Dust and Shadow

I finished reading Lyndsay Faye's book Dust and Shadow, about Holmes investigating the Jack the Ripper murders. I'd heard so much praise about it that I decided to read it, even though it contained no slash.

Some spoilers below.

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Point of Origin, part 4

And here's part 4. Sherlock and Mycroft call pon farr the flu, like Tuvok called it in Voyager, out of his Vulcan need for privacy and discretion.

Fandom: BBC Sherlock/Star Trek
Story: Point of Origin
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Warnings: slash, dubious consent mindmeld, rated R

Point of Origin, part 3 revised

Okay, I managed to write more of my pon farr fic. (The one where Sherlock is a Vulcan.) This is a continuation of the short part 3 that I posted a while back. I'll go ahead and repost the whole chapter here.

The First Actresses

Just read this interesting blog post about London's 17th and 18th century actresses. Scandalous Women in London: The First Actresses

It discusses how actresses were equated with prostitutes, and were frequently the mistresses of powerful men. The story of Dorothy Jordan and the Duke of Clarence reminds me of Irene Adler and the King of Bohemia, except for the illegitimate children. Also, as a contralto opera singer, Irene Adler would have been suited for trouser roles. Here called "breeches" roles:

The exhibit explores the "breeches" roles that were so popular in the 17th & 18th century. These roles allowed women the freedom to go on stage dressed like men, but it also caused a stink because they weren't covered up!

So that's more reason for men like Wilhelm to think Irene is basically a slut, purely based on her singing career, regardless of how promiscuous she might actually be. I've heard that Irene Adler was modeled on Lillie Langtry, and in the story, the King called her an "adventuress" trying to blackmail him.

Unfortunately, so many adaptations seem to equate "adventuress" to criminal or whore, as if our mores haven't advanced one bit. I hate it.

Game of Shadows

So I saw the movie this weekend and enjoyed it. Frycroft was indeed awesome, and surprisingly the gypsy lady was not at all a love interest. Moriarty and Moran were both super satisfying too.

I will say that this movie has the same problem that the first one had--a bad trailer that puts you off the film. Remember how the first movie trailer had the scene of Irene dressed in a slutty corset and attacking Holmes with a hairpin? It made me fear the movie would make Irene nothing but a tacky sexpot. Fortunately, that scene got cut out from the finished film. Although Irene was unfortunately a criminal, she was dressed modestly most of the time and even wore male clothing just like in SCAN. Holmes didn't even seem to requite her feelings.

In the trailers for the sequel, I was quite put off by the clip of Holmes in drag on the train, and him later being shirtless on the floor of the train. Made me dread the film horribly. Though those scenes aren't cut out of the finished movie, they were far more tolerable in the context of the whole movie.

Spoilers below.

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Advice not taken

Speaking of Holmes, I've been doing a little work on some scenes from DIM lately.

We all know that in the Speckled Band, Holmes doesn't regret causing Dr. Roylott's death by snake, and sounds even a little proud of it. However, in my novel-in-progress, the Surrey County police aren't so supportive of his actions. They suspect Holmes of premeditated murder, so Helen Stoner has to lie to convince them that Roylott was just sleepwalking and was killed by his secret pet snake.

I have now rewritten my Brotherly Advice sketch to show Mycroft disapproving as well. He lectures Sherlock until he sees that killing Roylott was an unnecessary and illogical step. Foolhardy and reckless, even.

Thanksgiving movies

Well it's December already, so I should post something new. I saw both The Muppets and Hugo movies on Thanksgiving.

I mostly liked The Muppets, but found Walter somewhat boring and didn't like every song in the movie. Still, I enjoyed seeing all the old characters and their jokes like "travel-by-map", so it was still pretty good.

With Hugo, I was mostly disappointed to find that Jude Law's part as Hugo's father was so small. It's like the slightest tease of him before the new Holmes movie comes out in a couple of weeks. I'll have to patiently wait it out, I guess. The rest of the movie was fairly good, though, and I was glad to see Ben Kingsley in such a good role. I know a little about Georges Melies already because his Trip to the Moon movie was actually featured in the prologue of the 1956 Around the World in 80 Days film; producer Mike Todd was unnecessarily showing off the contrast between the early film and his.

Hugo had a slight mystery in how an automaton that Hugo's father found and restored was connected to an old man who worked in a toy shop at the train station where Hugo lived. Having already seen the Melies moon film, I realized quickly why Melies seemed to recognize the sketches of the automaton; he had obviously made the automaton long ago, but lost it. So there was no suspense to me on that front, but only on when and why Hugo's uncle disappeared. Also, I thought the automaton would do something more spectacular than draw on a piece of paper, so I was slightly disappointed to see that most of the 3D action would take place in dream sequences and Hugo running through the walls inside the train station. But it is a beautiful, entertaining film, with a touching story. Even the minor characters in the train station had funny, interesting scenes and character developments.

Both movies were good for breaking the long dry spell since the summer, when I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Help. (I did see Tower Heist, but the anticipation for that wasn't as intense.) I guess I was hoping for more from both movies, but maybe nothing could have lived up to my expectations. I hope the Holmes movie won't disappoint me; I'm just going to hope Frycroft is awesome and never mind about the rest.