guanin: (Default)
guanin ([personal profile] guanin) wrote2019-01-11 12:07 pm
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More Sherlock Thoughts

I'm toying with the idea of writing meta for Sherlock, but I'm a little uncertain. Not that I wouldn't if I wanted to because I'm intimidated (although it is intimidating, because I feel like it's all been written before), but the Sherlock meta I've seen so far is written with this perspective that I've never seen before. It's much more literary. I was not a literature major. My degrees are in history. I'm a fiction writer and did fine in my literature classes, but I would have been miserable as a literature major because I'm not really into symbolism or elaborate metaphors. Seriously, if anyone sees that in my writing, I didn't do that. If the symbolism is super blunt, I'll probably get it, but if it's subtle, it will go right over my head. I'm not looking for that stuff.

The meta I write is about character arcs and motivations, interpreting them exactly as if they were real people. I don't treat them as symbols or mirrors or anything like that. I examine them in a completely straightforward way. Again, history major. I analyze fiction the exact, same way that I examine history. That's the methodology I like. It's why I was drawn to that field and not a different one. It's something I didn't realize until now, but I automatically look at a piece of media the same way that I would a historical document. That's just how my mind views things. Which is why I'm definitely not writing any meta about season 4, because the inconsistencies are so massive that it's clearly a forged document that some hack tried to pass off as the genuine article.

I don't know what I want to write yet, anyway. But I'm not going to be talking about elephants (I swear I've never seen a single elephant on this show, I don't notice this stuff) or metaphors or any of that stuff because it's not my wheelhouse. I wouldn't know what to do with that.
sarahthecoat: which I made (Default)

[personal profile] sarahthecoat 2019-01-12 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
Definitely write your own meta from your own perspective! One of the things I think is awesome about the meta writing in Sherlock fandom, is how many different angles people are coming from, and all seeing different interesting things. Yeah, the narrative fragmented in S3, and wtf even was s4, but once I let go of the surface reading and my expectations, wow, it got interesting!! I also didn't do a ton of lit classes in school, I had never heard of character mirrors or queer coding, but it's been so interesting learning! That's why I call it "the new semester". (I also didn't study film making or lighting or visual composition or music, and fans have been writing meta about all those things too, from which I have learned so much!)
sarahthecoat: which I made (Default)

[personal profile] sarahthecoat 2019-01-12 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, there are loads of references to history, recent and not, in the show. The Thatcher era, the AIDS crisis, and of course 1895. A big chunk of what got explored in the run up to TAB was about oscar wilde, the trials, queer history, etc. I found it very interesting, not having gotten that in school. I do remember the reagan/thatcher years, and lost friends, but there's so much i didn't know too.
sarahthecoat: which I made (Default)

[personal profile] sarahthecoat 2019-01-12 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
well, it will be fun to delve in, if you decide to!