[This is part of my series on Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century by Graham Robb. Previous posts can be found here.]
1) Are you a man interested in having a sexual encounter with another man but not keen on visiting a male brothel? Look no further than your nearest Turkish bathhouse. They offered “sex and companionship and were usually much safer than brothels” because your chances of being blackmailed were somewhat lower. You were asked if you wanted a good-looking attendant and the rest was history. Robb writes:
“Bathhouse customers could relax in a world where secret signs were no longer necessary. In the bathhouse, the normal situation was reversed: it would have taken more ingenuity to avoid a homosexual encounter.”
Holmes and Watson visit a Turkish bath together in The Adventure of the Illustrious Client:
Both Holmes and I had a
weakness for the Turkish bath. It was over a smoke in the pleasant lassitude of the drying-room that I
have found him less reticent and more human than anywhere else. On the upper floor of the Northumberland Avenue establishment
there is an isolated corner where two couches lie side by side, and it was on these that we lay upon September 3, 1902, the day
when my narrative begins. I had asked him whether anything was stirring…
Thanks, Granada Holmes – now I need the TAB equivalent. [x]
2) If the Achilles statue (aka the Wellington Monument) in Hyde Park appears in TAB – even a glimpse – I will die. Oscar Wilde mentions “the things that go on in front of” this statue in An Ideal Husband and also mentions it in The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was a well-known and favourite place for men to meet, perhaps for… obvious reasons.[x]
3) Using endearments such as “dear fellow”, “dear boy”, or signing correspondence with “your dear boy” has been noted in surviving letters between men who had relationships with other men. If I’m not mistaken I think these were used quite regularly between Holmes and Watson.
4) Robb notes that “in the present state of research, only about fifty works of western literature in the 19th century can be said to treat the subject of male homosexuality more or less openly.” This number includes works that were written during the 19th century but only published in the 20th, and also those that treated the subject “incidentally or imperceptibly” aka through extremely buried subtext.
So if one was interested in writing a story about two men in love in the 19th century…one would probably have been very, very careful…and used subtext, metaphors, codes, etc etc etc… maybe had the illustrator draw on a moustache…created a wife…and then killed her off-stage… who really knows…
I had asked him whether anything was stirring
screaming
There is a pretty high quality “Yes, my boy” (Holmes to Watson) at the beginning of “The Musgrave Ritual,” from very same paragraph that includes the line about “Ricoletti of the club-foot, and his abominable wife.”
Actually in the context your work, @weeesi, the whole opening of that story is hella gay. Holmes calls Watson “my boy” more than once; he caresses his case files suggestively; this is the same story that talks about Holmes’s Bohemianism and in which Watson talks about being “not in the least conventional…myself.”
can i just talk about okay like this screenshot right here
fucks me the fuck up like
sherlock is so sad he’s so so sad
everyone loves tsot and i honestly can’t even watch it, it’s awful, sherlock is so miserable for the whole episode, i’m just,
i can’t even watch it
That and I’m getting a vibe that Mary is a little ticked off too.
Like, what is with that snarky smile she makes? She knows these two men mean more to John than she does, and that pisses her off.
Sherlock smiles slightly in earnest because he knows this is what John does – SAVES LIVES – and he admires that so much about John.
Mary seems to find that rather offensive. I think she likes John being “boring” because it means she has all the control.
Like they both smile at the same time AND LOOK HOW DIFFERENT THEIR SMILES ARE.
Two things: 1. John dressed as a groom. The hottest and most posh look he ever had. And Sherlock had to stand there seeing him marrying someone else. MY POOR SON, HOW DID YOU SURVIVE SUCH ORDEAL 2. PLEASE TELL ME I’M HAVING ALLUCINATIONS ABOUT WHITE POLKA DOT ON RED SUSPENDERS OH JESUS HOLD ME, JOHN WATSON WEARING SUSPENDERS LIKE WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO SHERLOCK AND ME HAVE SOME PITY DAMN YOU
Yes. Let’s just take a moment to realize how gorgeous John is here, yeah? That suit, tailored to within an inch of its life, those braces. Jesus, those polka-dot braces. But, what’s so bad about that whole thing is…Sherlock dressed him like that. Sherlock wrapped John Watson in the most beautiful of finery, and gave him away. Kill my entire ass.
Moni why. I mean, you’re right, you’re totally right, but why.
I know. I’m the worst. But, it just struck me. I mean, it’s true, right? Sherlock surely handled all of that and I am gutted by the thought.
So if everyone’s objective was to completely ruin my evening and leave me completely fucked up, you have succeeded
One should never feel incredibly aroused by red suspenders while bawling their eyes out, makes for a very odd situation.
tfw u never asked for this
First off- SHERLOCK”S SMILE. Like is me or is it that kind of smile you do when you admire someone but desperately tries to hide it but it can’t be helped so you do a tiny weeny earnest smile? And seriously look, it’s more prolonged than Mary’s because it’s real like what do you even.
Also can I just add that this scene is aesthetically bittersweet. I mean, look at Sherlock, he looks more alienated due to his black suit while Mary and John’s colors blend along with the decor.
Just – why.
Can we all take a small breath and recognize that John’s braces (*dies* *defibrillates self* *resurrects*) coordinate with the red stem on Sherlock’s boutonniere… in place of his lovely red buttonhole… Please. Can we see this.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU. *dies* (J/K i love this entire post)
We know John hasn’t actually forgiven Mary. Either:
John’s being honorable and going back to Mary for the baby
John read the flash drive, lied about it, and is plotting either by himself or with Mycroft (not Sherlock)
There are some weird looks that imply he read the flash drive:
1) When Mary asks if John read the flash drive, he deflects twice and doesn’t answer:
MARY: So, have you read it? JOHN: W-would you come here a moment? MARY: No. Tell me. Have you? JOHN: Just … come here.
Deflection, a classic lying tell. And a very “John” lying tell; he’s not good at straight-up lying, so he doesn’t lie. He doesn’t answer the question at all. When else does he deflect? When he says “I’m not gay” in answer to questions about his feelings for Sherlock.
2) John looks down and turns the flash drive over in his hand, looking at it, when Mary asks him about it:
He’s definitely thinking something over. I don’t think that he’s wondering if maybe he should’ve read the flash drive after all – thinking “This is my last chance to back out” – because that’s not really in John’s character, and he has had six months to decide. So this is another lying tell from John.
Sometime ago during my stupid google searches I discovered that “Red Beard” is the name of the UK’s first nuclear weapon. Now I feel there is a connection between the following bits of our show, and please correct me if I am wrong.
The awful lot of explosives we generally have on our show – and the missing fifth pip
The Bruce Partington Programme being about a missile defense system (which is a reference to but not canon)
Mummy Holmes being the author of “The Dynamics of Combustion” (which is also a reference to but not canon)
Sherlock knowing about a top-secret CIA project called H.O.U.N.D., because “he must have read about it somewhere” (this is what you can do with top-secret CIA projects, you can just google that shit)
Hound being another word for dog, which is even why Sherlock takes Henry’s case, so it must mean something
Sherlock, who initially wanted to be a pirate, calling his dog Redbeard (which is entirely NOT canon!)
Bluebell and Dr Stapleton as mirrors for Redbeard and Mummy Holmes
This could be such a crack theory. But listen.
Once upon a time, little Sherlock got bored. Mycroft didn’t have time to play with Sherlock, which is why he finds himself in Mummy’s study. Guessing the combination for the safe was literally child’s play for him, so he sits on the floor, cross-legged, digging through some quite fascinating papers of Mummy’s. This all sounds so interesting, science seems to be rather fun, though these little CIA logos are quite annoying, what does this mean anyway.
This is how Sherlock reads about H.O.U.N.D., which doesn’t make sense to him as an acronym, because “hound”, isn’t that a word for “dog” they use in these old-fashioned books? And there’s this other project called “Red Beard”. If I ever have a dog, I might him call Redbeard. This sounds like a proper name for a future pirate’s companion. Redbeard…
Could the Redbeard-issue be the fifth pip/bomb?
(I’m sorry, I can’t really think about this properly now, so I’m just putting this out there, hoping for your input! In addition to this post… calling
i’m rewatching TEH and i’m again realizing how incredibly coded parts of it are like hudders has been done to death and is the harbinger of all that is good and tru but lestrade asking sherlock “this gonna be your new arrangement now” and sherlock uncomfortably saying “just…trying it on” about molly helping him and lestrade is like, “UM HELLO JOHN” and sherlock is all *shifty eyes* “notreallyinthepicture NOW BACK TO THE CASE”
like is this not about a fucking couple everybody on that fucking show has been shipping since day one
I’ve never seen this addressed before, so I decided to do a little analysis on a scene in A Scandal In Belgravia that caught my attention.
If I’m not the first person to do this, excuse me, but as I said I’ve never seen anything about it and I was wondering if I was the only one who noticed.
So in ASiB, Sherlock hears John and Irene’s conversation…
We see him moments later, but it’s strange. I wish I could have gif’d this, because it’d be much more effective than pictures, but even so you can see the purposefully blurred edges around this frame
Sherlock is walking very slow, the shot is blurry and distorted, and it’s even a little shaky (again, sorry for lack of gifs). His eyes aren’t as clear and focused as they usually are.
And in this shot:
Sherlock is looking down at the door for a long moment, looking confused, and taking a long time to actually reach out and open it. All the while everything is still very obviously blurry.
So, I’m suggesting that at some point before coming home, Sherlock got high, because why else would everything be so blurry? Why would he be moving so slowly? What would be the point?
Which also might explain why he reacted like this:
and this:
and why he looked like this:
and did this:
before doing this:
I know that Sherlock’s love for Mrs. Hudson was a large motivator in his reaction, but even for Sherlock throwing a man out a window several times (“Oh a fractured skull, a few broken ribs…”) was extreme.
And it would make sense, because in His Last Vow we have this lovely little scene, when we know for certain that Sherlock is using:
“Brother mine, don’t appall me when I’m high.”
“Mycroft, just go. He could snap you in two, and right now I’m slightly worried that he might.”
This scene suggests that Sherlock is prone to reacting irrationally and violently when he uses.
I just don’t see why they would put such an obvious camera affect, and why Benedict would act the way he did in that scene as he walked back to the flat if it wasn’t suggesting something. Sherlock being upset doesn’t explain why they would film the shot as shaky and blurry, and it also doesn’t explain why he didn’t take a cab like he always does.
This whole episode is filled with suggestions about Sherlock’s drug use, i.e. the “danger night” scene where Mycroft warns John to look after Sherlock, and John searching the house for drugs with Mrs. Hudson.
All together now, what do we say about coincidences?
Martin Freeman admitted in the London Apple store interview that he was really surprised to see the scene in the final cut because he only did the whistling (and pointing?) to make Benedict Cumberbatch laugh.
And that’s why I’ve got this nebulous feeling that they acutally erased a line. The original script might have looked something like this:
TESSA: Which one of you is Sherlock Holmes?
SHERLOCK: Dr. Watson is the handsome one… so I’m Sherlock Homes.
This would have been a perfect reference to a line in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes:
GABRIELLE: Which of you is Mr. Holmes and which is Dr. Watson?
HOLMES: Dr. Watson is the handsome one.
Rethink this. In the Rizla game Sherlock is unable to deduce that he has written his own name at his forehead. And when Tessa asks “Which one of you is Sherlock Holmes?” Sherlock concludes “John (Dr. Watson) is the handsome one” (or “John is the pretty lady”…) “so I must be Sherlock Holmes”. He would have answered Tessas (and John’s!) question and finished the game at the same time.
That this is only a head canon makes me kind of sad.
i mean there are a THOUSAND different parallels to sherlock actually representing sholto (the uniform,“into battle”, always secluded, repressed emotions, john’s obsession with them both, unsociable, “neither of us were the first”,ex-commander) and later in the exact same episode which is supposed to be about some straight wedding the entire plot has completely given up on, sherlock himself realizes that sholto is suffering from a delayed-action stabbing which is later followed with a fuck ton of “we wouldn’t do that to john watson” re-establishing parallels between sherlock and sholto, RIGHT AFTER sherlock’s long-winded speech in which he declares that john is more interesting than the same work he claimed to be married to in a scene which coincidentally involved “girlfriends are not my area”, “no (i don’t have a boyfriend)” and john licking his lips, a confession he would not have previously admitted to until this one speech where sholto realizes he’s dying when it’s ***too late*** until john watson saves him, and there are more desperate attempts to demonstrate the parallels to sherlock’s inner monologue which at this point basically consists of “i just realized at the end of my speech the same way SHOLTO realized at the end of my speech that i am in love with john watson and it’s too late because he’s getting married and now i am dying inside and i need john watson to save me the same way he saved SHOLTO a man i have been paralleled to from the beginning” and you watch all of this in a plot supposedly revolving around john and mary’s wedding which you see 0.02% of besides the gay speech and the gay interactions and the gay dancing and the bisexual lighting and the gay music and the fake balloon baby
and still
“Sherlock faces his biggest challenge of all – delivering a best man’s speech on John’s wedding day! But all isn’t quite as it seems. Mortal danger stalks the reception – and someone might not make it to the happy couple’s first dance. Sherlock must thank the bridesmaids, solve the case and stop a killer!”
