Reflections on writing about love…

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Learning about dialogue often requires studying the work of others. What works, what doesn’t, what sounds forced, and what rolls naturally. Dialogue transforms when taken from the page and enacted. I admire the conversations between Joan and Sherlock on the television series, Elementary. It’s not often I find the story line of television worth considering, but as a long time fan of Sherlock Holmes, Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller–I indulge in rare, late night, earphoned, Hulu binges. Occasionally, words will find their way into my waking and sleeping mind, resting there until I analyze them, dissect them, and consider them thoroughly.

Joan:

Do you think we’re cut off from the world? You know, neither of us dates, neither one of us goes out much, at all really.

Sherlock:

We aren’t cut off from the world; we’re engaged in creating one that’s actually worth living in, one that addresses our needs entirely and eliminates anything extraneous.

Joan:

Well, my friends signed me up for this dating website and I think I’m going to put my profile up, you know, so be nice in case I bring someone around.

Sherlock:

Won’t be an issue, Oh, our journalist tears herself away from her adoring public.

Joan:

Why won’t it be an issue?

Sherlock:

Because you won’t actually bring anyone around,

I’ve lived most of my life with the firm conviction that romantic love is a delusion; it’s a futile hedge against the existential terror that is our own singularity. Then I met someone who calls herself Irene Adler, who forced me to reexamine those convictions. She, of course, turned out to be a criminal.

Joan:

We never really discussed how that made you feel.

Sherlock:

I feel liberated. I am now and forever, post love, and as such, free to pursue a life of meaning.

Elementary: Season 2, Episode 3, We Are Everyone.

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