dear Sherlock fandom

[minxy]

I would prefer it if you talented writers would please stop using the word (adverb? adjective?) "impossibly".

Well, it isn't very Sherlockian, is it? It isn't impossible, just very improbable, isn't it? I THINK IT WAS SHERLOCK HOLMES WHO SAID SO.

It's a very annoying word, that's why. It's not impossible if it exists, is my point! Whether Sherlocks eyelashes, the color of John's eyes, or someone's grandmother's fragile fingers or whatever, I don't care. You are overusing that word. Also I do not think it means what you think it means.

The phrases you are writing would be stronger without it. Possibly I should have mentioned that first.

I'm trying so hard to let my eyes just skip over that word when I see it, Sherlock fen, but it's just so damn ubiquitous.

Do all fandoms have these cultural oddities?

Comments

[liviapenn]

*hee* I have a friend whose pet peeve is Sherlock's eyes being described as "silver," but occasionally there are moments/screencaps where you're just like "what else is that?? It's silver!" Similarly, the way they film BC's face sometimes, I feel like "impossibly" is a fair adjective.

Regarding phrases that get repeated in fandom after fandom, someone was discussing recently that they'd never seen "toed their shoes off" in any published work, but you see it all the time in fandom. I mentioned that to a (male) friend of mine and was wondering whether it could be because fandom is a lot less likely to skip the "awkwardly taking clothes off" part of the story, and he pointed out that really, most men *don't* wear shoes that you can "toe off" -- if he saw a male character do that in a story (and they weren't wearing sandals or something) he'd assume the writer was female. Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

[minxy]

Oh! How interesting. There is potential for character development with shoes too. E, for instance, stores his with the outsides of his shoes together, then always picks them up in order to put on properly. He also has strong opinions about boots. Strong. Opinions. And they are not toe-able.

My eyes change color too. It's not that nuts. And it's certainly possible, and describable, as they tend to reflect the colors I'm in or wearing. So anyone gazing into them longingly, for instance, would be perfectly capable of identifying the color in that moment, even if it were grey, like Athena.

[green_grrl]

"Impossibly" is a word I see annoyingly overused across fandoms these days. I very much feel your pain that it is especially annoying in Sherlock! The only place I can imagine it being accurate is in Inception where it is very literal: The streetscape of Paris bent impossibly over their heads.

Another pet peeve of mine I see across fandoms is the overuse of the unreliable negative, e.g., "He absolutely did not watch that cute ass as X walked out the door," meaning that he did watch that ass but didn't want to admit it to himself. Unfortunately writers are using it constantly, and even piling on, "He absolutely, positively, no way, no how, watched that ass, nuh uh, nope sirree...." ad infinitum. The problem is that sometimes someone actually doesn't do the thing in question—it can be just as poignant, for example, if the protagonist actually can't bring himself to watch someone walking away for a breakup or long separation as if the protagonist just couldn't help himself. Or if the protagonist is the kind of person who believes he doesn't deserve good things so denies himself the pleasure of watching the butt a cute new acquaintance. Unfortunately the unreliable negative is so common now that all negative assertions are assumed to be false, as if everyone in the world helplessly indulges every temptation but lies about it. Argh!

Um, sorry. I guess that rant's been building!

[minxy]

The rant is welcome!

I suppose it's like an overplayed song on the radio, or mysogynistic focus on the men in the story. Once? Fine, even if badly done. But constantly? OH HELLS NO.