kat.
miserably fails
to stay out of tumblr a lot
miserably fails
to stay out of tumblr a lot
Moriarty is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. She is the organizer of half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected in this great city. She is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. She has a brain of the first order.
The Atlantic: It sounds like you’re saying that literary “talent” doesn’t inoculate a write—especially a male writer—from making gross, false misjudgments about gender. You’d think being a great writer would give you empathy and the ability to understand people who are unlike you—whether we’re talking about gender or another category. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Junot Diaz: I think that unless you are actively, consciously working against the gravitational pull of the culture, you will predictably, thematically, create these sort of fucked-up representations. Without fail. The only way not to do them is to admit to yourself [that] you’re fucked up, admit to yourself that you’re not good at this shit, and to be conscious in the way that you create these characters. It’s so funny what people call inspiration. I have so many young writers who’re like, “Well I was inspired. This was my story.” And I’m like, “OK. Sir, your inspiration for your stories is like every other male’s inspiration for their stories: that the female is only in there to provide sexual service.” There comes a time when this mythical inspiration is exposed for doing exactly what it’s truthfully doing: to underscore and reinforce cultural structures, or I’d say, cultural asymmetry.
But there is one big problem that I haven’t seen anyone touch on. One major change from the canon that leads to all of the smaller problems with Irene. One major change that is at the core of what pulls the rug out from under those of us who loved the original Scandal in Bohemia story. One major change that betrays a complete misunderstanding of the point of A Scandal in Bohemia and the real reason Irene Adler could win against Sherlock Holmes and walk away from him scott free holding everything she ever wanted.
Stephen Moffat and Guy Ritchie made the exact same mistake that a million fanfic and pastiche writers have before them. They looked at the Rogues Gallery of Sherlock Holmes for a formidable female villain, someone with potential for romance and intrigue, and picked out the perfect-seeming Irene Adler. This is understandable. She’s popular among fans, particularly female ones. She’s one of his best known opponents, possibly the best known after Moriarty. She looks good in a suit. Her story involves political and sexual intrigue. She’s cunning and resourceful. She won.
There’s just one small problem.
Irene Adler isn’t actually in the Rogues Gallery of Sherlock Holmes.
Look back at A Scandal in Bohemia. She’s not the bad guy. She’s the good guy. Sherlock’s client is the bad guy, wrongly pestering his ex-girlfriend and painting her as a extortionist when all she wants to do is live her life. He lied to Sherlock Holmes. Her explanation for trying to keep a little insurance against future bad behavior from this man is perfectly understandable. The entire story is a misunderstanding.
And that, more than anything else, is why she got to win. Because in addition to being his equal, beating him fair and square, she was also on the side of right and he was the manipulated one.
Listing her among his “villains” is like listing Spider-man as a Daredevil villain.
Ragnell, “How do you solve a problem like Irene?”
This was originally written in response to A Scandal in Belgravia and A Game of Shadows, but I think it applies equally to Elementary’s interpretation of the character.
One other thing not touched on in this section but also pointed out in the article is particularly germain to Elementary’s choices: Irene is memorable because she beats Sherlock. Elementary did a good job of trying to preserve that, but when they turned her into Moriarty, they guaranteed she wouldn’t win, not in the end, not really. She would never be allowed to waltz off into the sunset and live happily ever after, which is her great victory in Scandal. Irene Adler, average citizen, is allowed to show up the great detective. Irene Adler, average citizen, is the person we should feel good rooting for, and the person who deserves to come out on top. But Moriarty?
Moriarty is a villain, and villains have to lose.
(via maegoesfullfandom)
“Hiding in Plain Sight”, by Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Wong Kar-Wai Week
Chungking Express, 1994
Cinematography: Christopher Doyle, Wai-Keung Lau
I thought I was the only one…
too much information will distract you from the truth.
“ A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure ” Segal’s law.
Because of you. Because I knew how disappointed you’d be in me.
Elementary: a show about one woman’s struggle for sleep between solving murders with her best friend.
Why are you smiling?
- Because now I know it was a woman.
The Hour (TV Series)
