I am back now and I want to talk in a bit more detail about my favorite parts! (I have no compunction about quoting half the story back to you!)
I regarded Holmes as a form of weather then, fickle and wild. This was a roll of thunder from him, and there is a peculiar excitement one feels when lightning is in the air.
That is simply gorgeous, so evocative. I always appreciate stories that create and hone romantic tension within situations that are not overtly romantic. It feels like lightning in the air, that unacknowledged but immanent blaze. You captured that tone beautifully throughout this story. Though this very early line is the only mention of 'excitement' made, and it comes before they have touched or trusted each other in new ways, that hint of attraction and anticipation lingers over the whole scene.
I will obtain this information one way or another. It cannot be prevented by you or by me. What I am attempting to do is acquire what I will in the most respectful method possible.
I really like this insight about Holmes -- he cannot help knowing more about the people around him than they are comfortable with; he literally cannot respect certain bounds of privacy unless he simply refuses to spend time with a person altogether. But that doesn't mean he can't respect the vulnerable points of the people he cares for. I appreciate that, although he both wants to learn and cannot prevent himself from learning, he wishes to do so forthrightly and with Watson's consent. And he makes himself vulnerable by asking to do so.
I have always felt that Holmes's habit of deducing out loud around clients and around Watson was more than mere preening. I think he feels that disclosing what he knows is the honorable thing to do, even if it makes social situations potentially awkward. Compare this to Mycroft, who deduces from his armchair and generally feels no need to announce or prove his deductions at all.
It was an honour to be of interest to a man who excluded anything he deemed dull and pointless from his thoughts.
And there is one of Watson's own extraordinary qualities: he reacts with such ease in the face of Holmes's gifts. His unaffected acceptance and pleasure in Holmes's attention, despite the potentially harsh inroads it will make into his own privacy, sets him apart.
Would he continue to extend his faith in me, knowing exactly all of my boundaries?
It is so poignant to me that Watson never questions Holmes's worth but cannot help questioning his own.
It was subtle, but I was beginning to find softness in him in places I did not expect.
!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Holmes did not address my arm as a physician would, as I would, as damage to be assessed and treated. Instead, he examined it as the evidence of the attempted murder it also was.
Wow, that line hit me hard. We are so conditioned to speak and think about war as a category different from murder, that to have that convention torn down and come face to face with the reality of Watson bearing the marks of another person's attack with intent to kill...it really reframes the narrative in a powerful way.
He unbuttoned his shirt enough to expose the paleness of his thin chest and he snaked his hand inside to feel at his own shoulder. That arm he moved experimentally in the air, extending it and straightening it, raising and lowering. His fingers tucked into his shirt danced and tested at the joint as it moved. Finally, a position suited him, but he seemed more sombre than pleased to discover it. His arm hung in midair, his hand outstretched, reaching to touch something in his imagination I could not see.
I love the whole examination sequence, with its combination of intense mental absorption and gentle physical intimacy, but I think my favorite is the passage above in which Holmes recreates the moment of the shot through his own body. Spellbinding.
I thought of long nights by myself in a room I could not afford to keep, looking over at a gifted bottle of brandy I could not afford to replace. "I suppose I was saving it."
OMG, WATSON. YOU ARE KILLING ME. KILLING MEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee.
Respect requires honesty.
I could quote you back the whole of the story's closing exchange, and Holmes's unflinching tribute to the meaning behind Watson's wounds, which is perfect. Instead, I will just say that I love Holmes's honesty and the fact it is so far different from what Watson expects it to be. They see the strength in each other to an extent that no one else does. They embrace the parts of each other that others too readily dismiss. They're beautiful.
I was no detective, but it was clear to me he had said more than he intended. Everything that happened since the moment he turned from the fire was more than he intended. But it was not more than I wanted. With Sherlock Holmes, nothing ever was.
I appreciate so much the way the closing lines of the story show that, although this vignette was ostensibly about Watson baring his vulnerabilities to Holmes and finding not just acceptance but love, the same is equally true in the other direction. The deeper shift in their relationship, perhaps, comes from Holmes allowing Watson a glimpse of his heart and Watson's warm acceptance of it.
This story is such a jewel. Thank you so much, I feel so lucky to have received something so wonderful.
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I am back now and I want to talk in a bit more detail about my favorite parts! (I have no compunction about quoting half the story back to you!)
I regarded Holmes as a form of weather then, fickle and wild. This was a roll of thunder from him, and there is a peculiar excitement one feels when lightning is in the air.
That is simply gorgeous, so evocative. I always appreciate stories that create and hone romantic tension within situations that are not overtly romantic. It feels like lightning in the air, that unacknowledged but immanent blaze. You captured that tone beautifully throughout this story. Though this very early line is the only mention of 'excitement' made, and it comes before they have touched or trusted each other in new ways, that hint of attraction and anticipation lingers over the whole scene.
I will obtain this information one way or another. It cannot be prevented by you or by me. What I am attempting to do is acquire what I will in the most respectful method possible.
I really like this insight about Holmes -- he cannot help knowing more about the people around him than they are comfortable with; he literally cannot respect certain bounds of privacy unless he simply refuses to spend time with a person altogether. But that doesn't mean he can't respect the vulnerable points of the people he cares for. I appreciate that, although he both wants to learn and cannot prevent himself from learning, he wishes to do so forthrightly and with Watson's consent. And he makes himself vulnerable by asking to do so.
I have always felt that Holmes's habit of deducing out loud around clients and around Watson was more than mere preening. I think he feels that disclosing what he knows is the honorable thing to do, even if it makes social situations potentially awkward. Compare this to Mycroft, who deduces from his armchair and generally feels no need to announce or prove his deductions at all.
It was an honour to be of interest to a man who excluded anything he deemed dull and pointless from his thoughts.
And there is one of Watson's own extraordinary qualities: he reacts with such ease in the face of Holmes's gifts. His unaffected acceptance and pleasure in Holmes's attention, despite the potentially harsh inroads it will make into his own privacy, sets him apart.
Would he continue to extend his faith in me, knowing exactly all of my boundaries?
It is so poignant to me that Watson never questions Holmes's worth but cannot help questioning his own.
It was subtle, but I was beginning to find softness in him in places I did not expect.
!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Holmes did not address my arm as a physician would, as I would, as damage to be assessed and treated. Instead, he examined it as the evidence of the attempted murder it also was.
Wow, that line hit me hard. We are so conditioned to speak and think about war as a category different from murder, that to have that convention torn down and come face to face with the reality of Watson bearing the marks of another person's attack with intent to kill...it really reframes the narrative in a powerful way.
He unbuttoned his shirt enough to expose the paleness of his thin chest and he snaked his hand inside to feel at his own shoulder. That arm he moved experimentally in the air, extending it and straightening it, raising and lowering. His fingers tucked into his shirt danced and tested at the joint as it moved. Finally, a position suited him, but he seemed more sombre than pleased to discover it. His arm hung in midair, his hand outstretched, reaching to touch something in his imagination I could not see.
I love the whole examination sequence, with its combination of intense mental absorption and gentle physical intimacy, but I think my favorite is the passage above in which Holmes recreates the moment of the shot through his own body. Spellbinding.
I thought of long nights by myself in a room I could not afford to keep, looking over at a gifted bottle of brandy I could not afford to replace. "I suppose I was saving it."
OMG, WATSON. YOU ARE KILLING ME. KILLING MEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee.
Respect requires honesty.
I could quote you back the whole of the story's closing exchange, and Holmes's unflinching tribute to the meaning behind Watson's wounds, which is perfect. Instead, I will just say that I love Holmes's honesty and the fact it is so far different from what Watson expects it to be. They see the strength in each other to an extent that no one else does. They embrace the parts of each other that others too readily dismiss. They're beautiful.
I was no detective, but it was clear to me he had said more than he intended. Everything that happened since the moment he turned from the fire was more than he intended. But it was not more than I wanted. With Sherlock Holmes, nothing ever was.
I appreciate so much the way the closing lines of the story show that, although this vignette was ostensibly about Watson baring his vulnerabilities to Holmes and finding not just acceptance but love, the same is equally true in the other direction. The deeper shift in their relationship, perhaps, comes from Holmes allowing Watson a glimpse of his heart and Watson's warm acceptance of it.
This story is such a jewel. Thank you so much, I feel so lucky to have received something so wonderful.