: Voice of Terror and Terror by Night?

ASiB

Sherlock: It’s a story, probably not true. In the Second World War, the Allies knew that Coventry was going to get bombed because they’d broken the German code but they didn’t want the Germans to know that they’d broken the code, so they let it happen anyway.

This ends up being the basis for the Flight of the Dead, Bond Air is Go.

TFP

The same little girl in ASiB that was talking about not getting to see her granddad after he died, and to whom Sherlock explained, “People don’t really go to heaven when they die. They’re taken to a special room and burned,” is the little girl that wakes up alone on the plane.

Look at the gif above, again.

There is Sherlock talking to Irene, and then there is a mirror of him speaking the other direction. They’re giving us two stories. So, why am I bringing this up now? Because of Coventry, and where we may end up next, if they don’t revamp Voice of Terror… During the Second World War, the British were reading the Germans code. They new at one point that the Germans were going to hit Coventry with a large air raid, The conundrum was that if they evacuated the city of ambushed the Luftwaffe, then they would likely give away that they were reading the German code. As the Allies were getting an assload of intel from reading the enemy’s mail, do they let the city burn costing lives from the raid and potentially saving lives as the war went on, or save lives in Coventry but loose more later. Mofftiss have been mentioning a special with Sherlock and John fighting the Nazis, so they could bring us back to the Christmas that also inspired the Norbury scene, the Christmas Moriarty met Eurus, the Christmas the counter on John’s blog got stuck on 1895.

This could be our reset point…

Related Meta:

Terror By Night, Trains, and Sherlock ( x )

The Voice of Terror ( x ) by @finalproblem

Posted this yesterday, as it had been in my drafts for months, but hadn’t tagged anyone. It’s meant to go with:

some stuff the internet said about sherlock by @space-sapphik

and Something Big About Mycroft by @gosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah @raggedyblue @sarahthecoat

1895 is definitely of great importance @221bloodnun  The beginning of ASIB is also the point in the story where Sherlock dons the deerstalker for the very first time …. he takes it from the cloakroom of a theatre.  And at the end of TFP Sherlock is still not back in the outside world. But in his mind he and John are running onto Rathbone Place. I wouldn’t be much surprised if that means another Mind Stage scenario - in black and white maybe? - where Sherlock and John will have to fight the Nazi’s. The ‘revolution’ isn’t over yet …. the ‘breaking free’ still not accomplished. Body and heart are working in sync now, but what with the brain …. with Mycroft? Since Musgrave big brother is more than conspicuous by his absence …..

Well, and that brings us to the 1895 disappearing from the blog before TAB, because yes, it parallels Mycroft disappearing in TFP before we’re given 221B back and John there with Sherlock once more. And of course, they’re still in 1895 when TAB ends, that whole “always 1895″ where they discuss

WATSON (offscreen): Flying machines; these, er, telephone contraptions … (The screen fades up to reveal Holmes and Watson sitting in their armchairs in the sitting room of 221B.  Each of them is smoking a pipe.) WATSON: What sort of lunatic fantasy is that? HOLMES: It was simply my conjecture of what a future world might look like, and how you and I might fit inside it.

i.e. the main setting and methods of TFP. On a flying machine, communicating through a cell phone, which wouldn’t be possible.

So…yes…this B&W installment could be another version of Sherlock imagining how he and John would fit. @ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @ebaeschnbliah @raggedyblue @sarahthecoat

Interesting thought @221bloodnun  And that thought leads me to a (probably) crazy idea. Taking Sherlock’s statement from TAB about phones and planes literally … ’It was simply my conjecture of what a future world might look like, and how you and I might fit inside it.‘  …. wouldn’t this mean that this ‘conjecture’ of Sherlock doesn’t take place after TAB but inside of it?

TAB is considered to be a drug induced fantasy of Sherlock resulting from an almost overdose on the plane to his exile.

Is S4 also a drug induced fantasy of Sherlock resulting from an ‘increased dosage'  of cocain in TAB? A fantasy inside another fantasy? Matroshka fantasies? And has the 'fantasy’ returned to the tarmac of HLV by the end of TFP …. Sherlock and Eurus landing the plane … or not yet?  Taking ‘drugs’ is often connected to 'flying with a plane’ …. is this a pattern?’

The question is: with how many of those Matroshka-fantasy-dolls  are we dealing in Sherlock BBC?

@gosherlocked @raggedyblue @loveismyrevolution @sarahthecoat @sherlockshadow

I absolutely think that’s what it is @ebaeschnbliah I think I mentioned it in the old meta about drugs and reflections, but maybe it was a discussion instead. Being ill for six months, I have to go back and read my own meta to refresh my memory. Again though, depends on whether we ever left S2. The odd camera work of Sherlock being sideways while thinking or being on drugs begins in TRF, and the Anyone idea started in TGG; both go all the way through in S4-along with details only Sherlock would know. @gosherlocked @raggedyblue @loveismyrevolution @sarahthecoat @sherlockshadow

surely the correspondence between planes and telephones is too important to be ignored. The show is a huge house of mirrors, of Chinese boxes, with stratified readings … everything is possible, a dream in a dream, perhaps even in a coma, and then turns out to be all inside a tale … Escher would be very proud

. @gosherlocked @221bloodnun@loveismyrevolution @sarahthecoat @sherlockshadow

for some reason, tumblr decided to notify me about this post this morning, although the discussion is years ago now. still, a good one to revisit.

hmm, this must have been a one day poll, but i would have said yes also.

yes, it's possibly my favorite episode at this point.

the waterfall scene is my fave. but what about abbey grange is in TAB? i'm running my mind over the plot and not seeing the connection.

Sherlock: Five minutes till the plane lands. Should be enough time to figure out how Jim survived.

Sherlock: *fantasizes about John as a soldier*

Sherlock: *fantasizes about meeting John all over again*

Sherlock: *disguises woman he knows has a thing for him as a man and pretends not to see through it but imagines John does*

Sherlock: *disguises self as snarky maid who deduces the sad state of the Watson marriage to John’s face*

Sherlock: *fantasizes about John prodding him about his sex life*

Sherlock: *imagines Jim fellating a gun on his knees*

John: Sherlock?

Sherlock: DON’T WAKE ME UP I HAVE TO GO BACK FOR SCIENCE

it's been a minute and it's a monday evening! but! tab is really good bc they give the unambiguous statement that None Of This Is Real and therefore we can just do away with the clever subtext bit and rather just Say Things! deep waters nothing made me since when do you call me john you are flesh and blood there are no ghosts pure reason toppled by sheer melodrama did you miss me......... mwah........

Ghost Stories Are Gay Stories

Or, what you need to know before the special.

I’ve been developing the concept for this essay for months, slowly collecting bits and pieces from far-flung resource materials. The release of the trailer for the special finally lit a fire under my ass to get this thing released to the world, and in a minute, I’m sure you’ll see why. Originally this was going to be a much, much, longer, multi-chaptered series. But instead I think I’m opting to just go for the big take home points so that you all can read it before the special is released. I reserve the right to come back later and write on these topics in more depth if the whim strikes.

Here’s what awaits you below the jumpcut. First, I’m going to introduce you to queer coding in Victorian horror and ghost stories. There’s a lot of it. There’s a shit ton of it, honestly. Next, I’m going to show you how queer coding in ghost and horror stories made the jump from novels to movies. After that I’m going to show you just how aware the showrunners are about the concept of the queer Victorian horror story (and honestly guys, the amount of stuff I found here, you will not believe), and lay out how they’ve already used this stuff in previous episodes. Lastly, I’m going to tie it all together by laying out how we can expect queer horror story tropes to show up in the upcoming Sherlock special, and what we should be watching for in terms of metaphor, narrative, and subtext. Because it will show up, I can guarantee you that. The material we’ve already seen so far, along with the utterly tantalizing hint word “ghosts”, just about confirms it. And as a fandom, I want us to be ready.

With that, let’s start at the beginning.

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