No Shit, Sherlock!
Am I an Anglophile? Of a sort. Of the sort who picks and chooses his vision of England as seen through books and films, and heard through music. About as real as my Reggaefied vision of Jamaica.
I suppose I've always had an affinity for certain cliches of "Englishness" as I've (mis?)interpreted through the abovementioned books, film and music. The cliches: reserve, repression, desire to while away the hours in the old study at home with a book, a hot drink and a pet at one's feet. Oh yeah, I know, that's the privileged white man's vision of peace and security. Likely as not, in reality, it could be an old Englishman in front of the TV lobbing homophobic comments at the screen (a sad scene depicted in Zadie Smith's "On Beauty"). But anyway, I cherish my fantasy vision of Sherlock Holmes's study or Bertie Wooster's bachelor pad.
I've been rereading the Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" after watching a BBC adaption of it on Masterpiece Theatre (I've been watching that program, on and off, since I was eight. Sorry, Russell Baker, you're no Alistair Cooke (sp?)). Anyhoo, reading that book while also reading PG Wodehouse's "Very Good, Jeeves," makes me wonder if Bertie and Jeeves are a kind of inversion of Holmes and Watson? Both are bachelor teams. The Sherlock Holmes stories are narrated by Watson, who is always in awe of his friend's crime-solving genius but is also irritated and at times alarmed by his friend's eccentricities and bad habits (cocaine, morphine,etc.). Watson has his feet firmly planted on the ground; Holmes is focused on the matter at hand and is oblivious of all other practical manners. Until Watson gets married, the two are roommates.
As a bizarro parallel, consider the Wooster and Jeeves stories, which are narrated by the brainless Bertie (except for one early story narrated by Jeeves). Bertie has his feet firmly planted in the air, is shallow but good-hearted and depends on his brainy "gentleman's personal gentleman" Jeeves to bail him out of whatever trouble he's gotten into. They live together. Occasionally Bertie gets engaged to a woman, but it never lasts for long. You might say that whatever crazy scheme Bertie gets involved in is a sort of comic mystery for Jeeves to solve in his Sherlockian fashion. The plots of these stories are ingenious at times but always incredibly silly, just like A Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and novels. And, it goes without saying, slightly homoerotic, or homo-not erotic.
I write all this nonsense while listening to that super English eccentric Robyn Hitchcock—"Black Snake Diamond Role" and "I Often Dream of Trains." Two early solo records that, I think, he's never bettered.
I suppose I've always had an affinity for certain cliches of "Englishness" as I've (mis?)interpreted through the abovementioned books, film and music. The cliches: reserve, repression, desire to while away the hours in the old study at home with a book, a hot drink and a pet at one's feet. Oh yeah, I know, that's the privileged white man's vision of peace and security. Likely as not, in reality, it could be an old Englishman in front of the TV lobbing homophobic comments at the screen (a sad scene depicted in Zadie Smith's "On Beauty"). But anyway, I cherish my fantasy vision of Sherlock Holmes's study or Bertie Wooster's bachelor pad.
I've been rereading the Sherlock Holmes novel, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" after watching a BBC adaption of it on Masterpiece Theatre (I've been watching that program, on and off, since I was eight. Sorry, Russell Baker, you're no Alistair Cooke (sp?)). Anyhoo, reading that book while also reading PG Wodehouse's "Very Good, Jeeves," makes me wonder if Bertie and Jeeves are a kind of inversion of Holmes and Watson? Both are bachelor teams. The Sherlock Holmes stories are narrated by Watson, who is always in awe of his friend's crime-solving genius but is also irritated and at times alarmed by his friend's eccentricities and bad habits (cocaine, morphine,etc.). Watson has his feet firmly planted on the ground; Holmes is focused on the matter at hand and is oblivious of all other practical manners. Until Watson gets married, the two are roommates.
As a bizarro parallel, consider the Wooster and Jeeves stories, which are narrated by the brainless Bertie (except for one early story narrated by Jeeves). Bertie has his feet firmly planted in the air, is shallow but good-hearted and depends on his brainy "gentleman's personal gentleman" Jeeves to bail him out of whatever trouble he's gotten into. They live together. Occasionally Bertie gets engaged to a woman, but it never lasts for long. You might say that whatever crazy scheme Bertie gets involved in is a sort of comic mystery for Jeeves to solve in his Sherlockian fashion. The plots of these stories are ingenious at times but always incredibly silly, just like A Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and novels. And, it goes without saying, slightly homoerotic, or homo-not erotic.
I write all this nonsense while listening to that super English eccentric Robyn Hitchcock—"Black Snake Diamond Role" and "I Often Dream of Trains." Two early solo records that, I think, he's never bettered.
posted by ken at 9:07 PM
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