BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Sherlock fan fiction tropes about food, sleep, and injuries

Vhanja · April 29, 2015 3:37 pm

Yes, that too.

(What fic is that from again?)

SusiGo · April 29, 2015 3:57 pm

No fic. That is the show.

Vhanja · April 29, 2015 4:04 pm

Lol, I meant nakahara's bit. ;)

Schmiezi · April 29, 2015 5:39 pm

nakahara wrote:
One common fanfiction trope concerning Sherlock and food is making Sherlock inept even at such an activity as making tea so that John can patronise him and prove his own "genius" at this "domestic matter".
(...)
I wonder why is it neccessary to make Sherlock a complete dumbass and reduce his abilities to nil to make John look good. Doesn´t John have plenty of admirable qualities that can be explored without reducing Sherlock to a pathetic wretch?

How funny that you posted this today. I came here to write about the opposide trope, stumbling over it here
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2572247
(And if you say the word, I could stay with you" by CaitlinFairchild)

Here. cooking is related to Sherlock's passions, crime and chemistry.Example 1:
“You’re very good at cutting up a chicken,” John observes.
“Well,” Sherlock replies, “basically it’s just dismembering a body, isn’t it?”

Example 2
“So what’s all this about then? Six years in, and I never knew you could cook. I mean really cook, not just an annual cheese toastie. ”
“It’s really just chemistry, isn’t it?” Sherlock takes another sip of wine.

I like this one a lot better, TBH.

Vhanja · April 29, 2015 7:51 pm

I like the third variation of this trope. Where the mundanity (is that a word?) of cooking breakfast is so boring that Sherlock is close to losing his mind before he's even started. But when he thinks of a theme - making the last wish meal for serial killers on death row - he makes a breakfast for John worthy of kings (and an amount to feed an army). :D

nakahara · April 29, 2015 10:02 pm

I like that second and third variation of the trope you mentioned, Schmiezi and Vhanja, much better than that first one in an example I cited from (I deliberately didn´t mention the author, so that a person who wrote this, didn´t feel attacked - I only dislike the trope, fic itself was OK). It´s more original, I think and in my eyes probably closer to the truth about Sherlock. Because if the theory about Sherlock surpressing everything not concerning his work so violently was true, it would mean that the Work makes Sherlock stupider and stupider, not brilliant. It would probably result in him forgetting alphabet, then human speech and finally return to toddler stage.

Also, if Sherlock deleted his skills the moment he used someone else to do the mundane things for him, it would mean that he would be unable to text anymore - he frequently misuses John to do this for him, doesn´t he? And yet his skill at texting was untouched by this.

(Concerning the scene from TRF, where he makes tea, I think Mrs. Hudson was not at home - when Moriarty entered the house, she didn´t came to look who it is, not one word from her was heard + Sherlock would not want to involve her with Moriarty and to let her gossip about it with John right after).

Vhanja · April 29, 2015 10:18 pm

Could be true about Mrs. Hudson.

To be honest, I do believe Sherlock knows how to make tea. He might be eccentric, but he's a grown man that has lived by himself for years. But that's what I like about fanfics in general - there are no rules, no limits and combined with an endless and non-apologetic creativity the results vary from ridiculous to hilarious to shocking to spectacular. And everything inbetween.

So even though there are quite a few tags and types of Johnlock I would never want to read, I still love the fact that they are there. It's just a sign of the amazing creativity you can find in fanfics.

(Could you send me the name of the fic you quoted on a PM, nakahara? I knov I've read it, but it bugs me that I can't figure out which one is it).

Vhanja · April 30, 2015 10:29 pm

Here's another variation of the food trope that I kind of liked:

Food usually just sort of happens.

It turns up on a relatively regular basis, sometimes on the kitchen table, sometimes in the fridge or on the countertops or on the coffee table. Sometimes it’s half-eaten. (John’s, saved for later. John is a military man, he is used to living on restricted resources, he would never let good food go bad. Dull.) Sometimes it’s decorated with tiny carrot and cucumber slices, or, if it comes in the shape of pie or pancakes, with icing sugar. (From Mrs. Hudson, who has read that a vitamin-rich diet is important and is convinced that sweets cannot possibly contain enough sugar.) Sometimes it’s left-over take-away. And sometimes it’s something that has been cooked by John.

If food is there, Sherlock will probably contemplate eating it. If food isn’t there, Sherlock won’t bother eating anything. This has worked perfectly for years.

I think the first and last paragraph nicely sums it up.

Last edited by Vhanja (April 30, 2015 10:32 pm)

RavenMorganLeigh · April 30, 2015 11:35 pm

nakahara wrote:
One common fanfiction trope concerning Sherlock and food is making Sherlock inept even at such an activity as making tea so that John can patronise him and prove his own "genius" at this "domestic matter". I´ve just read a very good example of the trope:

Deep sigh. "John, I just made you tea. And you poured it down the sink."
John looks at him pityingly. "Yes, Sherlock, I did. That's because what was in that cup was not tea. It was, well, I'm not certain exactly what it was but 'mud' comes to mind. Possibly toxic waste. I am going to teach you how to make a proper cup of tea, Sherlock. And you will pay attention."
"Honestly, John, how difficult can it be?"
"Exactly," John says without further explanation.
The whistle sings. John places a teabag in each mug, then turns to the kettle and turns back with the steaming kettle in his hand.He carefully pours boiling water over the teabags, returns the kettle to the stove. All the while he works, he watches the detective, who watches John's movements with pursed lips.
"Lesson number one," John says, "Always use boiling water. Always."

The authors use this trope despite the fact that John never ever makes tea in the whole show. While Sherlock:

Sherlock not only makes a perfect cup of tea, he also serves it most gracefully. And the brew certainly doesn´t resemble mud or toxic waste.

I wonder why is it neccessary to make Sherlock a complete dumbass and reduce his abilities to nil to make John look good. Doesn´t John have plenty of admirable qualities that can be explored without reducing Sherlock to a pathetic wretch?

Well, Nakahara-- I think your question is the answer; a lot of fics that depict Sherlock as this overgrown, idiot savant-vulcanish, man-brat, seem invested in the dichotomy of John=good, patient, kind, motherly, and Sherlock=BAD. Period.

Tropes I keep noticing (and some of these have been commented on, but here's my adding to the pile)

John Rage-Monster Watson.

The Punch in the Face; that was a fanfic cliche before season 3 aired in almost *all* Post Reichenbach fics.

Sherlock must attone to John for TRF, because it was a "betrayal"--even though the person who was really to blame was Moriarty. That period of perpetual attonement seems to be for life.

John Watson as being completely unable to make decisions on his own, has no free will when it comes to Sherlock, (or Mary)

John as ignorant stooge or victim of Sherlock,

John as Sherlock's parent.

The idea that physical violence ( John punching or even beating Sherlock) is synonomous with True Love.

Sherlock as an Addict-- actually as a JUNKIE. And the show actually doesn't bear that out-- what they portray isn't realistic, when it comes to portraying an actual Junkie. Sherlock (in the series) stays clean for a very long period of time, in series 3, in the hospital with a bullet wound, he actually *turns down the morphine* because it's not good for brain work. Trust me on this, that is not how a junkie behaves. It also makes me look askance at fics that feature Sherlock having had some sort of horrible medical trauma (one that sticks out was an amputation) and the doctors deny Sherlock any sort of pain medication other than Paracetemol. Cruel.

John needing Sherlock as eternal counselor/caretaker/healer/ because he's so broken, that even if *Sherlock needs medical or any other assistance due to some horrific trauma* John will be *more emotionally compromised and/or crippled* than Sherlock. Always. And you can count on Fanon John to scold Sherlock for "getting into trouble", by not taking John with him, or "running off alone", as if Sherlock was incapable of (1) doing his job--investigating, and (2) as if Sherlock was a six-year old child who wanders off and gets into trouble like Dennis the Menace.

Sherlock as a Vulcan. Errrrrr......

John as eternally angry and dismissive of Mycroft-- even when there's absolutley no reason for it.

Mycroft descriptor: "smug." There's got to be another way to describe him?

One of the things that stuck out for me in series 3 was Christmas-- Sherlock was quiet, thinking, but not the one who exhibited bratly behavior-- that was Mycroft.

Sorry-- this isn't supposed to be a rant; just musing....

Vhanja · April 30, 2015 11:40 pm

You do have a few good points there, Raven, and I've seen (read) several of the things you list myself. However, I do want to make a point in general:

The greatness of fanfiction is, to me, the freedom of creativity. For instance, writing Sherlock as a junkie doesn't necessarily mean the author considers him to be one in the series. That is what I love about it all - the characters in the show can spark an inspiration. Having you go: "What if the character was Y instead of X?" and then write that up.

Last edited by Vhanja (April 30, 2015 11:40 pm)

RavenMorganLeigh · April 30, 2015 11:56 pm

Vhanja wrote:
You do have a few good points there, Raven, and I've seen (read) several of the things you list myself. However, I do want to make a point in general:

The greatness of fanfiction is, to me, the freedom of creativity. For instance, writing Sherlock as a junkie doesn't necessarily mean the author considers him to be one in the series. That is what I love about it all - the characters in the show can spark an inspiration. Having you go: "What if the character was Y instead of X?" and then write that up.

I think creativity is great, and I write myself-- so, not throwing stones, here. What I said is not a criticism of any writer; it's just talking about tropes that seem to ...become so firmly entrenched in the fandom that they sometimes obscure the characters from the show.

I mean, on one hand you can say that whatever anyone writes is fabulous, and that's fine. On the other hand, if you want to discuss the tropes that sometimes may be overused, that doesn't necessarily negate the value of any/all of the writers. :-)

So, discussing the tropes is not about dissing the writers or the fans.

Kittyhawk · July 1, 2015 10:39 am

I can overlook pretty much any cliché as long as the story has other things going for it. I've never taken the "not eating" thing seriously, anyway. I mean, not to order a meal when on stakeout is only reasonable (in Point Break the bank robbers get away because one cop is getting sandwiches and the other reading the paper) and have you really looked at the pork chops in the hospital cafeteria? That congealing sauce might have put me off, too.... And I doubt the pasta was much better.

I also consider it perfectly normal that people who spend much of their day lying on a sofa don't need 8 hours of sleep in their bed at night. So I don't much care whether Sherlock spends half the night playing lullabies on his violin or thinking about a case.

As I said, if I like the story, I can overlook the clichés. And then, every once in a while, an author turns the cliché around, and it's like a heavy rain after 3 weeks of draught (if you are not a farmer or a gardener you can turn that around): I was hooked on "Midnight Blue Serenity" when I read that Sherlock was exhausted after working a shift behind the bar. I've read so often John going on forever about his not being gay (there was at least one story where I was hoping for somebody to hit him over the head with a hard copy of the Kinsey report) that I'm positively happy whenever somebody writes about him being aware of the existence (or even better, probability) of bisexuality.

And just now I'm reading a story where Sherlock can't break computer passwords (The Sign of the Four by solojones) and in a minute I'll be off to congratulate the author. Because, really, does anybody out there still use a personally meaningful word - and only this word? (If I use words I stick at least some number onto them). I'd consider it much more likely for Sherlock to find a list of passwords in a drawer... (if not on a post-it stuck to the PC)

Last edited by Kittyhawk (July 1, 2015 11:13 am)

Vhanja · July 2, 2015 8:53 am

Yeah, me too. I don't really mind Sherlock not eating and John always making tea if the story is good.

Kittyhawk · July 3, 2015 7:37 pm

Oops, sorry, I didn't express myself clearly because that was actually not the main point I wanted to make.

I was trying to say that I am overjoyed whenever an author does NOT fall into the cliché trap. Even if with some things I only realize how overused a trope is when a writer turns it on its head.

And as an aside: Regardless of my acceptance of diverse eating, sleeping etc. habits - if I have to read the phrase (Sherlock's) "cupid's bow mouth" one more time I will need a very good reason to continue reading!

RavenMorganLeigh · July 3, 2015 8:23 pm

Kittyhawk wrote:
Oops, sorry, I didn't express myself clearly because that was actually not the main point I wanted to make.

I was trying to say that I am overjoyed whenever an author does NOT fall into the cliché trap. Even if with some things I only realize how overused a trope is when a writer turns it on its head.

And as an aside: Regardless of my acceptance of diverse eating, sleeping etc. habits - if I have to read the phrase (Sherlock's) "cupid's bow mouth" one more time I will need a very good reason to continue reading!

Agreed. I like to see writers push the envelope and put in their *own* interpretations of the characters, not just use the same tags and traits that have become rote in Fanon.

Last edited by RavenMorganLeigh (July 3, 2015 8:24 pm)

Vhanja · July 3, 2015 11:19 pm

Kittyhawk wrote:
And as an aside: Regardless of my acceptance of diverse eating, sleeping etc. habits - if I have to read the phrase (Sherlock's) "cupid's bow mouth" one more time I will need a very good reason to continue reading!

Lol! I've read that one more than I can count. I don't really mind it, but the few times I read "their tounges were battling for dominance", whatever hotness had started screetched to a horrible stop for me then and there.

Kittyhawk · July 5, 2015 1:17 pm

Vhanja wrote:
.... the few times I read "their tounges were battling for dominance", whatever hotness had started screetched to a horrible stop for me then and there.

Good grief! I think I haven't even come across that one (yet).

Regarding Maryagrawatson's original post: I've just discovered that I'm NOT willing to read a story the only point of which is to get Sherlock and John in bed together and where Sherlock is an emotionally crippled, non-eating insomniac with John constantly feeding him tea and biscuits (does anybody else think that that would be a perfect way to spoil Sherlock's appetite for "proper" meals?), the only restaurants mentioned are Thai and Chinese (though I don't believe in the risk of scurvy), neither of the guys is capable of googling sex-related questions, Sherlock seems incapable of getting out of an abusive relationship (it's a bit different in the end - but I had switched from reading to skipping over the story about half-way through because I just couldn't take it any more), refuses to go to hospital - and probably there's lots more of the aforementioned clichés, but I've "deleted" them.

And now I wonder whether I am being unfair: This story comes very highly recommnended and it has been written two years ago. Were the cited overused tropes already overused then? Or were they orgininal at the time?

tonnaree · July 5, 2015 2:36 pm

Oh, I love me some porn without plot.
But of course I only read it for scientific research purposes.

Harriet · July 5, 2015 2:41 pm

PWP aka "Plot? What Plot?"

tonnaree · July 5, 2015 3:18 pm

Aka Stories to Read One Handed.