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

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Ooh, SO cool. This gives me the same visceral thrill I get from reading the Griffin and Sabine books. Plus, Snarky!Holmes! What's not to love?

[cesario.livejournal.com]

dude.

just, dude.

I mean, you described it to me, and I knew it *sounded* cool, but I had no idea.

That is the awesomest, most beautiful fannish endeavor I have ever seen. It blows bloody shoebox_project out of the water.

Have you begun inquiries for having this professionally published? I am not even kidding.

I would write more but I have to go away now and REC THIS EVERYWHERE OMG.

[watergal.livejournal.com]

Wow! Totally and completely cool! It's like real history! Uh, not that I didn't already think it was real history...but you know what I mean.

And just...wow! I

[http://users.livejournal.com/__marcelo/]

PROF PANGEA,

A MOST INTELLIGENT AND BEAUTIFUL WORK STOP MIND BLOWN STOP HUMOR AND DETAILS EXCELLENT STOP WIDESPREAD PRAISE BOTH CERTAIN AND DESERVED STOP

GRATEFULLY, M

[niora.livejournal.com]

Kudos! Great work!

[minitrog.livejournal.com]

Directed here by cesario and I'm ever so glad.

This is an absolutely wonderful thing. Marvellous. Thanks so much for the huge effort - it's really appreciated.

[ladyrazorsharp.livejournal.com]

Mycroft's relief and then anxiousness comes through so very clearly. And that "No"...like the ominous tolling of a bell...

And the white space, which brought me to tears.

This is extraordinary. Bravo, Professor.

[melwasul.livejournal.com]

Great work, Professor!! :D

[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!

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

Bloody brilliant! It took f o r e v e r to download on my elderly computer (and I'm not sure I have all of it yet), but well worth the wait!

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

Your icon rates two thumbs up!!

[freedomriddle.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Thank you for creating it.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

(am I the only one who thinks Shoebox is an enjoyable read, but way overrated?)

And this is really cool, even on just a visual level.

[marystmatthew.livejournal.com]

Uh wow! This is seriously the most creative piece of fanwriting I have ever seen. The idea is brilliant, and it's beautifully done. Just gorgeous *admires you very much*

[(Anonymous)]

Bloody brilliant.

[wens.livejournal.com]

I know that one of the comments you leave when it comes to other people's fan works is that people should do, not describe. So this is a tour de force.

I especially like "have you heard that your doctor has been publishing stories in which he refers to a recently deceased friend as though he were still alive query they really are rather good."

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this very much-- it must have been a tremendous amount of work to find the images you used. Brava.

[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"?

[beledibabe.livejournal.com]

Creative and engaging -- I thoroughly enjoyed this!

[kels.livejournal.com]

am I the only one who thinks Shoebox is an enjoyable read, but way overrated?

Nope. :)

[ladynorbert.livejournal.com]

.....wow.

It's taking all my willpower not to ask you how you did that. That was amazing.

[streel.livejournal.com]

Absolutely brilliant. Just brilliant. I've never seen anything like this done before - as another of your commentators said, it reminds me of the Griffin and Sabine books, but I find I like your version better. :)

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

And the answer is: Photoshop and enormous amounts of patience. Plus, a little bit of eyestrain.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

Griffin and Sabine are an excellent series or artworks and of course I'm very much pleased to be mentioned in the same sentence as them. O_o Thank you!

And of course, no one can resist the snarky!Holmes, whether it be Sherlock or Mycroft.

Amazing!

[(Anonymous)]

Now that is a beautiful piece of work! You've given us insight into SH's quirky character - more, please!