Akin to Love

Fanfiction
Title:	Akin to Love
Author(s):	Melody C.
Date(s):	1992
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Sherlock Holmes
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Akin to Love, posted online by the author
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Akin to Love is a Holmes/Watson story by Melody C.

It was printed in No Holds Barred #1.

This story is notable for many things, one of which is being an example of the "Fourth Wave" slash fic in The Wave Theory of Slash.

The story was also at the center of a fan feud.

Excerpt

"Yet his eyes gently mocked me. "You saw no friend."

“I have not?’ I asked, by then truly frightened, my blood pounding like fists across my veins.

“You have not,’ he purred softly. “You have in fact frequented Dogs Isle Private Hotel, where rooms are let for half-crown a week. You tarried there till quarter past the hour at which point you quaffed your tea, freed your lodgings and paid the man with whom you slept.”

As if my friend had suddenly caught fire, I shot to my feet and jerked from Holmes’ presence.

“How dare you speak to me this way?’ I gasped, unthinking, unable to think.

“How dare I?” Holmes seethed, slamming his pipe to the sideboard. ‘How dare you?"

Author's Comments

'List the five stories you have written that you LOVE the best. Not the best one or the most popular one but the ones that you personally love the best." -- "Akin to Love (yes, I'm the same [Melody C] ... someone asked me that the other day ... I think I'm the only [Melody C] fan fic writer) -- The story took a long time to write because I wanted to be certain of word accuracy and also of getting "Watson's" prose voice right. But it was fun.

Comments about some controversy about the Victorian language in the story: The poor little reviewers (note teh snideness); archive link (Jul. 21st, 2012)

Reactions and Reviews

Unknown Date

... stunning story.

1993

Reyrct about the tone and ambience of a piece adding to/distract me from a story or limiting either the story itself or an entire fandom (eg, the terrific job [Melody C] did of Holmes/Watson, the paucity [in every sense!] of Twin Peaks stories). Speaking from personal experience... 1 don't actually find it difficult to write in what I feel is the appropriate tone for a particular universe: plagiarising Conan Doyle's writing style whilst also plagiarising his character is really quite easy for lazy bitches like me. In fact, particularly when something is based on a literary source (whether it be Jeeves/Wooster or Sgt. Wield), 1 find that the tone of the writing is almost a character in and of itself, in that, without that particular aspect, then the slash story feels as if something as vital as a main character is missing, rather like picking up A/B and finding there's no Avon... As for being limited by the style of the original—you betcha! I find that I write these quite nauseatingly syrupy Holmes/Watsons because dear old Sir Arthur, in keeping with the times and the publishing outlet, used so many euphemisms and ignored so many gritty realities, that I haven't quite found my way out of his maze of nice words and cosy Victorianisms.

2009

In June 2009, Toft, a fic writer, posted a rec/review of Melody's Holmes/Watson story "Akin to Love" which had in the print zine No Holds Barred #1. Some of that comment:

I hesitate to rec this, but it really is one of my favourites in the fandom. The thing is, it's hysterical, and also charming. It harks back, I think, to an older style of fic writing, incredibly overblown and florid, and I've read it about five times now whenever I feel sad, because it just makes me laugh so much. If you appreciate the use of the word 'ganglia' while describing a blowjob, or extended similes comparing Holmes to a stallion, then this is the story for you.

In reaction to these comments, Melody announced she would no longer be publishing her fan fiction on the Internet for free, choosing instead to work with print fanzines exclusively. Melody later explained her reaction:

The reviewer criticized the twenty-year-old story for its Victorian wording when it was written in the Watson first person ... in other words to suggest Conan-Doyle's Victorian wording. She obviously had never read the original Conan-Doyle stories and didn't know what I had been trying for. This story took me a long time and a great deal of work. Sadly, it is one of two that cause me endless grief. THAT is the reason it was deleted, not simply because of the reviewer's comment. If we can't respond to reviewers' comments without being dragged onto wank forums, what other form of redress do we have except simply deleting them?

The original exchange between Melody and Toft was linked in the comments to an unrelated Fandom Wank post six months later.

2015

The very first fanfic I remember reading is “Akin to Love” by [Melody C]. I was about seventeen-ish, I think? It was either in 2007 or 2008. Someone (who later became a good friend of mine) linked to it and several other Holmes/Watson fics on a Polish social networking site. I downloaded all of them onto a thumb drive at our school library – I didn’t have the Internet at home yet. I remember I finished reading it and turned off my PC, bright red in the face – it was pure smut! Was so glad my parents don’t understand a word in English. Within a week I had a huge binder full of printed fic, not only Holmes/Watson, but also House/Wilson, Arthas/Illidan (!!!) from WoW, a couple of Hitman stories (the video game)… I still have this binder :’)