BreathingIsBoring wrote:

Speaking of, Sherlock was washing his hands in a bathroom in TRF. So ha. The great and powerful Sherlock Holmes DOES have human needs. Muahahaha!

 
OMG!!! Yes, i forgot about that, you are soooo right! haha, awesome, made me laugh now! 

Lilith wrote:

I think the word "loo" is not posh at all. 

'Loo' is, actually, a posh shortening of 'lavatory,' which is the word more commonly used in the upper classes. Most people assumed Sherlock and Mycroft came from old money going by the expense of their clothing and Mycroft's superiority complex, along with Ben's public school vowels from Harrow. But then you meet Mummy and Daddy Holmes, who really are sweet, 'normal' people, and suddenly your perception of the whole family is turned around. Then again, the Holmes house is rather large and pretty, so maybe they are old-money, but the Holmes parents raised their children in a middle-class manner. 

Or, Sherlock could just use 'toilet' because of his rebellious streak between uni and Lestrade, especially if he was using for a considerable amount of time within that 5-6 year gap.

Also, Sherlock has control over the bowels of London (example: The Network) while Mycroft's realm is in the upper classes and the government. Greg and the rest of the NSY group are clearly middle-class, so maybe Sherlock picks up a few speech patterns from the people he surrounds himself with. 

Those are three of my theories on the matter, but there are definitely more explanations out there. 

maryagrawatson wrote:

I think that using the word toilet speaks to Sherlock's ordinary upbringing. Which makes me wonder if John isn't the one who had the posh, upper class upbringing, or at least schooling? Hmm...

Well, if we're going with the accent-thing, that would complicate matters of John's upbringing, because Martin doesn't have the 'posh' accent from those high-end public schools like Ben's Harrow accent. If we ignore that, then maybe... maybe. 

I always envision John in a middle/lower-middle class family setting because of the way he dresses and his military involvement. Joining the military to pay for med school is a common theory as to why he was in it in the first place, but our adrenaline junkie Watson could have just done that because he was craving adventure. Oooh, possibilities, possibilities for John Watson's background...

I'm way off on a tangent over here, but I hope we get to meet Harry in an upcoming episode. Then we might get more insight into John's secret little past. 

Very nice discussion and I agree wholeheartedly - the potrayal of Sherlock as a man incapable of taking care of himself is entirely incorrect. Sherlock is just disorderly and couldn´t be bothered to care about mundane tasks of his daily life. I think such behaviour is not that unusual among scientists and artists - if you pursue some intellectual problem and you are approaching its solution or if you are in the middle of an experiment, it is unlikely that you will stop it just to tidy up or to go shopping. Intellectual work usually takes much time and absorbs you entirely, so if you are practising it, it´s no surprise that you end up in an untidy flat and surrounded by your "creative mess" at the end of your work. That´s probably the reason why Sherlock´s working place (his kitchen and the living room ) looks like a dump-heap. But that doesn´t mean that Sherlock is absolutely unable to tidy up. As you mentioned above, his own room is quite clean and nicely cared for.

As to the accents thing - I´m aware that it´s a class thing in the UK, but those are just words, aren´t they? They are not something people are born with, they can be actually used by anybody, no matter what class they come from. Sherlock can be using words like "toilet" and "laterz" (in Buckingham palace) as a sign of rebellion and out of sense of abhorrence for the upper classes, John can be using the word "loo" because that´s how they speak in the hospital or because he started to use that word at the university, when he was studying medicine. It doesn´t tell you much about their upbringing. In GB Shaw´s "Pygmalion", Elisa Doolittle, a simple flower seller, was taught to speak like a lady by professor Higgings - but even with that speech pattern, she remained the Cockney girl. 
 

Last edited by nakahara (August 4, 2014 12:31 pm)

Absolutely nakahara! fully absorbed by his work and being on a case, it is more than unlikely Sherlock will be distracted by anything.
Oh and btw, i own that book 

nakahara wrote:

There is a nice book called "Watching the English" (snip)

Thank you for this info!

I wasn't trying to make a judgement about Sherlock and John's character, just trying to figure out if we were missing an important clue. Doesn't seem like it then.

As for Sherlock's housekeeping habits, or lack there of, nakahara has it nailed. Working on an experiment or reading a book is more important to Sherlock than doing housework. I really doubt that he does absolutely no housework around the flat at all, but he does it when he feels a need for it rather than John or Mrs. Hudson's schedule.

As a side note, have any of you looked closely at the kitchen counter to see what's in the sink and on the drying rack, especially in series three when Sherlock is living alone?  The collander and cheese grater are ubiquitous. I keep imaging Sherlock in one of his dressing gowns, goggles pushed over the top of his head, making noodles with cheese to get him through the day!

Mary

Then there's me, sleeping until almost noon, camping out in my room, and babysitting my little brother because I'm still a teenager. Best live with a schedule while I can, right? 

I know, it's utterly ridiculous.
My house is a permanent tip.
221B is fab,
I would love to live there.

RavenMorganLeigh wrote:

Oh, I think you're right-- I think Sherlock can and will cook. He probably enjoys John thinking he can't, though-- 

A lot of my impressions of Sherlock's housekeeping habits based on what we see in the episodes has to do with my having dated what basically amounts to the fan fiction version of him for three years. The first eight months or so that we dated, I saw him 'cook' three things: beans on toast with grated cheese, pasta with jarred sauce, and a really delightful concoction of a can of tuna mixed with a can of cream soup and pasta (if he was feeling fancy, he might throw in some frozen peas). This guy had zero interest in food whatsoever and prided himself on keeping his food habit to less than £1/day during the 10+ years he lived in the U.K. I got home one night after all those months and he had a real homemade dinner waiting. I didn't know what had shocked me more; that he had planned a menu, that he had actually done the shopping, or that he had made an edible (delicious even!) meal. I just gaped and he said, "It's just basic chemistry." After Sherlock's comment in John's blog about doing the shopping, I could just imagine John coming home to a similar scene one day!

 

As for the flat-- honest truth, I love it if *my apartment* was as orderly as 221b. We act like Sherlock turns it into something from an episode of "Hoarders", when it just looks lived-in and comfy and old. 

The sitting is more disorganized than genuinely messy. Too much stuff and not enough storage for it. Plus, Sherlock never fully unpacked when he moved in. I'm trying to remember which episode it was that I notice that the laundry basket from SIP full of his stuff is still there months later.

Some different furniture and moving some of the excess gear to his bedroom would make a big difference.

One of the key things that separates from being just messy to being hoarder central is if the furniture can still be used for its intended purpose. In the case of 221B, definitely. The kitchen table does usually double as a laboratory, but the guys do eat there on occasion. I can't remember which episodes, but there's one where Sherlock is pouring coffee or tea from an orange pot while standing and another where he's sitting at the table eating toast and John has some orange juice in front of him.

Mary

BreathingIsBoring wrote:

maryagrawatson wrote:

I just gaped and he said, "It's just basic chemistry."

That's exactly what I would imagine our graduate chemist saying if he made dinner and John just stood in the kitchen, boggling at the perfectly fine meal. Those exact words. Wowza. 

I see it more as, "For God's sake, John, it's just basic chemistry." *pause* "Slice up those olives, why don't you?"

Mary