Rob Nunn's Blog: Interesting Though Elementary, page 20
July 22, 2019
Here in My Museum [BLUE]
The Three Garridebs has the best line in the whole Canon: "Why should I go out when I have so much to hold me here?"
Nathan Garrideb spoke right to my heart with those words. As someone who is very happy to sit at home and read, I know EXACTLY where this guy is coming from. But, alas, I'm not able to cloister myself away in my homemade museum of oddities like Mr. Garrideb.
And let's talk about that museum, shall we? Watson tells us that Garrideb's rooms were "both broad and deep, with cupboards and cabinets all round, crowded with specimens, geological and anatomical. Cases of butterflies and moths flanked each side of the entrance. A large table in the centre was littered with all sorts of debris, while the tall brass tube of a powerful microscope bristled up among them."
As I was reading this, I was torn on how Holmes would react to such a space. Garrideb's interests are as varied, if not more, than Holmes' are. Flint instruments, fossils, skulls, coins, Japanese vases. All we are told is that Holmes "looked round him with curiosity." Would Holmes have been interested or appalled by this collection? The readers have hope that Holmes will engage with this collection when he asks Garrideb to come back and view it the following day, but alas, it is only a ploy to catch a criminal.
I, for one, like to think that Holmes found a kindred spirit in Nathan Garrideb. As Sherlockians, we know what it's like to be collectors. Nathan Garrideb is definitely a collector. Sherlock Holmes has collections of his own. From his scrap-books to his disguises, you know Baker Street is full of assemblages of items.
But Nathan Garrideb's goal of being the Hans Sloane of his age never came about. Hans Sloane's personal collection went on to found The British Museum, The British Library, and The National History Museum, we never hear of Garrideb and his collection again.
And for Sherlock Holmes' collections? Well, he may not have founded any museums or libraries, but he surely founded something much bigger than all of us...
Nathan Garrideb spoke right to my heart with those words. As someone who is very happy to sit at home and read, I know EXACTLY where this guy is coming from. But, alas, I'm not able to cloister myself away in my homemade museum of oddities like Mr. Garrideb.
And let's talk about that museum, shall we? Watson tells us that Garrideb's rooms were "both broad and deep, with cupboards and cabinets all round, crowded with specimens, geological and anatomical. Cases of butterflies and moths flanked each side of the entrance. A large table in the centre was littered with all sorts of debris, while the tall brass tube of a powerful microscope bristled up among them."
As I was reading this, I was torn on how Holmes would react to such a space. Garrideb's interests are as varied, if not more, than Holmes' are. Flint instruments, fossils, skulls, coins, Japanese vases. All we are told is that Holmes "looked round him with curiosity." Would Holmes have been interested or appalled by this collection? The readers have hope that Holmes will engage with this collection when he asks Garrideb to come back and view it the following day, but alas, it is only a ploy to catch a criminal.
I, for one, like to think that Holmes found a kindred spirit in Nathan Garrideb. As Sherlockians, we know what it's like to be collectors. Nathan Garrideb is definitely a collector. Sherlock Holmes has collections of his own. From his scrap-books to his disguises, you know Baker Street is full of assemblages of items.
But Nathan Garrideb's goal of being the Hans Sloane of his age never came about. Hans Sloane's personal collection went on to found The British Museum, The British Library, and The National History Museum, we never hear of Garrideb and his collection again.
And for Sherlock Holmes' collections? Well, he may not have founded any museums or libraries, but he surely founded something much bigger than all of us...
July 14, 2019
Interesting Interview: Tassy Hayden
Anyone who knows Dr. Tassy Hayden knows what an intelligent, passionate, and caring person she is. And those qualities shine through in her views as a Sherlockian as well. She is active in her local scion, The Parallel Case of St. Louis, frequent participant at 221B Con, a fan fiction author, former co-host of the Three Patch Podcast, Watsonian charm bracelet manufacturer, and much more.
I've known Tassy for about three years now. We met through Twitter and she joined The Parallel Case shortly after that. Since then, she's become a regular member, always contributing medical knowledge, probing questions about the roles of women, and overall great comments about Doyle's writing. She was an integral part in last year's Holmes in the Heartland weekend and can be counted on to have deep thoughts and/or pictures of her cat on Twitter and Instagram.
Tassy is a real spark plug in our Sherlockian hobby. If you know her, kick back and get to know her a little better. If the name Tassy Hayden isn't familiar to you, dig in and get ready for an interesting interview.
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
I think that anyone who get excited at the idea of consuming media featuring Sherlock Holmes (or any of the many characters derived from his archetype, provided there's awareness of the history there) is a Sherlockian. Some of us are deeper into it than others, and the interests and level of interest of any given Sherlockian will wax and wane over time. But if you love the Great Detective, you're one of us.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
I had a brief flirtation with Holmesian adaptations when I was a kid (The Great Mouse Detective chief among them) and a definite interest in detective fiction through adolescence and young adulthood (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Gilman's Mrs Pollifax). I remember being so excited when the first Guy Ritchie movie came out, and I dragged my whole family to the theater on Christmas to see it, so I don't suppose I ever stopped being a Sherlockian as defined above. I definitely got more involved when I finally finished up my pesky medical training, which was in the heyday of BBC's Sherlock. So it was a good time to fall deeply back into the hobby/way of life.
What is your favorite canonical story?
It's always changing. Right now, I'll say "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" because there's such a lot of things going on there, including stereotyping of a Peruvian woman who is, ultimately, just trying to save her son without destroying the integrity of her family because of the abhorrent behavior of her husband's son from a previous marriage. Have you seen the Miss Sherlock episode based on it? It's the fourth episode in the first season and it's amazing. I think they do a particularly good job weaving in the impact of women's roles in Japanese society, especially as wives and mothers.
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
I was blown away when I attended a panel featuring Dr. Carlina Maria De La Cova at 221B Con this year. She has a PhD in anthropology and focuses on the effects of marginalization on the health of the human body, especially the skeleton. She teaches a course on the forensics of Sherlock Holmes, which is my jam. In an overwhelmingly white hobby, it's so nice to hear from a brilliant black woman.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
Can I tell you a secret? I'm a total Doylist. It's probably because I'm a physician and a writer as well (mostly poetry-- and fan fiction occasionally). I like thinking about Doyle's education and life experience and how it influences how he writes Watson and Holmes. He became kind of a consulting criminologist due to the popularity of his stories, but he had the medical training and kept up with research in medicine and criminology that helped him change the course of at least one criminal case in 1900's Britain.
What things do you like to research related to Sherlock Holmes?
Anything related to medicine, forensics, or criminology. I've even lured my husband, Bill, into the mix, and whenever we're watching an adaptation, he points out when characters talk about fingerprinting, etc, and asks whether it's chronologically appropriate.
As a fan that came to Sherlockiana from newer avenues, what is the most important aspect of this hobby in your mind?
I'm so interested in how many different adaptations we've been given over the last 140-odd years. I enjoy seeing how far we as fans and creators can push the character. Bend him until he nearly breaks, but if I still feel a Holmesian presence in your work...well...there are truly No Holmes Barred.
Let's say one of your patients is somehow able to travel back to Victorian London. Would you recommend that they visit Dr. Watson for medical services?
I don't know how well my particular patient population would fare there in general, given I see mostly queer folx and a good number of patients with HIV. Advances in medicine aside (and I expect that Watson was pretty up to date in terms of medical skill, given his work in the military as well as who was writing him), I think the most important skill a doctor can have is empathy. And I believe Dr. Watson has that. Listening and considering the feelings of your patient allows them to open up and you to help as much as possible. Given the compassionate voice Watson employs in the stories and the fact that he seems to thrive in a very Bohemian household with Holmes, I think my LGBT+ patients could definitely do worse than him when seeking care in Victorian London.
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?
In nonfiction, The Scientific Sherlock Holmes by James O'Brien; in fiction, the entire Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer; in LGBT+ fiction, Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian, a murder mystery set in a small English village just after the end of WWII.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
There has been a lot of talk recently about making our hobby a safe and fun place for everyone. I sincerely hope that we will continue to grow in diversity (all parts-- gender, age, race, nationality, sexuality) and learn to lift up and really consider what marginalized voices are saying needs to change.
I've known Tassy for about three years now. We met through Twitter and she joined The Parallel Case shortly after that. Since then, she's become a regular member, always contributing medical knowledge, probing questions about the roles of women, and overall great comments about Doyle's writing. She was an integral part in last year's Holmes in the Heartland weekend and can be counted on to have deep thoughts and/or pictures of her cat on Twitter and Instagram.
Tassy is a real spark plug in our Sherlockian hobby. If you know her, kick back and get to know her a little better. If the name Tassy Hayden isn't familiar to you, dig in and get ready for an interesting interview.
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
I think that anyone who get excited at the idea of consuming media featuring Sherlock Holmes (or any of the many characters derived from his archetype, provided there's awareness of the history there) is a Sherlockian. Some of us are deeper into it than others, and the interests and level of interest of any given Sherlockian will wax and wane over time. But if you love the Great Detective, you're one of us.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
I had a brief flirtation with Holmesian adaptations when I was a kid (The Great Mouse Detective chief among them) and a definite interest in detective fiction through adolescence and young adulthood (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Gilman's Mrs Pollifax). I remember being so excited when the first Guy Ritchie movie came out, and I dragged my whole family to the theater on Christmas to see it, so I don't suppose I ever stopped being a Sherlockian as defined above. I definitely got more involved when I finally finished up my pesky medical training, which was in the heyday of BBC's Sherlock. So it was a good time to fall deeply back into the hobby/way of life.
What is your favorite canonical story?
It's always changing. Right now, I'll say "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" because there's such a lot of things going on there, including stereotyping of a Peruvian woman who is, ultimately, just trying to save her son without destroying the integrity of her family because of the abhorrent behavior of her husband's son from a previous marriage. Have you seen the Miss Sherlock episode based on it? It's the fourth episode in the first season and it's amazing. I think they do a particularly good job weaving in the impact of women's roles in Japanese society, especially as wives and mothers.
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
I was blown away when I attended a panel featuring Dr. Carlina Maria De La Cova at 221B Con this year. She has a PhD in anthropology and focuses on the effects of marginalization on the health of the human body, especially the skeleton. She teaches a course on the forensics of Sherlock Holmes, which is my jam. In an overwhelmingly white hobby, it's so nice to hear from a brilliant black woman.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
Can I tell you a secret? I'm a total Doylist. It's probably because I'm a physician and a writer as well (mostly poetry-- and fan fiction occasionally). I like thinking about Doyle's education and life experience and how it influences how he writes Watson and Holmes. He became kind of a consulting criminologist due to the popularity of his stories, but he had the medical training and kept up with research in medicine and criminology that helped him change the course of at least one criminal case in 1900's Britain.
What things do you like to research related to Sherlock Holmes?
Anything related to medicine, forensics, or criminology. I've even lured my husband, Bill, into the mix, and whenever we're watching an adaptation, he points out when characters talk about fingerprinting, etc, and asks whether it's chronologically appropriate.
As a fan that came to Sherlockiana from newer avenues, what is the most important aspect of this hobby in your mind?
I'm so interested in how many different adaptations we've been given over the last 140-odd years. I enjoy seeing how far we as fans and creators can push the character. Bend him until he nearly breaks, but if I still feel a Holmesian presence in your work...well...there are truly No Holmes Barred.
Let's say one of your patients is somehow able to travel back to Victorian London. Would you recommend that they visit Dr. Watson for medical services?
I don't know how well my particular patient population would fare there in general, given I see mostly queer folx and a good number of patients with HIV. Advances in medicine aside (and I expect that Watson was pretty up to date in terms of medical skill, given his work in the military as well as who was writing him), I think the most important skill a doctor can have is empathy. And I believe Dr. Watson has that. Listening and considering the feelings of your patient allows them to open up and you to help as much as possible. Given the compassionate voice Watson employs in the stories and the fact that he seems to thrive in a very Bohemian household with Holmes, I think my LGBT+ patients could definitely do worse than him when seeking care in Victorian London.
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?
In nonfiction, The Scientific Sherlock Holmes by James O'Brien; in fiction, the entire Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer; in LGBT+ fiction, Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian, a murder mystery set in a small English village just after the end of WWII.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
There has been a lot of talk recently about making our hobby a safe and fun place for everyone. I sincerely hope that we will continue to grow in diversity (all parts-- gender, age, race, nationality, sexuality) and learn to lift up and really consider what marginalized voices are saying needs to change.
July 7, 2019
And You Can Check Me [3STU]
At the beginning of the year, I had 10 Sherlockian resolutions for 2019. Since we are half way though the year, I figured now is a good time to check my progress. Looking back on them, I'm pleased with some of my progress, not sure how to accomplish some, and am overall happy to be swimming in Sherlockian waters no matter my progress.
1. Read 20 canonical stories
So far this year, I've read:
The Musgrave Ritual
The Speckled Band
The Red-Headed League
The Crooked Man
The Three Garridebs
The Six Napoleons
The Devil's Foot
The Engineer's Thumb
The Man with the Twisted Lip
So 9. I'm a little behind pace, but this is one that will be fun to catch up on!
2. Submit an article to the Baker Street Journal
I submitted a piece earlier this year. The piece was a toast from a scion meeting and the BSJ doesn't publish toasts anymore, so it was a no go. Oh well, there's always next time...
3. Finish my current Sherlockian book manuscript
I'm making progress on this. I have finished writing my first draft and am now moving on to editing. I enjoy editing and revising much more than the writing part, so hopefully I can pick up some momentum with this.
4. Encourage new leadership in The Parallel Case of St. Louis
This one is hard to quantify. We have blog posts by individual members happening throughout the year now. Joe Eckrich wrote about his Sherlockian collection and Stacey Bregenzer posted history of the royal family which were both very well received and very popular. Holmes in the Heartland is happening again next year, and the planning committee for that is doing some great work right now. Where do we go from here? Who knows, but I have great "expectancies for the future"!
5. Encourage St. Louis Sherlockian social interactions
This one was a pretty lofty goal. Going to have to keep chipping away at this one.
6. Holmes in the Heartland 2020
Oh HELL yeah, this is happening! Look for the date to be announced next weekend. We already have some speakers lined up, and the venues are going to be even better than 2018. I wish I could say more, but I've been sworn to secrecy...
7. Add to the St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection
We've added a few titles to the collection this year, and I have been given carte blanche to spend money in the Dealer's Room at the Minnesota conference next month. I'm gonna buy LOTS of books!
8. Get visitors to the St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection
Nope. No idea how to do this yet.
9. Use the collection for my own research
I had hoped to spend a day in the Research Collection this summer for some scholarly articles that I've been kicking around. Unfortunately, my children's book project, Holmes in the Heartland, and another book project I'm working on have taken up most of my Sherlockian research time. I would love to say that it's still going to happen, but at this point it doesn't look too realistic.
10. Keep blogging!
I almost quit earlier in the year and turned this into a monthly interview blog without my individual posts in between. But I'm still here. And enough people read the blog each week that I can justify putting stuff out there. So to those of you who keep coming back week after week, thanks! I'll keep coming back each week, too.
1. Read 20 canonical stories
So far this year, I've read:
The Musgrave Ritual
The Speckled Band
The Red-Headed League
The Crooked Man
The Three Garridebs
The Six Napoleons
The Devil's Foot
The Engineer's Thumb
The Man with the Twisted Lip
So 9. I'm a little behind pace, but this is one that will be fun to catch up on!
2. Submit an article to the Baker Street Journal
I submitted a piece earlier this year. The piece was a toast from a scion meeting and the BSJ doesn't publish toasts anymore, so it was a no go. Oh well, there's always next time...
3. Finish my current Sherlockian book manuscript
I'm making progress on this. I have finished writing my first draft and am now moving on to editing. I enjoy editing and revising much more than the writing part, so hopefully I can pick up some momentum with this.
4. Encourage new leadership in The Parallel Case of St. Louis
This one is hard to quantify. We have blog posts by individual members happening throughout the year now. Joe Eckrich wrote about his Sherlockian collection and Stacey Bregenzer posted history of the royal family which were both very well received and very popular. Holmes in the Heartland is happening again next year, and the planning committee for that is doing some great work right now. Where do we go from here? Who knows, but I have great "expectancies for the future"!
5. Encourage St. Louis Sherlockian social interactions
This one was a pretty lofty goal. Going to have to keep chipping away at this one.
6. Holmes in the Heartland 2020
Oh HELL yeah, this is happening! Look for the date to be announced next weekend. We already have some speakers lined up, and the venues are going to be even better than 2018. I wish I could say more, but I've been sworn to secrecy...
7. Add to the St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection
We've added a few titles to the collection this year, and I have been given carte blanche to spend money in the Dealer's Room at the Minnesota conference next month. I'm gonna buy LOTS of books!
8. Get visitors to the St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection
Nope. No idea how to do this yet.
9. Use the collection for my own research
I had hoped to spend a day in the Research Collection this summer for some scholarly articles that I've been kicking around. Unfortunately, my children's book project, Holmes in the Heartland, and another book project I'm working on have taken up most of my Sherlockian research time. I would love to say that it's still going to happen, but at this point it doesn't look too realistic.
10. Keep blogging!
I almost quit earlier in the year and turned this into a monthly interview blog without my individual posts in between. But I'm still here. And enough people read the blog each week that I can justify putting stuff out there. So to those of you who keep coming back week after week, thanks! I'll keep coming back each week, too.
June 30, 2019
Each is Suggestive [DEVI]
Reading "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" this morning gave me a couple different thoughts about this story. So this week, I'm just going to ramble through my thoughts on one of the less popular stories in the Canon.
I feel like the stories from 'His Last Bow' get a short shrift. We often dismiss the last two collections of stories either purposely or subconsciously. And while there can be a good debate about 'The Case-Book', I think 'His Last Bow' isn't in the forefront of our minds because they weren't the packaged deal of 'Adventures,' 'Memoirs,' and 'Return.'
DEVI gives us this great Sherlockismus:
"I followed you."
"I saw no one."
"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."
If you had asked me what story that quote came from, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. Admittedly, I'm not as great at quotes as I'd like to be, but that's another story.
Dr. Leon Sterndale seems like a character that would be rife for a spin off full of his own adventures. I can just see him meeting up with Professor Challenger or Sebastian Moran in his travels.
Do you think Holmes showed more emotion towards Watson in this story or when he was shot in 3GAR? Either way, it's one of those rare moments when Holmes shows us just how important the good doctor is to him.
DEVI reminded me of a lot of other stories, too. Mainly REIG and ABBE. In REIG, Holmes is ordered to recuperate and finds himself investigating a local problem instead. The end of ABBE shows Holmes weighing the justification of a criminal and allowing him to go. Although the motive and murder weapon of DEVI are new to us, the beginning and the end can give the reader deja vu.
But what really got me thinking today were the following lines:
"The ancient Cornish language had also arrested his attention, and he had, I remember, conceived the idea that it was akin to the Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician traders in tin. He had received a consignment of books upon philology and was settling down to develop this thesis..."
There are just enough buzzwords in here to pique my interest, but I also immediately recognize them as words I don't fully understand. Chaldean. Phoenician. Philology.
These have always struck me as vaguely theological words. At least 'Phoenician.' You hear of them in relation to the Israelites in the Bible. A quick Google search shows me that 'philology' is the study of languages. 'Chaldean' comes up quite a bit in the Old Testament.
Like someone else once said, "My biblical knowledge is a trifle rusty," but those few sentences always spark something in the back of my brain. There's something there related to my interest in the overlap of Sherlock Holmes and theology, I just don't have the knowledge to make it make sense. Perhaps I need to do some more reading. After all, "to let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces."
I feel like the stories from 'His Last Bow' get a short shrift. We often dismiss the last two collections of stories either purposely or subconsciously. And while there can be a good debate about 'The Case-Book', I think 'His Last Bow' isn't in the forefront of our minds because they weren't the packaged deal of 'Adventures,' 'Memoirs,' and 'Return.'
DEVI gives us this great Sherlockismus:
"I followed you."
"I saw no one."
"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."
If you had asked me what story that quote came from, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. Admittedly, I'm not as great at quotes as I'd like to be, but that's another story.
Dr. Leon Sterndale seems like a character that would be rife for a spin off full of his own adventures. I can just see him meeting up with Professor Challenger or Sebastian Moran in his travels.
Do you think Holmes showed more emotion towards Watson in this story or when he was shot in 3GAR? Either way, it's one of those rare moments when Holmes shows us just how important the good doctor is to him.
DEVI reminded me of a lot of other stories, too. Mainly REIG and ABBE. In REIG, Holmes is ordered to recuperate and finds himself investigating a local problem instead. The end of ABBE shows Holmes weighing the justification of a criminal and allowing him to go. Although the motive and murder weapon of DEVI are new to us, the beginning and the end can give the reader deja vu.
But what really got me thinking today were the following lines:
"The ancient Cornish language had also arrested his attention, and he had, I remember, conceived the idea that it was akin to the Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician traders in tin. He had received a consignment of books upon philology and was settling down to develop this thesis..."
There are just enough buzzwords in here to pique my interest, but I also immediately recognize them as words I don't fully understand. Chaldean. Phoenician. Philology.
These have always struck me as vaguely theological words. At least 'Phoenician.' You hear of them in relation to the Israelites in the Bible. A quick Google search shows me that 'philology' is the study of languages. 'Chaldean' comes up quite a bit in the Old Testament.
Like someone else once said, "My biblical knowledge is a trifle rusty," but those few sentences always spark something in the back of my brain. There's something there related to my interest in the overlap of Sherlock Holmes and theology, I just don't have the knowledge to make it make sense. Perhaps I need to do some more reading. After all, "to let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces."
June 23, 2019
The Game is Afoot [ABBE]
This week, the new game "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" took the gaming world by storm. I'm going to admit right up front that I don't know much about this game, but it seems a lot like "Pokemon Go," an Augmented Reality game for your phone. I remember when Pokemon Go was big, you'd see people wandering around neighborhoods trying to catch Pokemon and interacting with other game players. But what does this have to do with Sherlock Holmes?
Everything! Because it's time to reveal the next big AR game: "Sherlock Holmes: Detectives Unite" (Or we could go with "Sherlock Holmes Stop (the Criminals) if you prefer a play on the Pokemon title.)
First things first. What is Augmented Reality? I don't really know.
But my cousin does! Jeremy Monken works for Trigger, a Mixed Reality company. So he knows what he's talking about:
"Wizards Unite and Pokemon Go are mobile games that use a combination of GPS location data and augmented reality gameplay to let players interact with a virtual world superimposed over the real world. Using real-time data, users can interact with each other and the world."
So, now that we know what AR is, how would a Sherlock Holmes AR game work?
60 Cases, 60 levels. To pass each level, you would have to collect clues that would be superimposed on your screen as you move through a neighborhood. Let's take A Scandal in Bohemia as Level 1.
Here are some things you'd have to accomplish to solve Case 1:
Meet with Count Von Kramm and convince him to take his mask off, revealing that he is the King of BohemiaListen to the King's story, collect information and paymentSelect a disguise and then travel to Serpentine Mews to find out about Irene AdlerFollow two carriages to the Church of St. MonicaParticipate in a wedding ceremony and collect a sovereignReturn to Baker Street and plan the next step with Watson. Do you...Break in to Irene Adler's house and try to locate the missing pictureInterrogate Godfrey NortonTrick Irene Adler into showing you where the picture is hiddenWe all know that choice 3 is the correct answer. If you pick choices 1 or 2, you'll run though whatever steps that would be included, but ultimately fail. You would have to do the mission over again starting from the beginningAfter you've chosen option 3, select a disguise and head to Irene Adler's houseGet in a fake fight when her carriage pulls upConvince her to take you in to her houseCall out "Fire! Fire!" when Watson throws a smoke bomb through the windowAfter Irene has shown you where the picture is hidden and the false alarm is realized, make another choiceTry and grab the hidden picture while she is out of the roomReturn to Baker Street and try to burgle Irene Adler's house later that nightReturn to Baker Street and tell the King to meet you in the morningIf the mission is completed correctly, you are awarded a photograph of Irene Adler and you move on to Case 2
Obviously, most of the cases are short stories and can be played as individual levels, but what about the 4 novels? Well, I guess those would have to be boss levels and have to take a little more time. We can cut out the backstory stuff in A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Valley of Fear, but they will still obviously take a little longer.
So, 14 standard cases followed by one boss level. These 15 cases could be grouped as "The Adventures," "The Memoirs," "The Return," and "The Case-Book." We'd have to make some slight changes to some of the stories (no introduction of Watson and Holmes in STUD, Holmes isn't retired in LION or LAST, etc.) and the order that they appear, but off the top of my head the first batch of levels could look like this:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
A Scandal in Bohemia: See aboveThe Red-headed League Turn your street into Jabez Wilson's neighborhood, looking for clues on the street and question Vincent SpauldingWill you stake out Wilson's shop, hunt down Duncan Ross, or convince the bank manager to let you into his vault? A Case of IdentityFind the cab that Hosmer Angel slipped out ofConfront James Windibank and make him confessThe Boscombe Valley MysteryTurn over rocks on your phone to find the murder weaponRace against Lestrade before he can collect enough evidence to convict McCarthyThe Five Orange PipsVisit John Openshaw at his estate. How are the orange seeds and locked box connected?Track down information on American sailing vessels. Can you make it back to Openshaw before the KKK gets to him?The Man with the Twisted LipTurn your neighborhood into The Bar of Gold and the Thames River to collect evidenceWhat items will you take with you to the jail to unmask Hugh Boone?The Adventure of the Blue CarbuncleWhat can you deduce from Henry Baker's hat?Follow the trail to the Alpha InnMake James Ryder confess; do you let him go or not?The Adventure of the Speckled BandFace off against Grimesby Roylott as he bends steel pokers with his bare handsAvoid the cheetah and baboon as you make your way to Stoke MoranCan you stop the snake in time before it makes it down the rope?The Adventure of Wisteria LodgeInvestigate voodoo items at Wisteria Lodge and question John EcclesSearch nearby houses for people who could be connected to the caseThe Adventure of the Engineer's ThumbYou've just missed Victor Hatherly, so follow him to a country houseHelp him escape from the hydraulic press!The house is on fire! You can stop the counterfeiters from escaping or rescue Hatherly as he hangs from the window, which will you choose?The Adventure of the Noble BachelorFind the missing wedding dress and veilWill you question the lady who interrupted the reception or track down the mysterious man from the front pew?The Adventure of the Beryl CoronetFollow the tracks in the snow Fight George Burnwell to find out what you need to knowUse your clues to track down the lost crownThe Adventure of the Cardboard BoxTravel with Lestrade and hear his story about the severed earsTrack down Jim Browner before he escapes on a boatThe Adventure of the Copper BeechesInvestigate in The Copper Beeches but don't let Carlo catch your scent!Can you make it to Alice Rucastle before her father does?Boss Level: A Study in ScarletCollect evidence at Lauriston GardensSet a trap and chase the old lady through London's streetsFollow the clues to Madame Charpentier's Boarding HouseHow will you test the poison found at the boarding house?Dispatch the Baker Street Irregulars and travel with them through London's cab yardsFight Jefferson Hope to keep him from escaping through a window!And this is just the first 15 cases! Meet brother Mycroft in "The Memoirs," stop The Hound of the Baskervilles in "The Return," and go face-to-face with Moriarty in "The Case-Book!" Can't you just see all of the folks wandering around staring at their phones when this game comes out?
Well, they already are, but this time it will be for Sherlock Holmes! And come on, you already know the ads will end with "The Game's Afoot"!
Everything! Because it's time to reveal the next big AR game: "Sherlock Holmes: Detectives Unite" (Or we could go with "Sherlock Holmes Stop (the Criminals) if you prefer a play on the Pokemon title.)
First things first. What is Augmented Reality? I don't really know.
But my cousin does! Jeremy Monken works for Trigger, a Mixed Reality company. So he knows what he's talking about:
"Wizards Unite and Pokemon Go are mobile games that use a combination of GPS location data and augmented reality gameplay to let players interact with a virtual world superimposed over the real world. Using real-time data, users can interact with each other and the world."
So, now that we know what AR is, how would a Sherlock Holmes AR game work?
60 Cases, 60 levels. To pass each level, you would have to collect clues that would be superimposed on your screen as you move through a neighborhood. Let's take A Scandal in Bohemia as Level 1.
Here are some things you'd have to accomplish to solve Case 1:
Meet with Count Von Kramm and convince him to take his mask off, revealing that he is the King of BohemiaListen to the King's story, collect information and paymentSelect a disguise and then travel to Serpentine Mews to find out about Irene AdlerFollow two carriages to the Church of St. MonicaParticipate in a wedding ceremony and collect a sovereignReturn to Baker Street and plan the next step with Watson. Do you...Break in to Irene Adler's house and try to locate the missing pictureInterrogate Godfrey NortonTrick Irene Adler into showing you where the picture is hiddenWe all know that choice 3 is the correct answer. If you pick choices 1 or 2, you'll run though whatever steps that would be included, but ultimately fail. You would have to do the mission over again starting from the beginningAfter you've chosen option 3, select a disguise and head to Irene Adler's houseGet in a fake fight when her carriage pulls upConvince her to take you in to her houseCall out "Fire! Fire!" when Watson throws a smoke bomb through the windowAfter Irene has shown you where the picture is hidden and the false alarm is realized, make another choiceTry and grab the hidden picture while she is out of the roomReturn to Baker Street and try to burgle Irene Adler's house later that nightReturn to Baker Street and tell the King to meet you in the morningIf the mission is completed correctly, you are awarded a photograph of Irene Adler and you move on to Case 2
Obviously, most of the cases are short stories and can be played as individual levels, but what about the 4 novels? Well, I guess those would have to be boss levels and have to take a little more time. We can cut out the backstory stuff in A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Valley of Fear, but they will still obviously take a little longer.
So, 14 standard cases followed by one boss level. These 15 cases could be grouped as "The Adventures," "The Memoirs," "The Return," and "The Case-Book." We'd have to make some slight changes to some of the stories (no introduction of Watson and Holmes in STUD, Holmes isn't retired in LION or LAST, etc.) and the order that they appear, but off the top of my head the first batch of levels could look like this:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
A Scandal in Bohemia: See aboveThe Red-headed League Turn your street into Jabez Wilson's neighborhood, looking for clues on the street and question Vincent SpauldingWill you stake out Wilson's shop, hunt down Duncan Ross, or convince the bank manager to let you into his vault? A Case of IdentityFind the cab that Hosmer Angel slipped out ofConfront James Windibank and make him confessThe Boscombe Valley MysteryTurn over rocks on your phone to find the murder weaponRace against Lestrade before he can collect enough evidence to convict McCarthyThe Five Orange PipsVisit John Openshaw at his estate. How are the orange seeds and locked box connected?Track down information on American sailing vessels. Can you make it back to Openshaw before the KKK gets to him?The Man with the Twisted LipTurn your neighborhood into The Bar of Gold and the Thames River to collect evidenceWhat items will you take with you to the jail to unmask Hugh Boone?The Adventure of the Blue CarbuncleWhat can you deduce from Henry Baker's hat?Follow the trail to the Alpha InnMake James Ryder confess; do you let him go or not?The Adventure of the Speckled BandFace off against Grimesby Roylott as he bends steel pokers with his bare handsAvoid the cheetah and baboon as you make your way to Stoke MoranCan you stop the snake in time before it makes it down the rope?The Adventure of Wisteria LodgeInvestigate voodoo items at Wisteria Lodge and question John EcclesSearch nearby houses for people who could be connected to the caseThe Adventure of the Engineer's ThumbYou've just missed Victor Hatherly, so follow him to a country houseHelp him escape from the hydraulic press!The house is on fire! You can stop the counterfeiters from escaping or rescue Hatherly as he hangs from the window, which will you choose?The Adventure of the Noble BachelorFind the missing wedding dress and veilWill you question the lady who interrupted the reception or track down the mysterious man from the front pew?The Adventure of the Beryl CoronetFollow the tracks in the snow Fight George Burnwell to find out what you need to knowUse your clues to track down the lost crownThe Adventure of the Cardboard BoxTravel with Lestrade and hear his story about the severed earsTrack down Jim Browner before he escapes on a boatThe Adventure of the Copper BeechesInvestigate in The Copper Beeches but don't let Carlo catch your scent!Can you make it to Alice Rucastle before her father does?Boss Level: A Study in ScarletCollect evidence at Lauriston GardensSet a trap and chase the old lady through London's streetsFollow the clues to Madame Charpentier's Boarding HouseHow will you test the poison found at the boarding house?Dispatch the Baker Street Irregulars and travel with them through London's cab yardsFight Jefferson Hope to keep him from escaping through a window!And this is just the first 15 cases! Meet brother Mycroft in "The Memoirs," stop The Hound of the Baskervilles in "The Return," and go face-to-face with Moriarty in "The Case-Book!" Can't you just see all of the folks wandering around staring at their phones when this game comes out?
Well, they already are, but this time it will be for Sherlock Holmes! And come on, you already know the ads will end with "The Game's Afoot"!
June 16, 2019
Now We Have the Sherlock Holmes Test [STUD]
This week, I was reading "The Late Mr. Sherlock Holmes" by Trevor Hall. This one isn't as widely known as his first book, but just as delightful if not more so! But I'm not here to write a book review. Nope. I'm here to talk about footnotes.
Footnotes, the earmark of Sherlockian research. Hall's essays have plenty of them! And I started playing a game with myself. Every time a canonical quote was marked, I would try and see if I could tell which story it was from. Now, I'm fairly adept at scion society quizzes, so I expected to do pretty well at this game.
It's one thing to recall information from one story, but from all sixty? And some of these stories I haven't read in a few years? It was bad.
So, to make myself feel better about my lack of quotational knowledge, I'm going to share quotes from just one of the essays in the book. This is from an essay on Sherlock Holmes and books. This wasn't one of the hardest ones in the book, but still more challenging than I had expected. (The essay that quotes all of the times that Watson commented on an attractive woman? Hoo boy...)
The answers will be at the end of the post. How many can you cite correctly? Keep track of your score and post it in the comments below. Bragging rights for whomever gets the most correct!
1. A small but select library, taken over, as I understand, from a former occupant.
2. We heard of you living the life of a hermit among your bees and your books in a small form upon the South Downs
3. [Holmes] Raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened.
4. [Holmes] Remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books.
5. No, I don't think I have anything rarer than a Crown Derby tea-set.
6. Ha! And the flap has been gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been chewing tobacco.
7. They consisted of a couple of comfortable bedrooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows.
8. His cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe-end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece.
9. A row of formidable scrap-books and books of reference which many of our fellow-citizens would have been so glad to burn.
10. Holmes in one of his queer humours would sit in an arm-chair, with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges, and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in bullet-pocks.
11. He had at least five small refuges in different parts of London in which he was able to change his personality.
12. The most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen.
13. That true cold reason which I place above all things.
14. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old.
15. With his collar turned up, his shiny seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he was a perfect sample of the class.
16. He's following someone. Yesterday he was out as a workman looking for a job. Today he was an old woman.
17. A little later a rakish young workman with a goatee beard and a swagger lit his clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street. "I'll be back some time, Watson', said he, and vanished into the night.
18. If instead o' standin' there so quiet you had just stepped up and given me that cross-hit of yours under the jaw, I'd ha' known you without question.
19. [Holmes] had a good practical knowledge of British law.
20. Phillpe de Croy, whoever he may have been. On the fly-leaf, in very faded ink, is written 'Ex Libris Guliemi Whyte.' I wonder who William Whyte was. Some pragmatical seventeenth century lawyer, I suppose.
21. For the first and last time in my life.
22. A little bookshop at the corner of Church Street.
23. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very sould seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed.
24. How he had purchased his own Stradivarius, which was worth at least five hundred guineas, at a Jew broker's in Tottenham Court Road for fifty-five shillings.
25. A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.
26. There is a great garret in my little house which is stuffed with books. It was into this that I plunged a rummaged for an hour.
Okay, time to count your correct answers!
1. GLOR
2. LAST
3. SIGN
4. SCAN
5. 3GAB
6. TWIS
7. STUD
8. MUSG
9. EMPT
10. MUSG
11. BLAC
12. SCAN
13. SIGN
14. SCAN
15. BERY
16. MAZA
17. CHAS
18. SIGN
19. STUD
20. STUD
21. EMPT
22. EMPT
23. SCAN
24. CARD
25. FIVE
26. LION
Footnotes, the earmark of Sherlockian research. Hall's essays have plenty of them! And I started playing a game with myself. Every time a canonical quote was marked, I would try and see if I could tell which story it was from. Now, I'm fairly adept at scion society quizzes, so I expected to do pretty well at this game.
It's one thing to recall information from one story, but from all sixty? And some of these stories I haven't read in a few years? It was bad.
So, to make myself feel better about my lack of quotational knowledge, I'm going to share quotes from just one of the essays in the book. This is from an essay on Sherlock Holmes and books. This wasn't one of the hardest ones in the book, but still more challenging than I had expected. (The essay that quotes all of the times that Watson commented on an attractive woman? Hoo boy...)
The answers will be at the end of the post. How many can you cite correctly? Keep track of your score and post it in the comments below. Bragging rights for whomever gets the most correct!
1. A small but select library, taken over, as I understand, from a former occupant.
2. We heard of you living the life of a hermit among your bees and your books in a small form upon the South Downs
3. [Holmes] Raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened.
4. [Holmes] Remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books.
5. No, I don't think I have anything rarer than a Crown Derby tea-set.
6. Ha! And the flap has been gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been chewing tobacco.
7. They consisted of a couple of comfortable bedrooms and a single large airy sitting-room, cheerfully furnished, and illuminated by two broad windows.
8. His cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe-end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece.
9. A row of formidable scrap-books and books of reference which many of our fellow-citizens would have been so glad to burn.
10. Holmes in one of his queer humours would sit in an arm-chair, with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges, and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in bullet-pocks.
11. He had at least five small refuges in different parts of London in which he was able to change his personality.
12. The most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen.
13. That true cold reason which I place above all things.
14. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old.
15. With his collar turned up, his shiny seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he was a perfect sample of the class.
16. He's following someone. Yesterday he was out as a workman looking for a job. Today he was an old woman.
17. A little later a rakish young workman with a goatee beard and a swagger lit his clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street. "I'll be back some time, Watson', said he, and vanished into the night.
18. If instead o' standin' there so quiet you had just stepped up and given me that cross-hit of yours under the jaw, I'd ha' known you without question.
19. [Holmes] had a good practical knowledge of British law.
20. Phillpe de Croy, whoever he may have been. On the fly-leaf, in very faded ink, is written 'Ex Libris Guliemi Whyte.' I wonder who William Whyte was. Some pragmatical seventeenth century lawyer, I suppose.
21. For the first and last time in my life.
22. A little bookshop at the corner of Church Street.
23. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very sould seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed.
24. How he had purchased his own Stradivarius, which was worth at least five hundred guineas, at a Jew broker's in Tottenham Court Road for fifty-five shillings.
25. A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.
26. There is a great garret in my little house which is stuffed with books. It was into this that I plunged a rummaged for an hour.
Okay, time to count your correct answers!
1. GLOR
2. LAST
3. SIGN
4. SCAN
5. 3GAB
6. TWIS
7. STUD
8. MUSG
9. EMPT
10. MUSG
11. BLAC
12. SCAN
13. SIGN
14. SCAN
15. BERY
16. MAZA
17. CHAS
18. SIGN
19. STUD
20. STUD
21. EMPT
22. EMPT
23. SCAN
24. CARD
25. FIVE
26. LION
June 9, 2019
Interesting Interview: Mattias Bostrom
Every generation has "that" Sherlockian. The one who poured so much of their lifeblood into our hobby that they have become a cornerstone of Sherlockiana. William Baring-Gould, Richard Lancelyn Green, Leslie Klinger. For those of us who have come into Sherlockiana in the past ten years, Mattias Bostrom is that cornerstone.
If you're reading this blog, you probably already own his Agatha Award winning, Edgar Award and Anthony Award nominated tome, "From Holmes to Sherlock." As far as I am concerned, it is the best Sherlockian book that has come out since I've been a Sherlockian. Mattias could easily rest on his laurels and know that he has made a major contribution to Sherlockiana, but the man immediately jumped into another large project, "Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers," an exhaustive collection of any and all mentions of Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle from the newspapers of their day. The series currently has 4 volumes, covering 1881-1884, with many more in the works.
And if reading Mattias' work isn't enough, you can also hear him! This year, he started his own Sherlockian podcast, Talk About Sherlock, where he does a deep dive into a different and under-reported Sherlockian topic each month. He is also a regular contributor to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere with his segment "As We Go To Press," which gives the news of Holmes and ACD from a random date in history. And I hear tell that we can hope to hear him popping up on The Watsonian Weekly sometime soon.
But until then, here is Mattias Bostrom with his opinions on Sherlockiana!
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
I prefer not to do that. Defining it may remove all the magic and atmosphere that surrounds it. The closest I have come to a definition of the word is in "From Holmes to Sherlock" – and I literally mean the whole more-than-500-page book. I just can't define it in fewer words. And what's interesting is really not the definition, but what you put into the word.
Nothing in the definition of the adjective or the noun "Sherlockian" tells about the feelings connected with the word. It's like the iceberg – you can only define 10% of the word, the rest is hidden in your own emotions. Those emotions differ, depending on who you are and when and why you think about it, but those emotions are the true meaning of the word, not any static definition.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
It's the classic boy-or-girl-meets-Sherlock-story, but with an encyclopedic twist. I had been reading Holmes stories since I was ten years old, over and over again. But when I was sixteen I happened to read about the Sherlockian world in a book, and I totally fell in love with the quasi-academic side of it.
As long as I could remember, I had been eating knowledge for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Always when I was out walking with my grandfather, I said to him, "Ask me something". I wanted him to test all my knowledge in history, geography, science, etc. When Sherlock Holmes took over my life, it evolved slightly – my grandfather didn't have to ask me anything, I told him everything about Holmes anyway. This was my new knowledge.
What is your favorite canonical story?
I have answered The Red-Headed League so often on this question, so I hope it's true. But if I ask my emotions, it is definitely my favorite. It's got that combination of weird humor and a great plot. Humor means so enormously much to me, and when absurd humor can be spotted in a Holmes story, I can only love it.
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
Definitely Paul Thomas Miller. He is bringing so much clever and unexpected humor into the Sherlockian world, and we really needed him when he turned up in our lives a year or two ago. Sherlock Holmes can be serious business sometimes, but Paul always makes us remember the fun of it.
This is how he presents himself on one of his blogs: "Paul Thomas Miller is a long-time Sherlock Holmes devotee and contributor to The Baker Street Journal and other Holmesian publications. He lives in Portsmouth not far from where Arthur Conan Doyle wrote “A Study in Scarlet”. He spends most of his free time reading or writing about Holmes in The Sherloft at the top of his house. Surrounded by Holmesiana, this is where his Holmesian obsession is allowed to play out without testing the patience of his wife and two boys. Paul has formed his own Holmesian society; The Shingle of Southsea. So far the society has one member, who did very well at the society’s 2018 awards ceremony. The society has no plans to expand its membership but does publish its monthly meeting’s minutes online (shingleofsouthsea.blogspot.com). Paul can be found on Twitter under the name @baronvonbork."
His monthly meeting's minutes are hilarious, and his many theories on Canonical things are intelligent and fun. Paul is also the founder of Doyle's Rotary Coffin, "a society formed for the sole purpose of whole-heartedly and contrarily enjoying stupid Holmesiana regardless of how canonical others consider it to be."
Every generation of Sherlockians needs a few really fine humorists. Paul Thomas Miller is one of the best we have.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
The real life part of it. I want to know how everything is interconnected. How people repeatedly influenced each other in the Sherlock Holmes history, and how that turned Holmes into a continuing success. I want to know more about the historical connections between actors, producers, writers, Conan Doyle estate people, and fans. For me that is the best way to explain why Holmes is still such a success. It's all about people.
What things do you like to research related to Sherlock Holmes?
Haha, is there anything I'm not researching? When reading nonfiction books I always start with the list of sources at the end of the book, checking what interesting and unusual sources have been used – and I can get REALLY excited from that!
I would say that some 80% of my Sherlockian activities consists of researching. A lot of my research is in newspapers from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, but I also search in other online archives. And I spend a lot of money asking archives to scan correspondence or whatever for me.
Often, when I see a Sherlockian friend asking for information on Facebook or Twitter about some historical matter, I check some of the best archives to see if I can help in any way, and I normally find some useful newspaper articles, etc.
What was the hardest part of putting together "From Holmes to Sherlock"?Believe it or not, it was actually quite easy, mainly because of luck. When I started the project I made a long list of things I wanted to include in the book, and when looking at that list today, it is very obvious how little I knew about the Sherlock Holmes history at the time. I knew the headlines, but I had very vague knowledge about the facts. So I just started researching things.
e.g. Where could I find information about H. Greenhough Smith, editor of the Strand Magazine? Because I knew nothing, but I really wanted to write about his personality and life. I searched the newspaper archives. And, through Google Books, or in De Waal, or thanks to friends recommending sources, I found a book or magazine issue that included the information I needed. Either I could find it scanned online, or I ordered the book. I spent some $3,000 to buy this kind of literature – often totally non-Sherlockian – about important persons in the Holmes history. I then had an enormous amount of research material, which I just had to structure in a sort of chronological order.
But there was a huge hole in this construction – and that was the part Conan Doyle's children were playing in all of this, after the death of their father. And here comes the luck: the Conan Doyle archive in Portsmouth, consisting of the late Richard Lancelyn Green's gigantic collection, included thousands of documents (letters, business reports, etc.) from Adrian, Denis, and Jean Conan Doyle. Those documents had at that time (2012) just been organized and made available for researchers, and I think I was the first writer or researcher to be interested in looking at much of that material.
It was there that I found the core of my book, and it turned into a thriller about copyright, and also explained pretty much all the important decisions made from 1930 to the 1970s – why certain films, TV series, and plays were made, why Adrian and John Dickson Carr wrote the Exploits, and much more. This was the story that explained why Sherlock Holmes was kept alive and became big business after the death of his creator, instead of maybe slowly disappearing from the minds of the readers.
How do you decide on your monthly topics for "Talk About Sherlock"?
Sometimes it's an old idea that I've never turned into an article. And sometimes I just happen to find an interesting matter while researching something else. The closer I get to the deadline, the more creative I get. I try to present something that many of the listeners haven't heard about before, but I realize that such an approach will be impossible in the long run. We'll see how the podcast develops, it's too early to say.
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?The two I use the most are Brian W Pugh's "A Chronology of the Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" and "Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters", edited by Lellenberg, Stashower and Foley. I constantly find new details in them, both about Conan Doyle and the Sherlock Holmes success.
But the book I would like to recommend is one that easily might be missed by newer Sherlockians, "The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, compiled by Richard Lancelyn Green, a Penguin paperback from 1983. It's a compilation of parodies, plays, poems, speeches and reminiscences. But what's really important is its more than 140 pages long introduction, written by Richard Lancelyn Green. That introduction is one of the cornerstone works in Sherlockian literature, explaining in detail how Conan Doyle started writing about Holmes, and how the detective became a success. Much of what we know about this history comes from Lancelyn Green's research and this introduction.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
It's impossible to say anything about ten years from now. I mean, ten years ago, the Sherlock Holmes world was basically the same as it had been since the 1990s, post-Granada. But then came the TV series Sherlock and changed absolutely everything. It also changed me and my Sherlockian interests, and gave me the incitement to write "From Holmes to Sherlock". Who knows what will come and change the world for me and others again? When it comes to traditional Sherlockiana, I think it will live on as long as there still are traditional Sherlockians.
If you're reading this blog, you probably already own his Agatha Award winning, Edgar Award and Anthony Award nominated tome, "From Holmes to Sherlock." As far as I am concerned, it is the best Sherlockian book that has come out since I've been a Sherlockian. Mattias could easily rest on his laurels and know that he has made a major contribution to Sherlockiana, but the man immediately jumped into another large project, "Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers," an exhaustive collection of any and all mentions of Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle from the newspapers of their day. The series currently has 4 volumes, covering 1881-1884, with many more in the works.
And if reading Mattias' work isn't enough, you can also hear him! This year, he started his own Sherlockian podcast, Talk About Sherlock, where he does a deep dive into a different and under-reported Sherlockian topic each month. He is also a regular contributor to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere with his segment "As We Go To Press," which gives the news of Holmes and ACD from a random date in history. And I hear tell that we can hope to hear him popping up on The Watsonian Weekly sometime soon.
But until then, here is Mattias Bostrom with his opinions on Sherlockiana!
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
I prefer not to do that. Defining it may remove all the magic and atmosphere that surrounds it. The closest I have come to a definition of the word is in "From Holmes to Sherlock" – and I literally mean the whole more-than-500-page book. I just can't define it in fewer words. And what's interesting is really not the definition, but what you put into the word.
Nothing in the definition of the adjective or the noun "Sherlockian" tells about the feelings connected with the word. It's like the iceberg – you can only define 10% of the word, the rest is hidden in your own emotions. Those emotions differ, depending on who you are and when and why you think about it, but those emotions are the true meaning of the word, not any static definition.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
It's the classic boy-or-girl-meets-Sherlock-story, but with an encyclopedic twist. I had been reading Holmes stories since I was ten years old, over and over again. But when I was sixteen I happened to read about the Sherlockian world in a book, and I totally fell in love with the quasi-academic side of it.
As long as I could remember, I had been eating knowledge for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Always when I was out walking with my grandfather, I said to him, "Ask me something". I wanted him to test all my knowledge in history, geography, science, etc. When Sherlock Holmes took over my life, it evolved slightly – my grandfather didn't have to ask me anything, I told him everything about Holmes anyway. This was my new knowledge.
What is your favorite canonical story?
I have answered The Red-Headed League so often on this question, so I hope it's true. But if I ask my emotions, it is definitely my favorite. It's got that combination of weird humor and a great plot. Humor means so enormously much to me, and when absurd humor can be spotted in a Holmes story, I can only love it.
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
Definitely Paul Thomas Miller. He is bringing so much clever and unexpected humor into the Sherlockian world, and we really needed him when he turned up in our lives a year or two ago. Sherlock Holmes can be serious business sometimes, but Paul always makes us remember the fun of it.
This is how he presents himself on one of his blogs: "Paul Thomas Miller is a long-time Sherlock Holmes devotee and contributor to The Baker Street Journal and other Holmesian publications. He lives in Portsmouth not far from where Arthur Conan Doyle wrote “A Study in Scarlet”. He spends most of his free time reading or writing about Holmes in The Sherloft at the top of his house. Surrounded by Holmesiana, this is where his Holmesian obsession is allowed to play out without testing the patience of his wife and two boys. Paul has formed his own Holmesian society; The Shingle of Southsea. So far the society has one member, who did very well at the society’s 2018 awards ceremony. The society has no plans to expand its membership but does publish its monthly meeting’s minutes online (shingleofsouthsea.blogspot.com). Paul can be found on Twitter under the name @baronvonbork."
His monthly meeting's minutes are hilarious, and his many theories on Canonical things are intelligent and fun. Paul is also the founder of Doyle's Rotary Coffin, "a society formed for the sole purpose of whole-heartedly and contrarily enjoying stupid Holmesiana regardless of how canonical others consider it to be."
Every generation of Sherlockians needs a few really fine humorists. Paul Thomas Miller is one of the best we have.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?The real life part of it. I want to know how everything is interconnected. How people repeatedly influenced each other in the Sherlock Holmes history, and how that turned Holmes into a continuing success. I want to know more about the historical connections between actors, producers, writers, Conan Doyle estate people, and fans. For me that is the best way to explain why Holmes is still such a success. It's all about people.
What things do you like to research related to Sherlock Holmes?
Haha, is there anything I'm not researching? When reading nonfiction books I always start with the list of sources at the end of the book, checking what interesting and unusual sources have been used – and I can get REALLY excited from that!
I would say that some 80% of my Sherlockian activities consists of researching. A lot of my research is in newspapers from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, but I also search in other online archives. And I spend a lot of money asking archives to scan correspondence or whatever for me.
Often, when I see a Sherlockian friend asking for information on Facebook or Twitter about some historical matter, I check some of the best archives to see if I can help in any way, and I normally find some useful newspaper articles, etc.
What was the hardest part of putting together "From Holmes to Sherlock"?Believe it or not, it was actually quite easy, mainly because of luck. When I started the project I made a long list of things I wanted to include in the book, and when looking at that list today, it is very obvious how little I knew about the Sherlock Holmes history at the time. I knew the headlines, but I had very vague knowledge about the facts. So I just started researching things.
e.g. Where could I find information about H. Greenhough Smith, editor of the Strand Magazine? Because I knew nothing, but I really wanted to write about his personality and life. I searched the newspaper archives. And, through Google Books, or in De Waal, or thanks to friends recommending sources, I found a book or magazine issue that included the information I needed. Either I could find it scanned online, or I ordered the book. I spent some $3,000 to buy this kind of literature – often totally non-Sherlockian – about important persons in the Holmes history. I then had an enormous amount of research material, which I just had to structure in a sort of chronological order.
But there was a huge hole in this construction – and that was the part Conan Doyle's children were playing in all of this, after the death of their father. And here comes the luck: the Conan Doyle archive in Portsmouth, consisting of the late Richard Lancelyn Green's gigantic collection, included thousands of documents (letters, business reports, etc.) from Adrian, Denis, and Jean Conan Doyle. Those documents had at that time (2012) just been organized and made available for researchers, and I think I was the first writer or researcher to be interested in looking at much of that material.
It was there that I found the core of my book, and it turned into a thriller about copyright, and also explained pretty much all the important decisions made from 1930 to the 1970s – why certain films, TV series, and plays were made, why Adrian and John Dickson Carr wrote the Exploits, and much more. This was the story that explained why Sherlock Holmes was kept alive and became big business after the death of his creator, instead of maybe slowly disappearing from the minds of the readers.
How do you decide on your monthly topics for "Talk About Sherlock"?
Sometimes it's an old idea that I've never turned into an article. And sometimes I just happen to find an interesting matter while researching something else. The closer I get to the deadline, the more creative I get. I try to present something that many of the listeners haven't heard about before, but I realize that such an approach will be impossible in the long run. We'll see how the podcast develops, it's too early to say.
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?The two I use the most are Brian W Pugh's "A Chronology of the Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" and "Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters", edited by Lellenberg, Stashower and Foley. I constantly find new details in them, both about Conan Doyle and the Sherlock Holmes success.
But the book I would like to recommend is one that easily might be missed by newer Sherlockians, "The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, compiled by Richard Lancelyn Green, a Penguin paperback from 1983. It's a compilation of parodies, plays, poems, speeches and reminiscences. But what's really important is its more than 140 pages long introduction, written by Richard Lancelyn Green. That introduction is one of the cornerstone works in Sherlockian literature, explaining in detail how Conan Doyle started writing about Holmes, and how the detective became a success. Much of what we know about this history comes from Lancelyn Green's research and this introduction.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
It's impossible to say anything about ten years from now. I mean, ten years ago, the Sherlock Holmes world was basically the same as it had been since the 1990s, post-Granada. But then came the TV series Sherlock and changed absolutely everything. It also changed me and my Sherlockian interests, and gave me the incitement to write "From Holmes to Sherlock". Who knows what will come and change the world for me and others again? When it comes to traditional Sherlockiana, I think it will live on as long as there still are traditional Sherlockians.
June 2, 2019
If Only as a Check to My Own Memory [NOBL]
It's the beginning of June, and the start of summer! Last week I talked about how I've started reviewing books for The Watsonian Weekly podcast, and that made me remember just how long it took to post my year-end round up of books last year. So I'm going to do a mid-year check in this week. I've read 105 books, stories and journals so far this year, and by my count 40 of those items have been Sherlockian texts. I won't go into detail on each one, just give a quick snapshot of things and hopefully you'll find something that piques your interest.
I will start off with journals, as they have been a major part of my reading this year.
The Baker Street Journal:
V25, 3; V36, 2; V25, 1; V68, 4; V8, 3; Christmas Annual 2018; V3, 4; V4, 1; V24, 4; V35, 1; V10, 1; V12, 1; V69, 1; V13, 2
Yup, that's 14 issues of the BSJ that I've read so far this year. And it's all over the place. I've read issues edited by Julian Wolff, Phillip Shreffler, Edgar Smith, and Steven Rothman. It's interesting to see how the BSJ has changed over the decades. If you have old copies lying around your house, pick one up. I'd wager that it will be a nice trip down memory lane.
The Serpentine Muse:
Volume 35 Numbers 1 & 2
When I won The Beacon Award last year (humble brag, I know), I was awarded a subscription to The Serpentine Muse. I wasn't sure what it was when I received my first issue. Was it a collection of toasts? Activity reports? Scholarship? Other stuff? The answer to all of this is yes. Once I knew what to expect when I opened up the cover of a new issue, I was quick to renew my subscription when the notice came in the mail last week.
The Holmes and Watson Report:
May 2000 , July 2000, September 2000, October 2000, January 2001
The out of print journal is like opening up a Sherlockian time capsule to the beginning of the century. These issues had Holmes running for president of the United States until Moriarty and Moran took over the publishing offices. Imagine if Sherlock Peoria had a full time staff and they put out a journal and you have an idea of what this entails.
The Watsonian: Volume 7, Number 1I love The Watsonian. In fact, I reviewed it on the latest episode of The Watsonian Weekly.
The Canon:
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Adventure of The Red-Headed League, The Crooked Man
My goal is to read 20 canonical stories by the end of the year, so having only read 4 by this point in the year tells me I need to pick up the stories more this summer!
The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars – Anthony BoucherThis had been on my TBR for a long while, but a friend raved about how much they loved it so I bumped it up. And I'm glad I did! Not specifically Sherlockian, but a fun 40's murder mystery that kept me turning the pages.
Subcutaneously, My Dear Watson – Jack TracyI know Holmes' cocaine use is a big deal for some folks, but I'm not that type of Sherlockian. It was a fine book, just not for me.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Told by Sherlock Holmes – Holy Ghost WriterStick with me here. This is the story of Huckleberry Finn told to Dr. Watson by Sherlock Holmes, written by someone named The Holy Ghost Writer. Apparently, this is part of a larger series where Sherlock Holmes tells Watson about other literary characters that he has worked with, and then tells their famous tales to Watson. Except the actual Huckleberry Finn story here is just the Mark Twain text that has been copy and pasted in between snippets of conversation between Holmes and Watson. This book is so nuts that I actually live-tweeted it the night I read it. It's been months since I read this book, and I'm still not sure exactly what was going on.
Sherlockian Ruminations from a Stormy Petrel – Brenda RossiniAnd now for something completely different! A nice collection of essays by a true blue Sherlockian. I always enjoy these types of books as the essays can be all over the map and still give you an idea of the Sherlockian that wrote them.
The Bedside Companion to Sherlock Holmes – Dick Riley A list of the stories, a biography on Doyle, information about Victorian London. I'm sure we all have one or two of these in our own libraries.
The Sherlock Holmes Companion – Kenneth HarrisIf you enjoy Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes you need this book. A gorgeous photo layout with nice information about the episodes of the Granada series and the source material.
Lock & Key: The Initiation – Ridley PearsonEvery now and then I will pick up a YA re-imagining of the Canon and I always end up feeling "meh" about them. I am definitely not the target audience for these types of books, but if they engage new readers and get them to check out Doyle's original stories, keep 'em coming!
A Holmes by Any Other Name – Bill MasonBill has collected every known parody of the name "Sherlock Holmes" and given background on each. But this isn't just a book of lists. There's also stories about contests to come up with new parodies and a look at how other characters in the Canon have been treated by parodists.
The Strand Magazine and Sherlock Holmes: Two Fixed Points in a Changing Age – Robert VeldI am admittedly not very interested in Arthur Conan Doyle. But man, did this book keep me into a story where he obviously plays a large role. This is a must have history for any Sherlockian who is interested in Holmes' impact on the wider world.
Baker Street and Beyond: Essays on Sherlock Holmes – Lord DonnegalMuch like Brenda Rossini's book above, another great collection of essays. I read this book in one sitting and would recommend it to anyone out there.
Sherlock Holmes in America – Bill BlackbeardAn interesting history of how Sherlock Holmes has been received and depicted in America. With pastiches, scholarship, scripts and LOTS of pictures, it was a fun read.
A Sherlock Holmes Compendium – Peter HainingMuch like Sherlock Holmes in America, this is an overview of Holmes in popular culture, but it doesn't limit itself to the US.
Sherlock Holmes and Music – Guy WarrackI picked this up because it was on the Shaw 100. I'm not a musicologist, so a lot of this went over my head. But this slim volume is a quick read and you can tell that Warrack was very knowledgeable about his topic.
Scandinavia and Sherlock Holmes – Bjarne NielsenOh Lord, I loved this book. I bought a set of the BSI International Series earlier this year, and Scandinavia is the first one that I've read. This sets the bar pretty high for great scholarship and I can't wait to get to the others in the set!
I will start off with journals, as they have been a major part of my reading this year.
The Baker Street Journal:
V25, 3; V36, 2; V25, 1; V68, 4; V8, 3; Christmas Annual 2018; V3, 4; V4, 1; V24, 4; V35, 1; V10, 1; V12, 1; V69, 1; V13, 2
Yup, that's 14 issues of the BSJ that I've read so far this year. And it's all over the place. I've read issues edited by Julian Wolff, Phillip Shreffler, Edgar Smith, and Steven Rothman. It's interesting to see how the BSJ has changed over the decades. If you have old copies lying around your house, pick one up. I'd wager that it will be a nice trip down memory lane.
The Serpentine Muse:
Volume 35 Numbers 1 & 2
When I won The Beacon Award last year (humble brag, I know), I was awarded a subscription to The Serpentine Muse. I wasn't sure what it was when I received my first issue. Was it a collection of toasts? Activity reports? Scholarship? Other stuff? The answer to all of this is yes. Once I knew what to expect when I opened up the cover of a new issue, I was quick to renew my subscription when the notice came in the mail last week.
The Holmes and Watson Report:
May 2000 , July 2000, September 2000, October 2000, January 2001
The out of print journal is like opening up a Sherlockian time capsule to the beginning of the century. These issues had Holmes running for president of the United States until Moriarty and Moran took over the publishing offices. Imagine if Sherlock Peoria had a full time staff and they put out a journal and you have an idea of what this entails.
The Watsonian: Volume 7, Number 1I love The Watsonian. In fact, I reviewed it on the latest episode of The Watsonian Weekly.
The Canon:
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Adventure of The Red-Headed League, The Crooked Man
My goal is to read 20 canonical stories by the end of the year, so having only read 4 by this point in the year tells me I need to pick up the stories more this summer!
The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars – Anthony BoucherThis had been on my TBR for a long while, but a friend raved about how much they loved it so I bumped it up. And I'm glad I did! Not specifically Sherlockian, but a fun 40's murder mystery that kept me turning the pages.
Subcutaneously, My Dear Watson – Jack TracyI know Holmes' cocaine use is a big deal for some folks, but I'm not that type of Sherlockian. It was a fine book, just not for me.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Told by Sherlock Holmes – Holy Ghost WriterStick with me here. This is the story of Huckleberry Finn told to Dr. Watson by Sherlock Holmes, written by someone named The Holy Ghost Writer. Apparently, this is part of a larger series where Sherlock Holmes tells Watson about other literary characters that he has worked with, and then tells their famous tales to Watson. Except the actual Huckleberry Finn story here is just the Mark Twain text that has been copy and pasted in between snippets of conversation between Holmes and Watson. This book is so nuts that I actually live-tweeted it the night I read it. It's been months since I read this book, and I'm still not sure exactly what was going on.
Sherlockian Ruminations from a Stormy Petrel – Brenda RossiniAnd now for something completely different! A nice collection of essays by a true blue Sherlockian. I always enjoy these types of books as the essays can be all over the map and still give you an idea of the Sherlockian that wrote them.
The Bedside Companion to Sherlock Holmes – Dick Riley A list of the stories, a biography on Doyle, information about Victorian London. I'm sure we all have one or two of these in our own libraries.
The Sherlock Holmes Companion – Kenneth HarrisIf you enjoy Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes you need this book. A gorgeous photo layout with nice information about the episodes of the Granada series and the source material.
Lock & Key: The Initiation – Ridley PearsonEvery now and then I will pick up a YA re-imagining of the Canon and I always end up feeling "meh" about them. I am definitely not the target audience for these types of books, but if they engage new readers and get them to check out Doyle's original stories, keep 'em coming!
A Holmes by Any Other Name – Bill MasonBill has collected every known parody of the name "Sherlock Holmes" and given background on each. But this isn't just a book of lists. There's also stories about contests to come up with new parodies and a look at how other characters in the Canon have been treated by parodists.
The Strand Magazine and Sherlock Holmes: Two Fixed Points in a Changing Age – Robert VeldI am admittedly not very interested in Arthur Conan Doyle. But man, did this book keep me into a story where he obviously plays a large role. This is a must have history for any Sherlockian who is interested in Holmes' impact on the wider world.
Baker Street and Beyond: Essays on Sherlock Holmes – Lord DonnegalMuch like Brenda Rossini's book above, another great collection of essays. I read this book in one sitting and would recommend it to anyone out there.
Sherlock Holmes in America – Bill BlackbeardAn interesting history of how Sherlock Holmes has been received and depicted in America. With pastiches, scholarship, scripts and LOTS of pictures, it was a fun read.
A Sherlock Holmes Compendium – Peter HainingMuch like Sherlock Holmes in America, this is an overview of Holmes in popular culture, but it doesn't limit itself to the US.
Sherlock Holmes and Music – Guy WarrackI picked this up because it was on the Shaw 100. I'm not a musicologist, so a lot of this went over my head. But this slim volume is a quick read and you can tell that Warrack was very knowledgeable about his topic.
Scandinavia and Sherlock Holmes – Bjarne NielsenOh Lord, I loved this book. I bought a set of the BSI International Series earlier this year, and Scandinavia is the first one that I've read. This sets the bar pretty high for great scholarship and I can't wait to get to the others in the set!
May 27, 2019
I Have Put It Upon Record [SOLI]
I'm assuming I'm in the majority here in that I hate the sound of my own voice. Whether it's a video from long ago, hearing it on a voicemail, or my days as a radio morning show co-host, that's not how I think I sound. So the few times I've been interviewed on podcasts when I was promoting my book, The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street, it was a necessary evil as far as I was concerned.
That book has been out for over a year and a half, so the promotion for it is over. So why did I find myself on two different podcasts last week? Well, because some friends asked me to, and I'm a sucker.
Last week was the first episode of The Watsonian Weekly, the new podcast from The John H. Watson Society. For their soft open, I was asked to contribute a short book review. I'm not a technophile, so Brad Keefauver had to walk me through how to record a file on my phone and email it to him. (How far have we come that people can record on their phone, send a quick email, and it's suddenly part of a broadcast?!?) This essentially made me my own producer. Writing a script, timing my segment, listening back to my delivery (shudder), re-recording with a different pace and inflection... It was weird.
But you know what? The show came out nice. It's a different format than one I'm used to for my podcasts. The Watsonian Weekly is set up as an audio magazine, anchored by Brad Keefauver with different segments by different contributors. The initial episode only had two different voice on it, my own and Margie Deck, who always brings a good puzzle to the table.
I just listened to episode two this morning, and it's nice to hear more voices this week. Margie is back with the answer to last week's puzzle, and two new voices make debuts: Elinor Gray with two segments on beekeeping and Paul Thomas Miller with... well I never know how to describe Paul but he's always entertaining!
There are a lot of Sherlock Holmes podcasts out there, so it's easy to think, "Really, another one?" But The Watsonian Weekly takes a new angle on this and is definitely worth adding to your repertoire. Except for my book reviews. You can skip those.
Podcast number two of the week isn't a Sherlockian one at all. My cousin, Josh Monken, is a genuinely curious guy. As long as I can remember, he's been interested in making things. He worked as a photojournalist for a while, then had his own photography business until the needs of being a husband and father put him in the corporate world. He's tried his hand at writing a few novels, and has done a lot of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, all to scratch that creative itch.
But his podcast, What It Takes to Make, is different. Instead of Josh making something, he's turned the tables and interviews a different creative type each week on what drives their creative processes. His episodes are far ranging. In the first six episodes he has interviewed a video game designer, fantasy author, documentarian, children's book author, musician, and me.
Josh is one of my favorite people in the world. We see each other regularly at family functions, but our kids keep us from really getting to spend a lot of good time together. So having an uninterrupted hour for the two of us to just talk was great. And, since he was interviewing me about my Sherlockian hobby, he had to let me talk about Sherlock Holmes as much as I wanted!
We started by reminiscing about video games and Josh's dad, moving onto talking about our grandpa's love of western novels, and discussing fan fiction vs. academic writing, just how far you let yourself go with fandom before we ever even got to Sherlockiana. From there it was the importance (or lack thereof) of Arthur Conan Doyle to Sherlockiana, what a Sherlockian group is like, what "scholarly writings" actually means, and plenty more.
Spending as much time as I do in Sherlockiana, I take for granted that the people I talk with about my hobby have roughly the same baseline as I do. It was really fun to hear an outsider's thoughts on our hobby and Josh said "Wow" more than a few times to some of my descriptions of Sherlockians.
Even if listening to a Sherlockian talk to a non-Sherlockian isn't your thing, I would highly recommend What It Takes to Make. It has a conversational interview style that feels like NPR without pretentiousness or pledge drives.
That book has been out for over a year and a half, so the promotion for it is over. So why did I find myself on two different podcasts last week? Well, because some friends asked me to, and I'm a sucker.
Last week was the first episode of The Watsonian Weekly, the new podcast from The John H. Watson Society. For their soft open, I was asked to contribute a short book review. I'm not a technophile, so Brad Keefauver had to walk me through how to record a file on my phone and email it to him. (How far have we come that people can record on their phone, send a quick email, and it's suddenly part of a broadcast?!?) This essentially made me my own producer. Writing a script, timing my segment, listening back to my delivery (shudder), re-recording with a different pace and inflection... It was weird.
But you know what? The show came out nice. It's a different format than one I'm used to for my podcasts. The Watsonian Weekly is set up as an audio magazine, anchored by Brad Keefauver with different segments by different contributors. The initial episode only had two different voice on it, my own and Margie Deck, who always brings a good puzzle to the table.
I just listened to episode two this morning, and it's nice to hear more voices this week. Margie is back with the answer to last week's puzzle, and two new voices make debuts: Elinor Gray with two segments on beekeeping and Paul Thomas Miller with... well I never know how to describe Paul but he's always entertaining!
There are a lot of Sherlock Holmes podcasts out there, so it's easy to think, "Really, another one?" But The Watsonian Weekly takes a new angle on this and is definitely worth adding to your repertoire. Except for my book reviews. You can skip those.
Podcast number two of the week isn't a Sherlockian one at all. My cousin, Josh Monken, is a genuinely curious guy. As long as I can remember, he's been interested in making things. He worked as a photojournalist for a while, then had his own photography business until the needs of being a husband and father put him in the corporate world. He's tried his hand at writing a few novels, and has done a lot of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, all to scratch that creative itch.
But his podcast, What It Takes to Make, is different. Instead of Josh making something, he's turned the tables and interviews a different creative type each week on what drives their creative processes. His episodes are far ranging. In the first six episodes he has interviewed a video game designer, fantasy author, documentarian, children's book author, musician, and me.
Josh is one of my favorite people in the world. We see each other regularly at family functions, but our kids keep us from really getting to spend a lot of good time together. So having an uninterrupted hour for the two of us to just talk was great. And, since he was interviewing me about my Sherlockian hobby, he had to let me talk about Sherlock Holmes as much as I wanted!
We started by reminiscing about video games and Josh's dad, moving onto talking about our grandpa's love of western novels, and discussing fan fiction vs. academic writing, just how far you let yourself go with fandom before we ever even got to Sherlockiana. From there it was the importance (or lack thereof) of Arthur Conan Doyle to Sherlockiana, what a Sherlockian group is like, what "scholarly writings" actually means, and plenty more.
Spending as much time as I do in Sherlockiana, I take for granted that the people I talk with about my hobby have roughly the same baseline as I do. It was really fun to hear an outsider's thoughts on our hobby and Josh said "Wow" more than a few times to some of my descriptions of Sherlockians.
Even if listening to a Sherlockian talk to a non-Sherlockian isn't your thing, I would highly recommend What It Takes to Make. It has a conversational interview style that feels like NPR without pretentiousness or pledge drives.
May 12, 2019
Interesting Interview: Heather Holloway
221B Con is THE annual event for the Sherlockian fandom. Heather Holloway is the co-founder of this event along with Crystal Noll, sparking what has turned into a blazing inferno of friendship and fandom each spring in Atlanta, GA. Heather started reading the Canon in high school and years later found herself in charge of an annual conference that quickly exceeded her and Crystal's expectations.
Heather is a no-nonsense but welcoming Sherlockian that people immediately love when they meet her. She's not afraid to call out nonsense and gate keeping when she sees it, but is even quicker to include folks a little hesitant to jump into this crazy world of Sherlockiana we all spend so much time in. As you will soon see, she's passionate about our hobby and has years of canonical knowledge to back up her wide-ranging thoughts and deep love for The Great Detective.
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
I think that a Sherlockian is anyone who cares about Sherlock Holmes. I don’t feel that there is any criteria you have to meet to be a Sherlockian other than that. It doesn’t matter how you were introduced to Sherlock Holmes or what adaptations you like. It doesn’t matter if you have read all the Canon. I think a Sherlockian is any person for whom the characters and stories surrounding Sherlock Holmes, whatever form that may have taken, have resonated deeply. To me, that is the enduring legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle, chagrined as he would have been to hear it, that he created a character that can still have meaning in the lives of so many diverse people for so many different reasons.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
And isn’t this the question? Our favorite to ask each other and our favorite to answer!
I first read SPEC in ninth grade. It was assigned by Mrs. Phyllis Bright in English class. During the discussion of the story she told us that ACD said that he always knew the end of the story before he started writing it, so that he could logically place all the evidence and clues throughout the story. That fascinated 14 year old me, so I immediately had my mom drive me to the public library so I could get a copy of the complete Canon (not that I knew to call it that at the time!) I was hooked from there.
What is your favorite canonical story?
I don’t know. Anything but MAZA? It’s like picking between favorite children! My standard answer is whichever one I’m in the middle of reading. I do really love MUSG. It has the spooky secret codes and hidden treasure that I have always loved in stories.
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
Just one? The most interesting Sherlockian I know is my best friend and fellow Con director Crystal Noll. Of course, I am biased, her being my best friend and all. But she and I have had some of the best conversations about Sherlock Holmes and Victoriana. Plus, unlike me, she can stay up long enough to close down a bar.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
I enjoy looking at the Canon and the social structures of Victorian England. I love to see how ACD explored those social structures, both consciously and subconsciously, in his work.
What things do you like to research related to Sherlock Holmes?
This really relates to the previous question. I enjoy looking at the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and getting a better idea of what he believed. I have done research on his Spiritualism and how it is reflected in the Canon. Right now I’m working on a presentation for Scintillation of Scions on ACD’s use of dinosaurs in The Lost World. I’m particularly interested in how it illuminates his views on evolution and how it illustrates his interest in geology and paleontology. I also love looking at representations of women and social class in the Canon.
What is your favorite story from the years of 221B Con?
I’m going to tell you two stories: one that makes me laugh, and one that makes me remember why we organize the con.
The first year of our con was just after the second series of Sherlock had dropped. The five of us directors were kinda flying without a net. None of us had ever organized a con. We had signed a contract with the hotel that said we were expecting 75-100 people to attend and now had 700 people registered. You can imagine how many different things were running through our minds at the time.
During one hotel walk-through (and I can’t remember who said it, Crystal or me) but we asked if the hotel had roof access. The manager was understandably confused, but we explained that we were concerned that cosplayers would try to get on the roof for photo ops. I recall that he looked at us like we were a little crazy (kind of the way people look at first time moms who want to boil everything before their kids touch it) but agreed to make sure that the door to the roof was locked at all times.
Flash forward a week or two after con, and Crystal calls me laughing. She had found a post on Tumblr from one of our attendees. She was complaining that she had tried to get on the roof several times for a photo of her in Sherlock cosplay and was very upset that it was locked. She vehemently wished that the con directors had asked them to keep the roof access open for the use of her and other cosplayers. Some people agreed with her, but one woman jokingly commented that having the hotel lock off the roof was probably the smartest move we’d made while organizing the con. I couldn’t help but agree!
The second story happened 3 years ago. The hotel that we were at that year was also hosting a group of volleyball players from different high schools for a tournament of some kind. I was walking through the lobby when a 14 to 15 year old girl stopped me because she saw my director’s badge.
She was with her father and she was breathless with excitement. She said that she LOVED Sherlock Holmes. She watched all the BBC show and then she read all the stories. She even showed me her phone case which had a 221B door on it.
Her father said that she was so excited when she saw that there was a Sherlock Holmes con in the hotel. She begged him to let her walk around. He said that all she ever talked about anymore was Sherlock Holmes, and that she had never been to a con.
I took her to our operations room and gave her a few Sherlock Holmes related items like a mug and a couple of extra books we had. I just love the thought that there are so many young people coming to Sherlock Holmes and that, if they find us, we can be a nice supportive community for them.
What do you hope for the future of 221B Con?
I hope that we can continue to provide a fun space for Sherlockians to come together and talk about the things we like. I’ve said before that there is a difference between being a Sherlockian and being in Sherlockiana. You can be a Sherlockian and never talk to another Sherlockian in your life. Being in Sherlockiana is like being in a big, odd, loud family. We want to keep the place open for the family reunion!
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?
Asking me this is sort of like asking a drug dealer what they have. Pushing books on other people is basically my most enjoyable hobby.
If you’re just starting out, I would say grab yourself a set of Baring-Gould. Otherwise, Sherlockians are some of the most well-read people on the planet. They don’t just stick with Holmes related content or even just mysteries. So, rather than give an exhaustive list of books, I’ll tell you a few of the books I’ve read lately and enjoyed.
Virgins of Venice: Broken Vows and Cloistered Lives in the Renaissance Convent by Mary Laven - A non-fiction book that looks at why the Vatican ultimately decided nuns would be better off walled away from the general public. (Spoiler alert: Those nuns were saucy!)
How Long ‘Til Black Future Month by N. K. Jemisin - A series of short stories by the first person to ever win three Hugo Awards for best novel in a row. She has a fresh take on Sci-Fi and fantasy and the stories are varied while the theme is cogent.
Literally any of the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters - It is impossible to be unhappy while reading about Amelia Peabody.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
I expect to see Sherlockiana grow. I expect to see a younger, more diverse group of people, and I can’t wait. Sherlockiana will always ebb and flow as certain adaptations resonate more with the current zeitgeist, but it will ALWAYS BE HERE. We don’t need a new show or movie for someone’s ninth grade English teacher to assign one story and change a girl’s life.
Heather is a no-nonsense but welcoming Sherlockian that people immediately love when they meet her. She's not afraid to call out nonsense and gate keeping when she sees it, but is even quicker to include folks a little hesitant to jump into this crazy world of Sherlockiana we all spend so much time in. As you will soon see, she's passionate about our hobby and has years of canonical knowledge to back up her wide-ranging thoughts and deep love for The Great Detective.
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
I think that a Sherlockian is anyone who cares about Sherlock Holmes. I don’t feel that there is any criteria you have to meet to be a Sherlockian other than that. It doesn’t matter how you were introduced to Sherlock Holmes or what adaptations you like. It doesn’t matter if you have read all the Canon. I think a Sherlockian is any person for whom the characters and stories surrounding Sherlock Holmes, whatever form that may have taken, have resonated deeply. To me, that is the enduring legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle, chagrined as he would have been to hear it, that he created a character that can still have meaning in the lives of so many diverse people for so many different reasons.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
And isn’t this the question? Our favorite to ask each other and our favorite to answer!
I first read SPEC in ninth grade. It was assigned by Mrs. Phyllis Bright in English class. During the discussion of the story she told us that ACD said that he always knew the end of the story before he started writing it, so that he could logically place all the evidence and clues throughout the story. That fascinated 14 year old me, so I immediately had my mom drive me to the public library so I could get a copy of the complete Canon (not that I knew to call it that at the time!) I was hooked from there.
What is your favorite canonical story?
I don’t know. Anything but MAZA? It’s like picking between favorite children! My standard answer is whichever one I’m in the middle of reading. I do really love MUSG. It has the spooky secret codes and hidden treasure that I have always loved in stories.
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
Just one? The most interesting Sherlockian I know is my best friend and fellow Con director Crystal Noll. Of course, I am biased, her being my best friend and all. But she and I have had some of the best conversations about Sherlock Holmes and Victoriana. Plus, unlike me, she can stay up long enough to close down a bar.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
I enjoy looking at the Canon and the social structures of Victorian England. I love to see how ACD explored those social structures, both consciously and subconsciously, in his work.
What things do you like to research related to Sherlock Holmes?
This really relates to the previous question. I enjoy looking at the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and getting a better idea of what he believed. I have done research on his Spiritualism and how it is reflected in the Canon. Right now I’m working on a presentation for Scintillation of Scions on ACD’s use of dinosaurs in The Lost World. I’m particularly interested in how it illuminates his views on evolution and how it illustrates his interest in geology and paleontology. I also love looking at representations of women and social class in the Canon.
What is your favorite story from the years of 221B Con?
I’m going to tell you two stories: one that makes me laugh, and one that makes me remember why we organize the con.
The first year of our con was just after the second series of Sherlock had dropped. The five of us directors were kinda flying without a net. None of us had ever organized a con. We had signed a contract with the hotel that said we were expecting 75-100 people to attend and now had 700 people registered. You can imagine how many different things were running through our minds at the time.
During one hotel walk-through (and I can’t remember who said it, Crystal or me) but we asked if the hotel had roof access. The manager was understandably confused, but we explained that we were concerned that cosplayers would try to get on the roof for photo ops. I recall that he looked at us like we were a little crazy (kind of the way people look at first time moms who want to boil everything before their kids touch it) but agreed to make sure that the door to the roof was locked at all times.
Flash forward a week or two after con, and Crystal calls me laughing. She had found a post on Tumblr from one of our attendees. She was complaining that she had tried to get on the roof several times for a photo of her in Sherlock cosplay and was very upset that it was locked. She vehemently wished that the con directors had asked them to keep the roof access open for the use of her and other cosplayers. Some people agreed with her, but one woman jokingly commented that having the hotel lock off the roof was probably the smartest move we’d made while organizing the con. I couldn’t help but agree!
The second story happened 3 years ago. The hotel that we were at that year was also hosting a group of volleyball players from different high schools for a tournament of some kind. I was walking through the lobby when a 14 to 15 year old girl stopped me because she saw my director’s badge.
She was with her father and she was breathless with excitement. She said that she LOVED Sherlock Holmes. She watched all the BBC show and then she read all the stories. She even showed me her phone case which had a 221B door on it.
Her father said that she was so excited when she saw that there was a Sherlock Holmes con in the hotel. She begged him to let her walk around. He said that all she ever talked about anymore was Sherlock Holmes, and that she had never been to a con.
I took her to our operations room and gave her a few Sherlock Holmes related items like a mug and a couple of extra books we had. I just love the thought that there are so many young people coming to Sherlock Holmes and that, if they find us, we can be a nice supportive community for them.
What do you hope for the future of 221B Con?
I hope that we can continue to provide a fun space for Sherlockians to come together and talk about the things we like. I’ve said before that there is a difference between being a Sherlockian and being in Sherlockiana. You can be a Sherlockian and never talk to another Sherlockian in your life. Being in Sherlockiana is like being in a big, odd, loud family. We want to keep the place open for the family reunion!
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?
Asking me this is sort of like asking a drug dealer what they have. Pushing books on other people is basically my most enjoyable hobby.
If you’re just starting out, I would say grab yourself a set of Baring-Gould. Otherwise, Sherlockians are some of the most well-read people on the planet. They don’t just stick with Holmes related content or even just mysteries. So, rather than give an exhaustive list of books, I’ll tell you a few of the books I’ve read lately and enjoyed.
Virgins of Venice: Broken Vows and Cloistered Lives in the Renaissance Convent by Mary Laven - A non-fiction book that looks at why the Vatican ultimately decided nuns would be better off walled away from the general public. (Spoiler alert: Those nuns were saucy!)
How Long ‘Til Black Future Month by N. K. Jemisin - A series of short stories by the first person to ever win three Hugo Awards for best novel in a row. She has a fresh take on Sci-Fi and fantasy and the stories are varied while the theme is cogent.
Literally any of the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters - It is impossible to be unhappy while reading about Amelia Peabody.
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
I expect to see Sherlockiana grow. I expect to see a younger, more diverse group of people, and I can’t wait. Sherlockiana will always ebb and flow as certain adaptations resonate more with the current zeitgeist, but it will ALWAYS BE HERE. We don’t need a new show or movie for someone’s ninth grade English teacher to assign one story and change a girl’s life.
