Holmes/Watson - the pairing as type or trope

[damned_colonial]

This post is riffing off wrabbit's suggestion in the discussion prompt gathering thread, which is still taking suggestions for new discussions if you have them.

Holmes and Watson weren't the first detective/sidekick duo, but they were one of the earliest pairs to achieve enormous popularity. Since then, similar pairings/duos have become a recognisable type in pop culture.

What are the distinctive traits of the Holmes/Watson pairing? Who are some of the more recent pairings/duos that draw on H/W? wrabbit mentions House and Wilson, of course, but it seems to me that the very common pairing of an exceptional/brilliant and possibly anti-social hero with a partner who's a stabilising influence or a source of exposition or both, owes a lot to H/W. There are plenty of detective duos, of course, especially on television. When wrabbit posted her comment I thought of Jim/Blair from the Sentinel (a police detective with an academic partner), and then last night, watching Hornblower with a friend, I realised that Archie is a bit of a Watson in a way: he exists in the TV canon to make Hornblower less solitary and internal and help the story move along, is Horatio's best friend with whom he shares everything, and is loyal and straightforward to Horatio's awkward brilliance. C. S. Forester didn't originally write Archie as a partner for Horatio in the book series, and Bush (who shows up later in the chronology of the series) doesn't fit the H/W pairing mold at all, but perhaps by the 90s when the TV writers came to develop Archie as Horatio's partner, that type of pairing had become more standardised?

H/W has also been called the archetypal slash pairing and the first slash fandom (btw, does anyone know whether anyone was actually publishing H/W slash in zines before Star Trek slash came along?) If the H/W pairing is a discernable "type", is that type inherently slashy or queer? How many H/W-influenced pairings have considerable slash followings?

Comments

[wrabbit]

I can't say if this fits with every fandom discussed or if it's overly specific, but this is how I would describe the archetype dynamic I see in Holmes/Watson in addition to the other fandoms I know:

The Holmes is an unusually intelligent, sensitive character who breaks and subverts socials mores. (Usually?) pointedly romantically unattached. Highly skilled in a way that makes him very useful to society (or very dangerous). The Watson character is the wrangler, of course, the only person who really "gets" and is able to control the Holmes character, but I think there is often something queer about him as well in a really interesting way that is more subversive than the Holmes' overt queerness.

He is a for-all-appearances a well-adjusted, intelligent, social and successful person, but there's something about the Watson himself (other than the direct influence of the Holmes) that prevents him from being the perfectly socialized specimen that he at first glance seems to be. As discussed above, there is something "special" about him, but I don't think it's in a good sparkly-perfect way, but rather in the sense that there's something odd about him in addition to his sheer idyllic ordinariness. For one thing, he probably doesn't have any close friends besides the Holmes. He may try to leave the Holmes and find a more ordinary life, but he returns not because the Holmes is so dominating, but because he individually failed. He is special to the Holmes precisely because he is so perfect(ly) ordinary and conventional and yet so queer.

I actually think the Master and Doctor are a good example of this. House and Wilson, Rodney and Sheppard (sort of...), Q and Picard, Snape and Harry *g*

[damned_colonial]

I just have to say, I love your use of "the Holmes" in your third para, as if it were "the butch" or something -- as a recognised role in a relationship. "So... which of you is the Holmes?"

[wrabbit]

*g* paperflower86's Practical Handbook of Watson Culture Illustrated Edition can get credit for that.

[ironed_orchid]

That is a beautiful thing!

[ingridmatthews]

but there's something about the Watson himself (other than the direct influence of the Holmes) that prevents him from being the perfectly socialized specimen that he at first glance seems to be.

Book!Canon Watson admits that he is of 'a Bohemian mind', considering himself an writer/artist first, doctor/soldier/husband second. His life with Holmes is considered an exercise in classic Bohemianism, at least to Watson. His attachment to Holmes is partly due to his rejection of rigid male roles, making him queerly delicious.

IMHO, they are basically a pair of Victorian hipsters. ;)

[damned_colonial]

Ooh, where's that in canon? I hadn't noticed it.

Also, I am totally loving the idea of hipster!Watson with his ironic mustache and vintage steampunk-esque tweed. He rides a fixie.

[ingridmatthews]

I'd have to look again. Musgrave? I've been marathon reading the Complete Series and am getting lost, but I remember being stuck (okay, DELIGHTED) by that particular tidbit. When I come across it again, I'll mark it. ;)

[damned_colonial]

Not that I am in the least conventional in that respect myself. The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of a natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man.

... followed by whining about the VR in the wall, papers everywhere, etc. Doesn't seem like quite what was described above.

[starlady]

So...which is the truth, and which is the lie? I know which is my bet.

Oh, Watson.

[ingridmatthews]

To be a classic Victorian Bohemian is to place oneself outside of conventions that are supposed to control your life from the moment of waking to what you wear to sleep. For him to self-identify as one is a big thing, at least from my understanding of the movement, which stresses independent thought, rejection of social mores and stress on intellectual arts over appearances (which were *everything* to a Victorian).

Holmes is described as a perfect Bohemian because his use of his vast intellect is his art. (Being a big old drug addict, social disaster and slob probably added to the effect. ;) Watson may be more concerned than Holmes about his standing in society, but like wrabbit said above, there is a little something about him that simply doesn't fit into the Victorian puzzle.

[damned_colonial]

We should totally have a discussion thread on bohemianism. *takes notes*

[ingridmatthews]

Definitely! It is my kink, I'll admit it. I'm sure there will be tons of opinions on it, but to me, it's one of the hallmarks of their unique standing in the society they are navigating through observation.

Oooh, also a thread maybe on Watson and Holmes as observers? Holmes examining outside forces while Watson examines him? Or just staring his lovely hands? *grin*

[damned_colonial]

Go put them on the discussion prompt thread! And if you'd like to do the post, feel free to say so... otherwise, I'm happy to do what I did here on this post.

[mllesays]

Q and Picard

I love them so much.