Sub Rosa

[prof_pangaea]

Title: Sub Rosa
Author: Professor Pangaea
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Disclaimer: Mr. Holmes and sundry other characters are now in the public domain, but of course I give ultimate credit and thanks for their existence to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Summary: "One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve. The truly beautiful and noble puts its lover, as it were, at an infinite distance, while it attends him more strongly than ever." -- Henry David Thoreau
























































































































































































Note: The full quote of the text "High and mighty" etc. is from Hamlet, Act IV, scene vii. It is a letter from Hamlet to Claudius, and reads: "High and Mighty,-You shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; when I shall (first asking your pardon thereunto) recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return."


EDIT: I want to sincerely thank everyone who has commented, both positively and critically -- I am very pleased at the amount of response that has resulted from this piece. I'm afraid that there were so many comments initially that I wasn't able to reply to each individually, as I usually do, but be assured that I have (and continue to) read and appreciate every single comment.

Comments

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is nice to see. It was also nice, though vaguely insane, to come back here an hour and a half after I posted and find nine comments already, when I hadn't even posted it to any communities yet. Which I shall be doing presently (I was recording The Further Adventures on BBC7, and I like to give a fic post a little time before I post it into any communities, so that I can more easily find errors and fix them before showing it to the wider world).

That was a long way of saying, Yes, I was going to finally post something in gaslight_fic.

Actually, as I probably used images owned by someone, somewhere for this, I doubt I can get this professionally published. Although, if I do, I would like to put it into an issue of my comic book. That should be under the radar enough to avoid the litigation machine, and then it will be in an art context and I can say -- "I was just appropriating imagery that has permeated the public consciousness, much the way the fictional character Sherlock Holmes has permeated the public consciousness and become something different, more alive, an icon and a symbol..." and then they will all fall asleep and I will escape out of the window.

Er, I must point out that I do not have twenty-something chapters of this, so a comparison to Shoebox is probably not deserved. But it is certainly warmly appreciated, especially coming from such a distinguished source. Thanks so much!

[kels.livejournal.com]

I also think that this is much better than the shoebox project (which I haven't actually been reading lately, as I grew bored of them). You are both an excellent artist and storyteller. Don't be so modest! I think that you deserve *all* of the praise you are receiving for this.

At the risk of showing my own ignorance, I must ask, why did you have Holmes call himself "Caine"?

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

Despite their penchant for anachronism and not-quite British dialogue, the writing in Shoebox is really excellent, as well as much funnier than anything I have ever attempted (in the written form, at least). I had thought maybe the project had been abandonded but they updated a couple of times over the summer -- it seems like the multimedia aspect of it has been pretty much abandoned, though. I mean, early chapters would be made entirely of letters, or notes written back and forth, or large portions of story would be told through photographs, and now it's more like a fic with some illustrations. But it's still a pretty good fic.

As for the question, what kind of writer would I be if I just TOLD you? Have fun theorising (and if you don't want to theorise, I bet there's someone who does...).

[kels.livejournal.com]

Well, I still think that this is better than Shoebox, and I'm not just saying that because you're my friend. Take a compliment, Siobhan! Or those gift horses will come and bite yer face off. :P

The only reason I can imagine Holmes calling himself Caine is that he saw himself as the forsaken son. Whether he saw Watson or Mycroft as Abel, I don't know. I'd have to think on that some more.

My biblical theology is a bit rusty.

[cesario.livejournal.com]

In retrospect, it occurred to me that I might have overstepped myself by reccing it to all those comms before you even had the chance to post it there yourself, but I assumed you were being shy. :-)

BTW, you should log into RUSS-L---Rebecca recced it there, and you have some comments in the latest messages.

I'm so glad you've got so much feedback!! :-D