Pastiche versus Legend

 Got into a little debate this morning about what constitutes a Sherlock Holmes "pastiche," and since I've got time to kill, I thought I'd muse about it a bit further. Part of the fun of Sherlockiana for me has always been puzzling over aspects of this hobby of ours, and pastiches have always been a topic for discussion.

Remember back in the 1980s, when all sorts of commercial authors were finding Watson manuscripts in old houses and bank vaults all over the place? If you're lucky, you're not that old and don't remember that time, which means you're a lot less achey than some of us who do. But Watson was "writing" a whole lot of stories about Sherlock Holmes then -- though curiously, not as much as now, even though they don't sell as well.

Case in point, I was in a wonderful old bookstore yesterday and saw a nice little gathering of Sherlock Holmes books I had never heard of nor see before. Once upon a time, this would have been a cause for great excitement, but yesterday I walked away without a single one in hand. Pastiches are now like a raving Sherlock's oysters, so prolific they threaten to overrun the world. Fledgling writers have always taken first steps by emulating favorite authors, and, man, do we seem to have a lot of fledgling writers these days, pretending to be John H. Watson.

But here's the thing, we have a whole lot of writers today that aren't attempting to mimic John H. Watson (or Arthur Conan Doyle, if that is the church of your choice), but still writing about Sherlock Holmes, and that's where I start having questions. If someone loves the BBC Sherlock characters and writes a third-person Omegaverse novel about John, Sherlock, Mycroft, and friends . . . well, we have definitely strayed far from anything recognizable as a pastiche of Watson/Doyle's works. And what of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century? (Got that earworm in your head now? You're welcome.)

At this point, I think we're talking legend. At this point, I think we're talking about telling the story of Holmes around the campfire to those who haven't heard of that mythical figure who could take the crazy and put it in order. Conan Doyle may have originated the myth, but as the tellers of tales diversify and no longer use Watson narration or the written word to pass the legend along, the word "pastiche" in its dictionary definition, is too small to hold what is going on. 

And, okay, I'll say it . . . after forty-five years or so in this hobby, true pastiches are a bore to me, which is why I didn't pick up any books from that shelf I wrote about a few paragraphs ago. I love a fresh adaptation -- the Sherlock & Co. podcast, the CBS Watson TV series (Morris Chestnut > Jonny Lee Miller), and anything else that plays with the mythos in ways that make it fresh to my old eyes. I'm into the legend more than the pastiche at this point, but I know pastiches are still wonderful things for those who didn't consume their fill years ago, or those who like to hew as close to the originals as possible. They just aren't everything.

And Sherlock Holmes? Definitely legend.

Sherlockiana, born of tough times

 I love timelines a bit too much. So let's toss one together real quick.

1928 . . . Essays in Satire by Ronald Knox published, containing "Some Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes"

October 1929 . . . A stock market crash spurs a decade-long economic depression. The United States and the United Kingdom are among the hardest hit. (Germany, too, which might cause issues later.) Alcoholic beverages still illegal in United States due to Prohibition.

Also 1929 . . .  A Note on the Watson Problem by S.C. Roberts published.

1930 . . . Doubleday first publishes The Complete Sherlock Holmes.

1931 . . .  Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson by H. W. Bell published.

Also 1931 . . . Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction by T. S. Blakeney published. (Between Bell and Blakeney this was the point when Sherlockian chronology really takes off.)

January 1933 . . . Adolph Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany.

March 1933 . . . Prohibition era ends in America.

Also 1933 . . . The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett published.

June 1934 . . . The first meeting of the Baker Street Irregulars at Christ Cella's restaurant. (Yes, June. And with no air conditioning.)

Also 1934, the first wave of drought that would cause the Dust Bowl and agricultural depression in the United States and Canada.

Also 1934 . . . The original Sherlock Holmes Society forms in London.

May 1937 . . . The Hindenberg explodes and we're done with Zeppelin travel.

March 1939 . . . The Hound of the Baskervilles with Basil Rathbone released.

September 1939 . . . World War Two starts.

1940 . . . 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes, edited by Vincent Starrett, published.

1942 . . . Vincent Starrett writes the poem "221B"

Going to stop there, as with the end of World War Two, Sherlockiana really takes off. The Baker Street Journal begins publishing in 1946, the same year as the last Basil Rathbone movie about Sherlock Holmes. (Something to ponder: Would we have original series of The Baker Street Journal without the Basil Rathbone wave of Sherlock popularity?)

Sherlockians have lived and Sherlocked through some real shit. It seemed like a point that becomes more relevant lately, so this morning seemed like a good time to do a little stroll through history.

On with the hobby . . .

Here's to the local Sherlockian!

This spring, a lot of us are pondering our local Sherlock Holmes societies, inspired, I suspect by the coming BSI Midwest Canonical Conclave. We've gotten a few more details on the program at this point, which celebrate the local societies in many ways, but when it comes down to the attendance, I don't know if we'll be seeing many local scion members outside of those based in the city where it's being held. I could, of course, be wrong.

Local scion members, those Sherlockians whose love to discuss the stories and shows with others, but don't really want to leave town for a conference, are a breed of Sherlockian that I have learned to really appreciate as the decades passed. In my first decade or two, all of the really cool stuff seemed to be at the regional or national level, where the full-tilt, obsessive, all-in Sherlockians gather. But at some point I came to realize that I wasn't hearing as many new perspectives on Holmes from those who were travelling the same diehard paths. The BBC Sherlock wave brought some new blood and new perspectives, but often the focus there was on the adaptations -- though so many dove straight into the source material to gather all the info on Holmes and his posse as possible. (We harvested some GREAT Sherlockians in the 2010s. Oops, "harvested" sounds a little serial-killery, doesn't it. "Gained," okay? But so boring a word . . .)

The more casual fans, the sort that are satisfied with local discussions, not necessarily subscribing to The Baker Street Journal or jumping on Barque Lone Star Zooms, can have some fresh, unique angles on our  aged Canon and will observe points grown too familiar to some of us to see clearly. 

Lately, as Zoom has become a standby, a lot of local Sherlock Holmes societies are getting more and more visitors from other societies. But that comes with a cost -- local voices can be less apt to speak up if some know-it-all from far away is Zooming in. We saw it happen with our Peoria group and left Zoom as soon as it was safe. Some groups seem to balance things pretty well. The Parallel Case of St. Louis alternates live meetings with Zoom, and I think that encourages local voices.

It's good for our local groups to have ties to the larger Sherlockian world, providing pathways for those who do want to explore other groups, larger events, and the vast array of connections we have in this hobby. But it's also important to let them be who they are. They don't just feed our hobby new Sherlockians for the upper echelons, they also provide us unique inspirations and ideas from folks who don't know what they don't know. And remaining local Sherlockians seems to suit a lot of folks just fine.

The month's Midwest BSI Canonical Conclave of Scion Societies will be an interesting experiment in Sherlockian society interactions. The now-expected influx of curious Sherlockians from outside the midwest may give it a somewhat different flavor than the title implies, and we may not be electing the Sherlockian pope of the midwest, but hopefully it will result in good things for all our local Sherlockian friends who are just happy being where they are.

Because at the end of the day, local is where we tend to spend most of our time.