Well, the Bootalicious E-story contest deadline was today, and just to be sure, I finished my own little Watsonian chronicle before bed last night. As I imagined, and is typical for the word-limit, time-limit short story contest, I ran out of runway in landing my literary Cessna, the landing gear came off when I hit the 2500 word limit, and the craft started taking damage as I tried to save the passengers, so to speak.
But, hey, it's not like I'm in it for the glory.
Simultaneous to my literary hard landing was a Facebook friend's rant against people who say movies suck. I suspect his point was directed toward those critics who go see every movie, then gripe about films that were never intended toward their demographic or personality type. But I couldn't help being touched by his words, because, after all, Elementary sucks. And yet I just keep watching it. And it's not even like I have a financial investment such as a movie ticket, which might spur one to finish just to get one's money's worth. It's FREE, FREE, FREE on CBS TV.
All of this, then raises the question: How dare I criticize the creators of Elementary when my own attempts at a Sherlock Holmes tale are definitely sub-par? (Don't think Seven-per-cent Solution. Don't think Beekeeper's Apprentice. Think literary Sharknado.)
Well, for starters, nobody paid me to write my Sherlock Holmes. I work a full-time-plus job, serve on a board, try to keep up with a blog, nurse a Warcraft account along, and then in my leftover time, occasionally write one-draft fiction which I even more occasionally subject people to. All from my basement here in Peoria, the traditional lair of the fanboy.
Someone who's handed a choice opportunity for a Sherlock Holmes pilot that a network really wants to have on their schedule, thanks to a really good existing Sherlock Holmes franchise . . . well, those folks should have a little more expected of them. Mainly their network, of course, by whom they are judged by the ratings numbers, and thus, advertising dollars they bring in. But also by fans of the existing character they were assigned to re-create. Sure, we're probably not even a blip on the ratings, but we get to have our opinions by right of having been here first. I'm not saying that Sherlockians are the Native Americans of this country's Holmes mindset, but I might say that Elementary did try to buy us off with a few beads and trinkets in the paltry cookies the show provides.
And for all my faults, I do dump a lot of sugar into my Sherlock literary cookies. Which makes them a lot of fun to make, and sometimes that's just the point. Even when your mixed metaphoric cookies over-shoot the runway and crash and burn.
The ongoing investigation of Sherlock Holmes, reported from the Peoria, Illinois outpost of Baker Street's dirtiest half a dozen.
"How dare I criticize the creators of Elementary when my own attempts at a Sherlock Holmes tale are definitely sub-par?"
ReplyDeleteIrrelevant. You are at a restaurant eat dinner prepared by a top chef's. You don't need expertise as a chef to say whether it is good or bad. You only need tastebuds (whether you're intelligent enough is another matter entirely).
Same with watching a TV show or reading a book. You're critiquing it as a reader. Did the story work on you or did it not?
Saying you have to be qualified as much as the producers is like a patient having to be a surgeon to say if the operation worked.
Your tale might not be that bad - after all, they've just released Sharknado 2, with plans for Sharknado3!
ReplyDelete