Thursday, October 30, 2014

Considering Sherlock Holmes and sex.

It's good to see and actor who can play a good Sherlock showing us that he actually gets the character.

This week in Elle UK, a really nice interview piece with Benedict Cumberbatch had a little sidebar extra with B.C. postulating a length about Holmes in the bedroom. And it's well thought out.

Basically, the Cumberbatch position on Holmes and sex is that he would master it as he did everything else he set his mind to. Of course, if you read the main article, you see the even more true understanding of the character:

"He's asexual for a purpose, not because he doesn't have a sex drive, but because it's suppressed to do his work."

It reminds me of an old shtick that the Rock used to do in a professional wrestling ring. An opponent would show up and say something or the other, challenge, threat, whatever, and the Rock would simply ask:

"What's your name?"

And then the moment the other wrestler would open his mouth to reply, the Rock would boom:

"IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!"

That, in its simple essence, can be paraphrased for the truest summation of Sherlock Holmes's sex life: "IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW HIS SEXUAL TECHNIQUE WAS!"

And the actor who plays him on a particular TV series seems to get that. On a show where the writers, directors, and producers seem to get a lot of things about Sherlock Holmes.

Shippers can write things a bit differently -- it's what they do. Fan fiction is the black market of ideas, where we get things that are illegal, immoral, or otherwise unavailable for fun and profit, so Holmes's non-existent sex life is certainly going to turn up there. But for a serious, full-tilt Sherlock Holmes, the consummate detective, the best there is at what he does?

Well, just ask Benedict Cumberbatch.

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