hiddenlacuna:

wsswatson:

I absolutely ship them in the ACD canon. I think there’s a lot of suggestion that Holmes and Watson were (very implicitly, of course) queer and in love in the canon, for instance:

• how Holmes and Watson describe men
• and how they distance themselves from attraction
• how Watson speaks about himself and Holmes in relation to bathhouses
• and the significance of bathhouses
• the fact that Holmes and Watson were out of London in April – May 1895 (in The Adventure of the Three Students), possibly the worst time to be queer in London due to Oscar Wilde being on trial and the authorities clamping down on sodomy laws
• the romantic parallel between Dr. Leon Sterndale’s behaviour in The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot and Holmes’ behaviour in The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
• and much of this
• and all of this

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was way ahead of his time in many ways and loved flying in the face of convention. He has my faith.

Yep! And I cannot recommend the last link given enough, to nekosmuse’s Decoding the ACD subtext site, where they go through each of the canon stories and draw out all the nuggets of nuance. Very good read, although it’s best to read the original story either just before or just after for maximum goodness.