i thought this was the ladies' room

On the first day of my “Reading Literature in Context” class, my professor said that sometimes it’s hard to critique or analyze works that we love precisely because we love them; we become protective of the works and don’t want them to be pulled apart too much. And my thoughts were basically “Yeah, okay, dude. I’m from Tumblr—we do that all day—and besides I doubt we’re gonna talk about anything I love.”

But now I have to read three Sherlock Holmes stories for Monday and I’m honestly worried for some reason?? And even if it’s dumb, these stories mean a lot to me and I don’t really want to share them with the class?? I really have no idea what critical elements the professor is going to want to analyze and it’s really bothering me. Especially seeing as one of the three is actually a favorite of mine—The Speckled Band.

(Idk, don’t mind me; I just feel like I’m going to feel really silly for all of class on Monday.)

more BBC Sherlock speculations after reading Moffat’s musings upon the idea of John and Sherlock not always living together

Recently I’ve been giving some (needlessly serious) thought to the Mary Morstan question, and I think I’ve finally pulled all my feelings together in one relatively short mini-thesis, which lies past the “Read More” button.

I don’t think John Watson can be with Mary Morstan after the events of Reichenbach. I first realized this when I watched the Granada series; they created The Final Problem and The Empty House before they created The Sign of the Four. Mary still existed and sort of had a little bit of a flirt-thing going on with Watson, but at the end of the episode, she was allowed to just walk out of 221B Baker Street and let the boys live on together. I really admired that and really thought hard about the idea that, after losing Holmes for three years, not even a beautiful and intelligent woman could pull Watson away from him. 

I mean, even in ACD’s Canon, Mary was casually written out of Watson’s life once Holmes came back to life. I just don’t think that, emotionally speaking, Watson can be with anyone else after he knows what it’s like to really be without Holmes. Before the Hiatus, Watson could marry all the women he liked because he knew, in all reality, Holmes was always just a short coach-ride away. Afterwards, though, once he’s really been without his friend…I just don’t think he would choose to leave again, not for a woman, not for anything. 

So, what I’m trying to say is, I hope that Moftiss don’t decide to include Mary Morstan in the BBC series. From an emotional standpoint, she would undermine everything that Reichenbach made Sherlock and John realize about their relationship.

(And, believe it or not, I am not actually talking about a romantic relationship. I am talking about their real, substantial, meaningful, canon love.)

tl;dr :