Meta Rec: Semantics of Health Care - Meet Miss Molly Hooper

[swissmarg]

Title: Semantics of Health Care 4 – Meet Miss Molly Hooper
Author: wellingtongoose
Pairing: N/A
Length: ca. 2,400 words
Rating: Unrated
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: What exactly does Miss Molly Hooper do? I offer three possible solutions to the dilemma of her job: pathologist, morgue technician and surgeon (yes, Miss Hooper could be a surgeon).

Reccer's comments: First of all, thank you to the mods for reviewing the community rules and allowing meta recs as well. With such a prolific fandom, both in terms of reading and writing, I think that well-written dissemination of facts and their analysis is both interesting and useful to a wide spectrum of users.

The piece I'm reccing here is part of wellingtongoose's Semantics of Health Care series of meta essays, which in turn is just one of several series of essays the author has written on various aspects of British culture and how their depiction in the BBC series Sherlock measures up against the real world. wellingtongoose is a medical student in the U.K. and thus writes from a position of some authority on medical education and careers in particular.

Of the (currently 41*) meta installments which wellingtongoose has authored, I chose this essay on Molly's career to spotlight, as I've seen quite a bit of discussion on John's career and how to align what we see in the series with what is possible in the real world, but very little if any information on what Molly's actual job and career path might be. In addition, Molly apparently played a key role in faking Sherlock's death, and this essay goes into some ideas of how she might have helped with that, which I thought was timely given the looming approach of series 3 and (hopefully) the real explanation.

This essay also gives fascinating insights, not only into the possible options for Molly's career given what we see on the show, but also into her character, personality, and motivations. I especially like that the author doesn't just blurt out a list of dry facts and job descriptions, but always brings the subject back to the series and the character, as in this excerpt:

Pathologists usually work very sociable hours. Their patients/specimens are not going anywhere - mostly because they are dead. However there are always pathologists on call because there are genuine emergencies when a result is needed immediately perhaps for the patient’s individual treatment or public health concerns. It is not far-fetched that Molly would be on call at Christmas. She does not need to actually stay in the hospital nor does she have to put her social life on hold. She just needs to turn up if there is an emergency sample to be processed. Therefore, I think she wouldn’t have really minded going into hospital again to show Sherlock Irene’s “corpse”. She was mentally prepared to go into hospital at a moment’s notice anyway.

*wellingtongoose's Sherlock Meta Masterlist is here.

Comments

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for this rec. I've long been extremely curious as to what Molly's actual job is. I want her to be a medical doctor and a pathologist, not a lab tech, and so I am eager to read this meta to see how supported that is. :)

[swissmarg]

You're welcome, enjoy!

Thanks for reccing this.

[idairsauthor.livejournal.com]

Too late to help YMC, but I'm glad SOMEONE has taken the effort to figure out what the hell Molly's job actually is. One only wishes the producers would put that much effort into it. It was impossible to develop her character and stay as vague as the show does about what her actual job is. I basically decided she was a pathologist, because that seemed to me to make the most sense and it also gives her more agency.

Re: Thanks for reccing this.

[swissmarg]

You're welcome. I do think it's fun to find out how real-world things line up with what we see in the show. I'm glad you liked it too.