{"id":237455,"date":"2013-12-17T15:08:40","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T15:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2013\/12\/17\/its-not-the-fans-its-the-people-holding-the\/"},"modified":"2013-12-17T15:08:40","modified_gmt":"2013-12-17T15:08:40","slug":"its-not-the-fans-its-the-people-holding-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2013\/12\/17\/its-not-the-fans-its-the-people-holding-the\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Not the Fans, it’s the people holding the microphones."},"content":{"rendered":"

jcporter1<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Saturday\u2019s madness with the Empty House screening was the not just the last straw, but a turning point.<\/p>\n

For nearly a year now I have been hearing people connected with Sherlock<\/em> make snide remarks about crazy fans, or aggressive fans, and complaining that people writing fanfic or who shipped Sherlock and John were just wrong so wrong.<\/p>\n

I would argue back that there was nothing new about shipping Sherlock and John, about half the people who read Sherlock Holmes think he\u2019s gay. \u00a0I did when I read the books as a 13 year old, and this summer, my niece was reading \u201cThe Engineer\u2019s Thumb\u201d to me as we drove across a radio dead zone in New Mexico, and when she got to a remark about Watson\u2019s wife Mary, she came to a skreeching halt.<\/p>\n

“Wait, Watson\u2019s married? \u00a0I thought they were gay.”<\/p>\n

“Welcome to the wonderful world of the Sherlockians” I said.<\/p>\n

On my Twitter feed I would see people from the show responding to fanfic as if WE were trying to force them to change THEIR show to fit our narrative. \u00a0Remarks were made that \u201cWe just didn\u2019t get it.\u201d \u00a0\u201dThe show is not about Sherlock and John being gay.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the while they complained about our personal narratives with these two famous characters they wanted us to change to fit their personal narratives.<\/p>\n

“Hypocritical” I would point out, “since Moffat and Gatiss took two canon characters – Mycroft and Adler- and made them undeniably gay. Where is your canonical principal now?”<\/p>\n

And, we did not write the scripts to Sherlock (with the \u201cIts fine.\u201d \u00a0\u201dI know its fine\u201d conversation at Angelo\u2019s \u00a0or the \u201cI\u2019m not gay.\u201d \u00a0\u201dI\u2019m still not gay\u201d \u00a0\u201dWe\u2019re not a couple\u201d or the \u201cWe need to get out\u201d \u201cI\u2019m going on a date\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s what I said,\u201d exchange. \u00a0Or the \u201cDoes your\u2019s snore?\u201d ) \u00a0None of that had anything to do with the people making fan fic or fan art. \u00a0We did not write those lines or shoot those scenes.<\/p>\n

And when Norton or Letterman pulled up fan art- that was nothing to do with us either. \u00a0Tumblr is like Vegas. \u00a0What happens here stays here. \u00a0You don\u2019t talk about it. You don\u2019t show your parents, or in my case, your wife, and you sure as hell don\u2019t beat your OTP over the head with it like a cricket bat.<\/p>\n

Fan fic and fan art are for us to explore different ideas and directions that the principal parties ignore. \u00a0Just for an instance, the remark about \u201chigh functioning socio path\u201d. \u00a0I have read some brilliant fics that explore that aspect of the Sherlock character further. \u00a0And why not. \u00a0Moffat and Gatiss brought it up. Not us. \u00a0We are just taking a closer look. \u00a0 The same way that other writers are exploring young Sherlock and his drug use or John and his days in the war. \u00a0These are all terrific narratives that deserve to be explored. \u00a0Hell, if Sherlock was a regular TV series with 13 episodes a year, the show\u2019s writers might have written some episodes exploring these topics themselves.<\/p>\n

But back to Saturday\u2026<\/p>\n

Once again it was made crystal clear that the problem between the cast and crew of Sherlock and the fans is not fan art and fan fic, but the army of press junkets and talk shows and panels that these poor bastards have to sit through, and each interviewer has to try to find something to say or ask that will justify them getting paid to sit there in the hot chair opposite BC or MF for 2 minutes. \u00a0So they desperately grab something off Tumblr and shove it in Benedict\u2019s face. Or Martin\u2019s. \u00a0And the more salacious the better. \u00a0Anything to get a bloody reaction out of these guys who have had to sit there and answer the same questions over and over until they question why the hell they ever became actors in the first place.<\/p>\n

I think we all saw how even the boundless energy of RDJ started to flag by the time he got to China on his Iron Man 3 premier tour. \u00a0And it is evident when the childlike nature of Benedict has been crushed and you see only exhaustion in his eyes as he looks into the millionth camera. \u00a0And when he tells some newspaper journalist that he feels like the bunny being squeezed to death.<\/p>\n

It is easy to blame the fans. \u00a0After all, if we weren\u2019t fans, the show wouldn\u2019t be popular and the actors could all be home or in their vacation villa in Greece or (as in RDJ\u2019s case) back in Malibu with his new born baby.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not us. \u00a0We aren\u2019t the problem. \u00a0Fan\u2019s love their people. \u00a0We don\u2019t try and get their autograph just to sell. \u00a0We don\u2019t try to make them uncomfortable. \u00a0We don\u2019t want<\/strong> that. \u00a0The actors may feel pressure from producers or agents or even from their own desire not to disappoint, to go out and sign every last thing that is shoved in their face, but if they just waved and said thank you, we would be just as happy.<\/p>\n

Saturday, we saw again and in Big Flashing Neon Letters, just how it is not the fans that are the enemy. \u00a0It is the people holding the microphone and digging for a reaction that create the conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So what do we do?\u00a0<\/p>\n

There must be some new kind of protocol developed for this day and age. \u00a0We on Tumblr already serve as our own news and entertainment resource. \u00a0There is no good reason at all for the actors to go through a million interviews. \u00a0Just do as Matt Smith<\/strong> did, take the microphone, look at the camera and say \u201cHello Internet, It\u2019s me again.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0We will do the rest. \u00a0Frankly there are no better film editors in the world than the gif-ers on Tumblr. \u00a0Honestly , once one interview has been reblogged 300,000 times, why should<\/em> the actor do another?<\/p>\n

As for poor Benedict. \u00a0I wish we could all give him a hug and a pat and let him know we want him to get some rest, have some down time, read, sky dive, what ever. \u00a0 But my advice to Benedict, were he here in front of me, would be to go and talk to Jude Law. \u00a0He lives in London, he is there right now doing Henry V. \u00a0Martin did \u201cBreaking and Entering\u201d with him, so he even has an \u201cin\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jude could tell him how he had to suffer through SIX years of the News of the World and Rupert Murdock trying to destroy him. \u00a0They illegally tapped his cell phone and his girl friend\u2019s cell phone and his personal assistants cell phone, so that where ever Jude went there was an army of paparazzi dogging him. \u00a0They made outlandish attacks against him. \u00a0Headlines that he was an adulterer sleeping with the nanny, when he was unmarried \u00a0and his girl friend was off in L.A. banging Daniel Craig. \u00a0Murdock tried to systematically take him down, just to sell newspapers. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jude could tell Benedict about his early 30\u2019s when he was \u201cthe Sexiest Man Alive\u201d and had 5 movies out in the same year and was nominated for Oscars and \u00a0BAFTA\u2019s and TONY\u2019s. He was doing Cold Mountain and A.I. and Gattica and The Talented Mr. Ripley and Enemy at the Gates and Alfie and Breaking and Entering and so on and so on\u2026 Just like Bene is filling up his dance card with Star Trek and Osage County and 12 Years a Slave and Parades End\u2026<\/p>\n

Jude could tell him about taking on the role of Hamlet, which Benedict is going to be doing soon. \u00a0He could tell him to remember to spend time with his family and friends to keep sane. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That would be my advice. \u00a0To Benedict. \u00a0Martin seems to be handling things okay.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, after Saturday, there will be a sea change. \u00a0I tweeted to one of the producers of Sherlock today that it must be clear to her after Saturday \u00a0that it wasn\u2019t the fans who were the problem\u2026<\/p>\n

She said \u201cI never said anything about the fans. \u00a0I love the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s a good place to start.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

jcporter1: Saturday\u2019s madness with the Empty House screening was the not just the last straw, but a turning point. For nearly a year now I have been hearing people connected with Sherlock make snide remarks about crazy fans, or aggressive fans, and complaining that people writing fanfic or who shipped Sherlock and John were just … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “It’s Not the Fans, it’s the people holding the microphones.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[2090],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}