There are a couple of things, here: 1.) "Middle class" doesn’t mean the same thing to you that it means to me, apparently. Which explains a lot. In the US, "middle class" = medium-income white collar jobs & high-income blue collar jobs, kids in ballet/karate/baseball/football, SUV, any kind of accent (including regional dialects), one European vacation, one Mexico vacation, Nordstrom’s/Macy’s, state college/small private college, probably retardedly politically conservative, possibly religious, owns a nice-ish sub-McMansion they can barely afford, etc. In the UK, "middle class" = wealthy, went to an Oxbridge Institution, fancy accent, not religious, lives in third-world country bearing the white man’s burden teaching the savages indigenous population English, liberal, fancy apartment, urban? I’m guessing? In this country, that’s "rich." Um. I read this really irritating article months and months ago, in which the actor who played Baldrick in Blackadder whined that Stephen Fry et al. were too 'middle class.' And I was like, Whut? But at least they made it to Oxford on scholarships! They must not be too bad! But now I know he was accusing Fry & etc. of being horrible snobs. (Was he?) 2.) …They actually teach you how to talk? 3.) Are there middle class black people in the UK? 4.) I have a really thick Appalachian patois. 5.) I was sort of shocked by most of your bullets. I never thought about Sherlock communicating his status via his clothing. I guess I thought… he just really likes suits? I am rather dumb, I guess. 6.) "Barned Lewis-Barned" is maybe the best name ever. 7.) I can recognize a handful of UK accents: a.) Gandalf b.) Parminder Nagra’s sister in Bend It Like Beckham c.) An accent which I think is Northern English which is probably not Northern English d.) Hagrid e.) Michael Caine f.) I’m afraid that’s about it 8.) I didn’t really notice that Mark Gatiss and Benedict Cumberbatch had different accents. I did notice that sometimes Cumberbatch sounded like Alan Rickman, though. Can I get some points for that? 9.) calling your mother 'Mummy', especially as a grown man, is very posh Really? 10.) I am entertaining a horrible suspicion that "public school" does not mean the same thing in the UK that it means in the US. In the US, public schools are the worst — because they are often plagued by violence and a lack of standards and funding, we are always babbling about how our public schools are "failing" their students. I gather this is possibly not a big problem in England? 11.) I know from crossword puzzles that Winston Churchill went to Harrow. It is a big deal to go there, then? 12.) WHAT IS GOING ON Despite the fact that Conan Doyle was not what you might think of as a brilliant prose stylist, Sherlock Holmes somehow emerged from his stories as one of the world’s greatest fictional characters. This version, I think, really captured Sherlock’s essence, in a way that nothing has since Jeremy Brett played him in the 90s — Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is completely different from Brett’s, but I think they’re both complimentary and essential. It’s a stellar adaptation, despite its flaws, and a really good show on its own terms.
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Date: 2010-11-04 07:26 am (UTC)1.) "Middle class" doesn’t mean the same thing to you that it means to me, apparently. Which explains a lot. In the US, "middle class" = medium-income white collar jobs & high-income blue collar jobs, kids in ballet/karate/baseball/football, SUV, any kind of accent (including regional dialects), one European vacation, one Mexico vacation, Nordstrom’s/Macy’s, state college/small private college, probably retardedly politically conservative, possibly religious, owns a nice-ish sub-McMansion they can barely afford, etc. In the UK, "middle class" = wealthy, went to an Oxbridge Institution, fancy accent, not religious, lives in third-world country
bearing the white man’s burdenteaching thesavagesindigenous population English, liberal, fancy apartment, urban? I’m guessing? In this country, that’s "rich." Um. I read this really irritating article months and months ago, in which the actor who played Baldrick in Blackadder whined that Stephen Fry et al. were too 'middle class.' And I was like, Whut? But at least they made it to Oxford on scholarships! They must not be too bad! But now I know he was accusing Fry & etc. of being horrible snobs. (Was he?)2.) …They actually teach you how to talk?
3.) Are there middle class black people in the UK?
4.) I have a really thick Appalachian patois.
5.) I was sort of shocked by most of your bullets. I never thought about Sherlock communicating his status via his clothing. I guess I thought… he just really likes suits? I am rather dumb, I guess.
6.) "Barned Lewis-Barned" is maybe the best name ever.
7.) I can recognize a handful of UK accents:
a.) Gandalf
b.) Parminder Nagra’s sister in Bend It Like Beckham
c.) An accent which I think is Northern English which is probably not Northern English
d.) Hagrid
e.) Michael Caine
f.) I’m afraid that’s about it
8.) I didn’t really notice that Mark Gatiss and Benedict Cumberbatch had different accents. I did notice that sometimes Cumberbatch sounded like Alan Rickman, though. Can I get some points for that?
9.) calling your mother 'Mummy', especially as a grown man, is very posh Really?
10.) I am entertaining a horrible suspicion that "public school" does not mean the same thing in the UK that it means in the US. In the US, public schools are the worst — because they are often plagued by violence and a lack of standards and funding, we are always babbling about how our public schools are "failing" their students. I gather this is possibly not a big problem in England?
11.) I know from crossword puzzles that Winston Churchill went to Harrow. It is a big deal to go there, then?
12.) WHAT IS GOING ON Despite the fact that Conan Doyle was not what you might think of as a brilliant prose stylist, Sherlock Holmes somehow emerged from his stories as one of the world’s greatest fictional characters. This version, I think, really captured Sherlock’s essence, in a way that nothing has since Jeremy Brett played him in the 90s — Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is completely different from Brett’s, but I think they’re both complimentary and essential. It’s a stellar adaptation, despite its flaws, and a really good show on its own terms.
Whew~! Long comment is long! (Sorry.)