I seem to have ceased to make sense

[ink_splotch]

So, Sherlock Holmes has taken over my life has got me thinking. Not long ago, there was a debate over on faramir_boromir's LJ about why we slash. She hit most of the main reasons, but I do think there's one she missed out on. We all recognize it - the friendship that spawns legends, withstands all kinds of oppostion and challenge, danger and risk and at the end of it all, is still strong. That friendship. That there's love within friendship, particularly one such as the Legendary Friendship (LF), is a given.

For example, Holmes and Watson, they *have* the LF thing going. They've survived just about everything together (for the record, so far I've only read from SCAR to Devil's Foot, so all assumptions and such come from that part of Canon) - "death", several murder attempts, Watson's marriage(s). They're friends (I almost want to say best friends, but it's just the image/issue of the best friends thing and the character of Sherlock Holmes go so badly together). They love each other. That's Canon and mentioned at least twice.

And there's plenty of subtext in the stories, plenty of places that make me giggle, squee or flails about with the oh-so-marriedness of it all, but that's not the main reason I slash them. I slash them, because I can't bear the thought of someone breaking them up. I don't like the thought that *someone else* might be more important that them. The most important person in Sherlock Holmes' life, should in my opinion be John Watson and vice-versa. And Sherlock Holmes is an excellent example of this, by the way - Canon would be vastly different (and more third-person-y) without both characters importance in each others' lives.

And I wonder how many of my slash pairings come from the knee-jerk impulse of no-you-can't-split-them-up -less of the wow-they're-sleeping-together thing and more of a soulmates (ack, I know) thing. Trio fic? Same thing. I mean, M*A*S*H, Smallville, Harry Potter femslash, Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy (why, yes, newly discovered kink, yay!), Newsies - they're all of the they're-in-love-and-sleeping-together motivation (or in the case of Newsies, kissing in a sweet and hot PG-13 fashion), while Brideshead Revisited is a mix between the two.

And I managed to get off the point a bit, which was - does anyone else think this might be the background for their slash pairings? Strong friendships in fiction do tend to be same-sex (because with opposite sex, there's always often an element of UST anyway) and in the same fashion, friendship of legend (tm smallville) do tend to also have slashy connotations (Achilles/Patroclus, David/ Jonathon etc.) Surely I can't be the only one with that reasoning?



(another reasoning could be the lack of gay iconic couples/images in our time. I say this only because I was trying to find a parallel to Walt Whitman and Peter Doyle and couldn't get more modern that Jean Cocteau/Jean Marais and Auden/Isherwood. It's kind of sad to think that I can name more iconic author/artist couples from the 19th century than this one. Hm. Though, to follow that reasoning, you'd probably have to be queer* yourself or have studied queer history (or, conversely, read Strangers *pimps*)
*Queer is here used to mean anyone past 2.5 on the Kinsey scale ;)


Argh, tomorrow's going to be evil. I have to bike to Amager to help a couple of friends with their Spanish studies, then rush home, pack computer and book and race over to work. Which, I've been promised, will be over before 1am. Joy. Oh well, I'm on holiday and can always sleep late Monday (though I do need to do my history and finish the damn fic(s))

'Night all.

Comments

[poisonivory.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if The Three Garridebs comes before or after Devil's Foot, but have you read that one? Because that has the ULTIMATE slashy moment. *lubs it*

I'm with you on the you-can't-break-them-up-so-you-ship-them reasoning; that's the reasoning behind a few of my pairings (mostly Holmes/Watson and Booster/Beetle) and throws a big monkey wrench into my determination NOT to ship Jeeves/Wooster. I think it's a mostly m/m thing, though, because you very rarely get a two person f/f friendship in fiction, as archetypically speaking, men come in pairs (all the ones you mentioned plus Castor and Pollux, Robin Hood and Little John, etc., etc., and usually the hero and the sidekick) and women come in threes (the Fates, the Gorgons, the Gray Sisters, the Furies, the Graces, the Weird Sisters, etc., etc.). It sucks, but there aren't a lot of famous platonic (or "platonic") f/f friendships in literature, not as, like, a duo. (Harley/Ivy is of course the wonderful, wonderful exception to all this. Have you read the miniseries?)

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

It comes after, but I've read it (mostly because I didn't want to read 'Out of this Room' before I'd read the story it was based on, so I skipped ahead) but that moment still ties with Devil's Foot for slashy moment.

I've never noticed how men come in twos and women in threes, but it's true - there are very few truly outstanding f/f friendships in any fictional category. That makes me sad(and I've been trying to *get* the Ivy/Harley miniseries, but it's a little difficult to get good comics in Denmark, sadly, so I'm going to look for it when I go to the states this summer).

[lattara.livejournal.com]

I actually quite agree with you. Most of time my pairings are determined by the knee-jerk reaction of "you can't break them up!"

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

It just seems kind of an obvious reason, but I've hardly ever seen it come up and then there was the whole friends-not-lovers thing over on insidian's lj a few weeks ago, that made me wonder if I was the only one.

[siggen1.livejournal.com]

It's fairly logical, isn't it, that you're more likely to slash/ship someone who are close friends already?

Hmm, not exactly articulate this morning

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

Yes, but there's a difference and I'm just sort of inarticulate about it. But like Trapper/Hawkeye? They're best friends, they love each other and yeah, I ship them. But that's *because* I think they look good together, because I see something in the show implying that, yeah, they're sleeping together.

But Holmes/Watson, I don't *care* if they're sleeping together or not. It's not so much a question of them being in love as it is a question of them being nessacry to each other, and that's *different*.

[siggen1.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see... Shipping out of need, because they can't be without eachother? Like Jeeves/Wooster?

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[siggen1.livejournal.com]

Then I absolutely agree, and am leaning towards thinking that you might just be the smartest person I know.

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

Nah, I just act smart ;)

[phoenixwish.livejournal.com]

I think all of my ships come from the "ooooh pretty!" kind of thing, actually. There are some of them, though, that I see only as really close friends in canon (like Merry and Pippin), and I would hate to see anything or anyone come between them.


On second thought, I think Dom/Billy started as a wouldn't-it-be-hot sort of thing but then crossed over into the realm of LF, though I guess this particular pairing doesn't really qualify as a legendary friendship. About a year ago, I went through a couple of months when I had a hard time separating what was real from what I wanted to be real, and I was quite angsty about their friendship. I still am a bit, but it's none of my business. Anyway, for a time there I was slashing them because I couldn't bear the thought of them slipping apart because of Billy's girlfriend.


Sorry if I'm rambling. :)

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

Rambling's what this journal's all about!

It didn't really hit me until I started reading Sherlock Holmes, but Iøve always had that kind of thing - some people that just shouldn't be split up, particularly by significant others and slash is the *perfect* solution to that problem (it's been plaguing me since childhood, I swear. I mean, I cried at the end of the Mallory Towers series, because I thought it was *so* sad, all the twosomes splitting up.

And now, I'm babbling. But yeah, I think a lot of people ship because of the pretty, or the subtext (as do I, because bwee! Qui/Obi, Trapper/Hawkeye etc. is *so* cute), I'd just never heard anyone use my reason. So I thought I'd throw it out there ;)