Hi, I'm Boton

[Boton]

Hi, all!  I'm Boton.  I was Boton over on Television Without Pity, and on Previously.tv, so I thought I'd keep my television postings consistent.  

 

I came to Sherlock fandom all at once, this month.  I spent the summer binge-watching House because I love medical dramas, especially those that stay away from the run of the mill pneumonia/domestic abuse/cancer diagnoses (cancer is boring, as House would say) and go more toward the zebras.  I like to try to armchair diagnose, so give me the rare diseases every day!  (Heaven knows I've diagnosed every pheochromocytoma that has ever been shown on TV; give me a challenge, already!)

 

After House, I was looking for something else, preferable something with a quirky, prickly lead, a lot of intellectual games, and some good script writing.  I read about the parallels between House and Sherlock Holmes, so I dialed up Sherlock even though non-medical mysteries have never been my thing.

 

My God, I'm so hooked!  I'm working on my rewatch of the entire series now, and I've started reading the canon books and short stories.  It doesn't hurt that Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock is easy on the eyes, but it is way more than that.  The quality of the scripts and the acting of Sherlock have drawn me right in.  This is, for my money, simply some of the finest television out there.

 

And, as a semi-professional historian (meaning I teach college history, but not full time), I'm gaining an appreciation through the books of some things about Victorian culture that I hadn't had before, given that Victorian England is not my field.  I like to think that readers of ACD books/stories in that time were seeing their Sherlock as a quirky, slightly antisocial, badass genius too.  I kind of love that.

 

Anyway, looking forward to discussing with everyone here!

 

[Caya]

Hi Boton and welcome to the forum!

 

A historian? You're just what we've been missing here, whether or not Victorian England is your field (what is, if I may ask?) - prepare to be swamped .

[Arcadia]

 , Boton! Sounds to me like you'll fit right in with our crazy intelligent bunch!

[Janie]

Hello, Boton and welcome to the forum

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

 Welcome to the forum! Here, have a cute gif as a present!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hi, Boton! 

 

I don't offhand recall you from TWoP, but then you were probably never on the Sherlock thread there, were you?  It had been started about a week before the first episode aired in the UK, so it was a fascinating glimpse into the very beginnings of Sherlock fandom, and had some really good discussions too.

 

Glad to have you here!

 

[Boton]

Thanks, all!  No, I wasn't on the TWOP Sherlock forum; I'm really sorry to have missed it, because trying to access it through the Wayback Machine is a real pain.

 

Caya, my field of history is American 20th century advertising.  I'm working on a book in that field right now (when I'm not obsessing over Sherlock, which is totally not helping my productivity).  I'm sort of hoping to import some of my Sherlock fascination into my next class I teach.  I've done a lot of research into the marketing of patent medicines (such as early OTC compounds that contained delightful things like a mix of morphine, cocaine, and cannabis -- guaranteed to stop your cough and quiet your baby!), and I'd like to have a discussion with my class about Victorian and early 20th c. attitudes toward drugs and their marketing.  This might be a nice way to tie that in with popular culture, which I like to do.

[T.o.b.y]

 

Caya, my field of history is American 20th century advertising.

 

Oooooh, tell me, what's your opinion on the series "Mad Men", then?

 

Welcome, by the way.

 

[Boton]

T.o.b.y., I love Mad Men! Its accuracy depends on who you talk to. Some agencies really were a continual festival of skirt-flipping, and others were much more sedate. If you want a great read to tide you over to the second half of the final season, I recommend Mad Women by Jane Maas. I had the honor of sitting by Ms. Maas at a dinner on her book tour, and she had some fabulous tales to tell about her days at Ogilvy and Mather in the early 1960s. Including an anecdote about one big name who was known as "a great swordsman," if you catch her drift.

 

What's nice about the show is that it captures a fundamental shift going on in advertising at the time, from the separation of art and copy to a more unified creative team approach. The art shown in the show is also very good and very true to the style of the years in which it's depicted.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

   to the boards Boton.  You should fit in here just fine.  I've Sherlocked for less than 2 months myself.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've done a lot of research into the marketing of patent medicines (such as early OTC compounds that contained delightful things like a mix of morphine, cocaine, and cannabis -- guaranteed to stop your cough and quiet your baby!), and I'd like to have a discussion with my class about Victorian and early 20th c. attitudes toward drugs and their marketing.

 

It'll be interesting to see what people a hundred years from now think about the medicines we currently consider appropriate -- I suspect there'll be a good bit of "how could they possibly have thought that was good for them?"

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

 

 

 

It'll be interesting to see what people a hundred years from now think about the medicines we currently consider appropriate -- I suspect there'll be a good bit of "how could they possibly have thought that was good for them?"

 

 

I already think that about many of the drugs on the market today.

[Schlauer Fuchs]

Welcome to the forum, Boston!

 

I only started watching Sherlock about a month ago, too and totally understand how it keeps you off writing   But then it's really some of the finest distractions I had the pleasure to know for years, and if you think of including it into your work, you could always tell yourself you're "working" when watching So go ahead and enjoy you second/third/fourth... time of re-watching!

[T.o.b.y]

T.o.b.y., I love Mad Men! Its accuracy depends on who you talk to. Some agencies really were a continual festival of skirt-flipping, and others were much more sedate. If you want a great read to tide you over to the second half of the final season, I recommend Mad Women by Jane Maas. I had the honor of sitting by Ms. Maas at a dinner on her book tour, and she had some fabulous tales to tell about her days at Ogilvy and Mather in the early 1960s. Including an anecdote about one big name who was known as "a great swordsman," if you catch her drift.

 

What's nice about the show is that it captures a fundamental shift going on in advertising at the time, from the separation of art and copy to a more unified creative team approach. The art shown in the show is also very good and very true to the style of the years in which it's depicted.

 

Thanks for the answer! I really liked the first and second series of Mad Men, but I could have done without Don Draper's backstory, which I consider corny and boring, and by the third series, I think they began ruining the characterizations. My focus when watching anything is always character-based, and I get unbelievably annoyed if I feel that the protagonists are being written out of character, either to serve some otherwise unlikely plot twist, or just because there are too many writers with too many different ideas about them involved in the show. Also, it was my impression that Mad Men got more and more soap-opera like as it went on, and there was less and less about the actual advertizing business, which I had enjoyed very much. (I know I'm contradicting myself here: First I say I focus on people and relationships and psychology, and then I complain when a series does just that. But this is the way my perverse nature works, I guess. I like Sherlock the best when it's about a ripping good case, but I still care much more for Sherlock's personality as it emerges while he works on said case than the mystery itself).

 

So, to make a long story short, I stopped watching Mad Men after series 2. (I am still a bit in love with the women, though. Joanie and Peggy and Betty Draper... they had so much potential. One of my favorite bits was where Joanie visits Roger in the hospital after his heart attack, and he says "I am so glad I got to roam those hillsides". It was very tender in an odd, lewd sort of way.)

 

[Boton]

I agree about Mad Men's soapiness quotient.  But I did like some of the middle seasons quite a bit, so its worth viewing, I think.

 

And I agree about Sherlock.  I do like a really good case, but I'm most interested in the psychology of Sherlock that we learn more about as time goes on.  Right now, I'm pondering some juxtapositioning of statements Sherlock has made.  "Alone protects me."  But humans aren't meant to be alone, even if they consider themselves "high functioning sociopaths" (oh, welcome to the club, Sherlock!).  I rewatched SiB last night, and I'm thinking very much about the impact Irene Adler had on him ("The Woman.  The woman.") and then moving forward into HLV to the mind palace scene (God, I love that.)  "Moriarty's" advice to him, at his deepest, most core level:  "You always feel the pain.  But you don't have to fear it......Pain, heartbreak, loss, death; it's all good.")  I love the idea that every one of these experiences intensifies Sherlock's humanity.  Indeed, maybe he's a sociopath not because he has a deficiency of feeling but because he feels way too much; shutting it off is a defense. 

 

OK, enough.  Back to writing, for pay and all that.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Welcome to the Forum, Boton. Looks like you're making yourself right at home. Congrats and good for you! 

[Pawse]

Welcome!