darchildre: the master reading war of the worlds (reading)
[personal profile] darchildre
Today, I finished reading Sherlock Holmes and the Instrument of Death, the Holmes vs Caligari crossover novel. Which was sadly not great - too many chapters of Dr Caligari committing random motiveless crimes, not enough Holmes&Watson - though entertaining enough (or possibly I am bored enough) that I finished it.

The ending did make me think about the difference between semi-official published fanfic and what I think of as "proper" fanfic. Because a proper fanfic writer would have dealt so much more satisfyingly with the situation presented at the climax.


So. Dr Caligari is a creepy Victorian hypnotist* who has been murdering people via big hypnotized dude, and Holmes is on his trail. Caligari has kidnapped Watson. And attempts to brainwash him into believing that Holmes doesn't care about him and indeed treats him rather terribly and is a terrible person, so that Caligari can manipulate Holmes' best friend into killing him. In the course of the brainwashing, actual legit grievances are mentioned: the whole pretended-to-be-dead-for-several-years thing, the way Watson was treated during HOUN, etc. And the brainwashing works, at least temporarily.

This is an amazing setup for some id vortex angst and h/c. I mean, holy shit. In the hands of a good fanfic writer, this could have been emotionally devastating. It could have been the catalyst for amazing character moments, for a huge reevaluation of their relationship. Hell, Watson could have been brought back from his brainwashing via the power of love/friendship. Even if you aren't assuming at all times (as I am) that any incarnation of Holmes and Watson are in love, this is some beautiful fanfic catnip.

And this book does nothing with it. Brainwashed!Watson is a dead-eyed automaton who does indeed attack Holmes, but robotically, without emotion. Holmes stuns him by hitting him with a paperweight and when Watson wakes up, he's entirely recovered. They never even talk about it. There were about four more chapters after this climax and I kept waiting for some aspect of the brainwashing to be referenced or to have repercussions of any kind - even a stupid slasher movie stinger - but nothing happened. The author came up with that as a climax and did nothing with it.

And that is why, although I do enjoy reading Holmes pastiches from time to time, fanfic is almost always more satisfying.



*Which is also a mark of this books mediocrity, as I am usually deeply unnerved by hypnosis and not only did I read the whole book, but I was only uncomfortable once.

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