In Defense of the C (in TJLC)

Meta
Title:	In Defense of the C (in TJLC)
Creator:	mild-lunacy
Date(s):	August 2, 2016
Medium:	online
Fandom:	BBC Sherlock
Topic:	TJLC
External Links:	original post, archive link
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In Defense of the C (in TJLC) is a 2016 meta by mild-lunacy.

Some Topics Discussed

• The Powers That Be and Breaking the Fourth Wall
• fandom in the age of social media
• the relationship between fan theories and canon

Excerpts

All excerpts are from "In Defense of the C (in TJLC)," which was originally published by mild-lunacy on Tumblr on August 2, 2016.

I never used to think it was important, and on the textual analysis level where I like to reside, it isn’t: canon Johnlock isn’t a secret, it’s just a (mostly) subtle part of the text. We’re talking about the textual romance, not who really killed JFK. The whole term was a joke to start with.

But the truth is, there’s some relevance to the Conspiracy part of the program. Most notably, the relevance has to do with one’s relationship to TPTB. The C reminds us that they’re lying liars who lie, always trolling us in order to avoid spoilers that have to do with the fact that canon Johnlock is a plot development as much as an always-present aspect of the characterization.

Honestly, I don’t think we need to interact with TPTB in the first place, but that bird has flown the coop, and part of being a fan nowadays is indeed interacting with people who’re in a huge power imbalance with you and are motivated to hurt your feelings in the short term in order to preserve something like the normal conditions we had before we could ask the author about inconvenient things we’d noticed about the plot. That stilted, awkward conversation is a part of what it means be to be fannish in the age of Twitter and Tumblr, and it’s going to take awhile to establish more ground rules and social expectations and experience.

The C reminds us that this is also about an experiment in media, of a sort: a way of presenting a queer narrative that’s never been tried before, to my knowledge– softly, gently. Unspoken, gradual, incidental. Inevitably, there’s a social aspect to this reveal; the show requires its oblivious, slowly realizing audience as much as the true-believer fans to work as intended. There really is a secret, for those fans, and it has to be kept ever less secret until it’s finally, gradually, time for it to become obvious to everyone. In the age of the Internet 2.0, this does invite a sort of open conspiracy… and in a way, all of us are part of it.

The C is important. It means we’re part of something big. We’re part of a history-making story more than a hundred years in the making, and it’s going to be magic.

Responses

my-johnlocked-life wrote in a reblog on August 2, 2016:

A very different take on the ‘conspiracy’. A lot of fuss has been made about conspiracies and how they’re seen as bad, dangerous, subversive. But, in this case, maybe it’s a GOOD sort of conspiracy. We agree to keep the secret for just a little longer before we can celebrate with the creators who are honestly trying to do something incredible.

marybegone wrote in a reblog on March 4, 2017:

Oh dear, indeed. So interesting to read now that the 'big reveal’ didn’t happen.