1958

If Madhubala was alive today, she would be 79. None could act so effortlessly or look so beautiful.
Old will always be gold.

I Am Sherlocked

             I have bronchitis (again). It’s an annual thing really so nothing out of the ordinary, just the usual coughing up my lungs alongside mucus, spit and digested food. It’s been a wonderful blur of a weekend, most of which i spent in my bed shivering like a dying rat, looking like nightmare and hobbling to and from the bathroom to vomit.  After putting off the visit to doctor for the past 4 days, I finally went this morning and got myself some Apo-Clarithromycin [side effects of this drug include THE EXACT SAME FUCKING SYMPTOMS OF BRONCHITIS] .  To keep my mind active while my body slowly withers away I have been re-watching most of BBC’s Sherlock, which is going to be the focus of this post.

                I’m not exactly sure why this show is perfect and brilliant, but I believe it’s a combination of these three things:

1. How Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (the creators) are hardcore fangirls of Conan Doyle’s original

masterpiece allowing them to immerse entirely in their work for their own pleasure

2. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s chemistry

3. They understood the Doyle character formula

               

                I’m watching the unlocking of Sherlock on my S1&2 box-set, and it leaves me feeling both elated and inspired. You can tell by the detail, the script, the eastereggs, the seamless transfer of Victorian Sherlock to 21^st Century Sherlock that the entire cast and crew were fully invested in the project. Like I’m sure all casts and crews need to be invested in their work, but something about Gattiss’s Sherlock gives one the impression that this is not a show, but rather a love letter to an old friend. It has the same energy and precision that Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy carried, which also was done by a group of die-hard fans. The initial excitement which Gatiss and Moffat felt upon realizing they could create a Sherlock Holmes story (seen in Unlocking Sherlock) of their own pours through in their work, which is rich with the affection and accuracy only true fans of Doyle’s stories could have. It is dreamy really, the setting, the way in which modern London is dealt with and how beautifully it all meshes together to ultimately allow 221 Baker Street to be the exact same as it always was.

Cumberbatch and Freeman’s portrayal of Sherlock and Watson is golden. Both bring a sort of darkly humorous approach to their characters while still managing to elicit genuine feelings of pain and terror when the script requires is. It is in the small glances between the two, the seconds captured in which their body language speaks volumes and the wrinkles on their faces form into a grin between comrades that you truly see that there was no better Sherlock and Watson. Watching them play off each other’s characters on screen is literally the most fun i’ve had watching a show in a loooong time. And I know maybe half of this lies in the genius of the writers, but the other 50% is their natural togetherness.  And whether that may be their ability to portray “bromance”, “friendship” or a strange line in-between genuine love and attraction we may never know, but it is the questions the welcomed tension between the two force the audience to ask that truly makes the show the best.

The original Sherlock Holmes has always been a childhood favourite, and was the first solid influence that pushed me into an obsession with detectives, crime, and mystery. I’m not sure how but Conan Doyle not only created one of the most iconic characters in history, but he also wrote the perfect formula for ‘intellectual male camaraderie’. A bit homoerotic but also a connection built on mutual admiration and mental stimulation. He then turned the formula inside out and using several of the same elements made one of the best examples of an equal anti-hero, Moriarty. And from there, to Irene Adler, Sherlock’s female other half.  I could say then that what Doyle does best is write characters in pairs that maintain a fine balance. The pivotal relationships within the Sherlockian universe is never skewed, all significant characters (Holmes, Watson, Adler, Moriarty, Mycroft) mirror each other, complement each other and are humans of intellectual bravado and dangerous spirit. It is THIS that BBC’s Sherlock has captured so well.

 It’s been a while since i’ve truly signed up to be a part of a fandom, but I feel as though i have no choice but to be one of the many batshit Sherlock fans who plaster their city with “I Believe In Sherlock” posters. I’ve already become a loyal Cumberbitch (yes), and have too frequently attempted imitating Irene Adler while walking to class (failed miserably). I can’t help it though. I’ve never felt so at home in a show as I do with this one, it is both clever and new, but familiar and wonderful.   

I will wait forever for Series 3, but please, do come soon. 

An Introduction

I have not done this in a long time.

So to be brief, I wish to write wisely, boldly and perhaps attempt to move you. For it is in the ability to elicit a reaction of value from ones audience that the strength of a piece is seen.  No reaction rendered would mean apathy in words and spirit. Nothing could be worse.   See there's this quote by Ernst Hemingway:

"No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure."

I'm quite sure this is the best advice I have read in my life on the topic of prose. And from it i can assure you, that if i have nothing to say, i simply will not say it. Because there is nothing worse than writing bullshit. There is nothing worse than filling pages with insincerity. What i must try my best to do, somehow if i can, is to apply the same logic to my life. To make my existence more than a smudge of rubbish. This is, if i am judging correctly, the purpose of my whole life. It need not be yours, but it is definitley mine. This I am sure of.

In this blog I will record a lot of “something” of which much may well be seen as bullshit (i apologize in advance), but because i cannot have that i will present it to you in the best of my abilities as pure tangible matter.  And through this, I will try to find that on some days I am able to retain credible evidence that my life is more than waking up and going to university. I also hope that whatever I say has some weight, which will eventually lead me to realize something substantial about myself that I may have missed in the last 20 years. Some clue, or hint that will make sense of everything to come.

Please take the time to get to know me; I can be contradictory, rude and at times very tiresome. But i will try my best to become better alongside the progression of this blog. I will try my best to be fluid, sincere and concrete in what will eventually become nothing more or less than a rather long soliloquy. And somewhere between these words and comma’s and fancy backgrounds I hope there exists a certain measure of integrity which reflects all things. All humans, all history, all art, all science and all philosophy.

I wish myself the best of luck

Sincerely,

Priya