Fic Rec: The Most Poetical Thing, by silversmith

[ancientreader]

Title: The Most Poetical Thing
Author: silversmith
Pairing: Gen? Pre-slash? You decide.
Length: 4,666
Rating: G
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock loves the Underground. Other things are a bit more complicated.
Reccer's comments: Well, here's another "How on earth has this never been recced before?" moment.

Sherlock finds sounds, people, engagement overwhelming at times, and finds refuge and coherence in charts, diagrams, maps. Silversmith beautifully evokes what it means to Sherlock, as child and as adult, to organize and map the world so as to make it manageable; and if you happen also to love maps and other illustrations of organized data, you'll be saying yes yes yes to yourself the entire time you're reading, the way you do when someone illuminates a book or a piece of music that you love but don't know how to express why you love it.

So Sherlock's system for managing the world serves him perfectly well, and then along comes (surprise?) John Watson. No, Sherlock's system doesn't fail him -- that's not what happens, at all. :^)

An excerpt:
Everything is confusing, but diagrams can make it better. Sherlock lies on the lawn and sees too many things: a hundred thousand blades of grass, all slightly different; trees sketched out in innumerable crooked lines; a beetle that crawls round and round in random meaningless patterns that seem to be burnt on the backs of his eyeballs. It makes him feel like he’s going to explode: there is too much of everything, all inside his head, and why, why is it all like this? He feels wildly unhappy, so he drums his hands and feet against the ground and screams to drown it out.

When he is tired of this, he goes to his room (reassuringly sparse and quiet). He makes a map of the garden so that he can look at it instead of the real thing, and in place of all the squiggles and mess, he draws everything as neat lines and squares.

“You can’t do that, Sherlock,” says Mycroft impatiently.


Read on the AO3.

Comments

[redvalerian.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this recommendation. The writing is exquisite. I have often thought that the London Underground Map is a piece of perfection. This story has convinced me of it. Silversmith has written one of the most unusual love stories in the fandom. (But where, oh where was the mention of my beloved Metropolitan Line with its purple colour scheme and many poetic associations? We who live in Metroland wanted a place on Sherlock's map, too!)

[ancientreader]

The tube map is a marvel, I agree! As is this story, despite the egregious fault of omitting the Metropolitan Line. And now there's going to be an Elizabeth line, I hear.

Do you know this site? http://homepage.ntlworld.com/clivebillson/tube/tube.html

ETA I meant to say, thanks so much for letting me know the rec was a good one for you. I love this story so much and it deserves wide readership; what a pity the author isn't prolific.

[redvalerian.livejournal.com]

An egregious omission indeed, especially since the Met line is the oldest underground line and Baker Street is one of its major hubs! But I'm sounding churlish. Thank you for the wonderful link to the Underground Maps site and once again for the great recommendation. What gifts you have given me today!