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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2096 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 26, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm trying to finish Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This time around it is resonating, perhaps because the abstract desire for freedom is on my mind.

Series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches by a lady authoress. I use that term because she would probably hate it. But the stories, while having decent plots, are spoiled by the authoress not being able to keep her damn yap shut about class, race, and sex. Guess what, gentle readers: 1890 Victorian England did not share the same social attitudes as 2020s California! Yes, I know you are all aghast to learn this, but women were kept down by Da Man, the less well-off were kept down by Da Man, and non-white folx were kept down by Da Man. That was one very busy man, I gotta say.

She also falls down in basic research, e.g. referring to somebody as Mr. So-and-so, then calling him a lord. If he's a lord, then he's not a mister.

If she could cool it on the SJW preaching and do some basic "England or Scotland is not the USA, a local constable is not the equivalent of a sheriff, no gentleman would refer to a woman by her first name if she's not a family member or long-standing friend, etc." work, the stories would be much better. Oh, and stop having Watson trying to winkle out of Holmes "So, dude, you ever had a girlfriend before? Like, ever?"

It's clear these stories started off as fanfic and she also clearly has her own headcanon about the characters and their past, but the underlying plot is good enough to keep me reading even while I'm yelling at the screen about her preaching.

The Sherlock TV show fandom had almost as strong a Britpicking culture as the Harry Potter fandom - if you wanted to write fanfic you were expected to get it Britpicked, and there were lots of British fans willing to Britpick it for you. But I guess the Doyle's Sherlock Holmes doesn't have the same kind of organised fandom.

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