holmes&watson: sophistory: So that whole ‘The Indian Sherlock’ thing got me brooding...
So that whole ‘The Indian Sherlock’ thing got me brooding over the shitfit some parts of fandom tend to throw at the prospect of a Holmes and/or Watson that aren’t British - and how by ‘British’, they in fact mean ‘a very narrow idea of ~Britishness~ that includes the following…
Fandom, you are having some interesting thoughts. I approve.
The thing is, while some people are throwing a wobbly about, “Britishness,” or other cosmetic differences, I don’t have a problem with the cosmetic.
Genderswapping, ethnicity/racial changes, milieu… not really that important to me. In fact, since there have been a bazillion versions of, “British,” and, “Victorian,” Holmes & Watson, I think cosmetic changes make the stories better.
The reason House and Sherlock have been so successful, is they retained the core of why Doyle’s stories work: Holmes(House) & Watson (Wilson) and the puzzles.
The puzzles are the medium through which we get to see a brilliant mind at work, and Watson is the facilitator of that genius. Not through gimmicks, but through a deep-seated love and devotion to his best friend.
As long as the characters are themselves, and there are puzzles to be solved, nothing else really matters. Now, getting those things right is the really hard part.
