The Life Experience ~ Fall '07

[bloodyrosemccoy]

 What I Learned This Season:

• The sun sails from dawn to dusk and back very regularly along the equator, without a whole lot of pausing for twilight.
• If I were a magical thinker, I would totally believe Ganesh and I were buds.  The number of times he has popped up—sometimes to save my ass—is uncanny.
• Things rural Kenyans know about our culture: Doctor Who, The Flash, X-Men, George Bush, Coca-Cola, English, WWE, Barack Obama, and of course Chuck Norris.
• Things rural Kenyans don’t know about: secularism, pet cats, Spanish, states other than California and Texas, and of course bears.
• Things I knew about rural Kenya: tin roofs, farm animals, squat toilets, chicken slaughters, malaria, mosquitos
• Things I didn’t know about rural Kenya: cell phones, hot water for baths, ant holocausts, malaria being treated like chicken pox, tae kwon do, flying somersaults, ugali
• The recipe for ugali is as follows: boil some flour.
• The phrase for “turkey” in Swahili, bata mzinga, literally means “cannon duck.”  I don’t know why.
• It’s a good idea to wear shorts under your skirt, because 1) it keeps your thighs from chafing, and 2) you never know when you might have to hitch up your skirt to hike across the god damn ocean.
• Mosquitos will bite you more if you eat bananas.
• One of the traditional ways for a Swahili to make herself alluring is to stand over a censer while wearing a big skirt so that the smoke theoretically goes straight up into all the nooks and crannies to make them smell more pleasant.  I do not know why a man would have his nose there in the first place, but who am I to argue with Tradition?
• Sending postcards is expensive.
• Mosquitos that have already consumed blood explode when you swat them.
• I have good luck with people whose names start with some variation of "Kris."
• EVERYBODY uses Facebook.
• EVERYBODY.
• Kenyan outlets are something like 250 hertz, which will give your iPod superpowers but which Nintendo DS’s refuse to even acknowledge.
• Bagels are like the holy grail of food.
• The book Clan of the Cave Bear is a well-researched story with some very interesting, if not always well-written, details on the possible lives of the Neanderthals. The sequel, The Valley of Horses, is basically caveman porn.
• Goat meat is pretty good.  Not so much goat intestine or liver.
• Donkeys make the second most annoying sound in the world, right after mosques.
• The Swahili I learned from my book is the kind spoken in Tanzania, which is more formal than the kind in Mombasa.
• The Deaf accent trumps all others.
• Fridges and ceiling fans are the GREATEST INVENTIONS EVER.
• Al Gore is a helluva sport.
• There actually exists a canonical Sherlock Holmes story where Holmes and Watson get baked and have a gay moment.*

*While I can slash away with the best of fans, I can’t actually understand the consistent slashing of these two.  I have no real argument against it except that they just don’t seem like a couple—sort of like my somewhat obtuse argument against Bert and Ernie’s closetry being “But they’re Muppets.” However, this does not mean that Holmes and Watson cannot have gay moments.

Comments

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*rummages around online*

http://www.authorama.com/adventure-of-the-devils-foot-1.html

The scene goes like this:

HOLMES: Say, Watson! I have here some mysterious powder that is the link between two scenes of horrible and otherwise inexplicable death! Let's see what it does, unless you're chicken.

WATSON: Bring it!

HOLMES: Right, I think we've got to burn it. *sprinkles some on lamp*

WATSON: I wonder what sort of effect HOLY SHIT THERE'S A GIANT WRITHING MASS OF DARK EVIL IN FRONT OF ME WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE MY HEART IS GOING TO EXPLODE WITH HORROR! *looks at HOLMES, sees him in the same state, lifts him up and drags him outside*

HOLMES: Whoa. That was one BAD trip. Sorry, Watson. You're my only friend and so faithful and always follow me around no matter what, and that was kinda stupid of me to try to kill you.

WATSON: *chokes up* You know I would follow you to the grave. I love you, man.


IT'S ALL THERE, DAMMIT.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

There are a good few very gay moments in the Sherlock Holmes stories. I suspect they weren't really meant that way originally, but they sure do look that way now.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*grin* Like I said, while they didn't actually seem like they were a couple, what with Watson throwing himself at the ladies all the time (and why is he always portrayed as a fat guy? It always seemed to me like he was supposed to be well-built and sturdy), there were definitely some MOMENTS ...

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The first story states straight out that Watson is "as brown as a nut and as thin as a lath" in the beginning; later he's described as sturdy and well built, and he walks his rounds as a doctor and does some pretty damn athletic and acrobatic stuff while helping Holmes out, so he can't have been fat. That one's a Hollywood screw-up.

I can see an argument for bisexuality and victorian repression, and I can also see Watson being totally straight (Holmes I see as just plain not interested, except possibly towards exceptional individuals. He's got better things to do with his time and brain than fuss over women. Or men.). There's definitely a deep connection and affection there. Whether that translates into slashiness is rather up to the individual reader, I suppose.

Er, yeah. I've read everything canonical a ridiculous amount of times.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*jumps up and down* Eee! Y HALLO THAR, fellow Holmes fan! I didn't know you were one!

Your interpretation is EXACTLY like mine, so I won't add anything except DAMN STRAIGHT.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

HALO THAR X3

I've loved the stories since I was a little kid. I have a set of them collected into two volumes, and those are books that I reliably pick up and take with me when I'm going places, because I always enjoy them and the individual stories are nicely bite-sized for reading when there will be interruptions.