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.
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