The Fan Fiction Studies Reader

2. It’s Always 1895: Sherlock Holmes in Cyberspace

2 It’sAlways1895 Sherlock Holmes in Cyberspace Roberta Pearson “Make a long arm Watson, and see what V has to say.” I leaned back and took down the great index volume to which [Holmes] referred. Holmes’ . . . eyes moved slowly and lovingly over the record of old cases, mixed with the accumulated information of a lifetime. “Voyage of the Gloria Scott . . . Victor Lynch, the forger. Venomous lizard or gila . . . Vittoria, the circus belle. Vanderbilt and the Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder. Hullo! Hullo! Good old index. You can’t beat it. Vampirism in Hungary.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” (1924) Although Holmes exclaimed in delight at finding an entry on vampires, one wonders how the great detective ever managed to locate anything in the commonplace books that he so assiduously constructed and cross-indexed. A cataloguing method that included both the voyage of the Gloria Scott and Victor Lynch under the letter V does not seem conducive to the quick retrieval of information. In fact, despite Holmes’ nod to linearity through alphabetisation , the grouping seems a potentially hypertextual one. Were Holmes still in practice today, one warrants that a high-powered PC, a collection of CD-ROMs and a modem would beat the good old index hands down. Such electronic marvels are, of course, the descendants and latter-day equivalents of the commonplace books—all devices intended for the storage, access- Roberta Pearson 45 ing and processing of knowledge. Modern policemen, or, for that matter, modern fictional crimefighters, with their huge databases and connections to the World Wide Web, still engage in the same search for relevant data as their nineteenth-century predecessor, but can now trade information with colleagues round the world. Sherlock Holmes fans, known as Sherlockians in the US and Holmesians in Britain, also engage in a detective process, priding themselves on emulating the Master’s methods, as they seek to solve textual and other riddles: where was Watson’s war wound; why did Holmes never marry; who first played Holmes on the stage? Once primarily dependent on cumbersome reference volumes that equalled the commonplace books in size and inclusiveness, but were much more insistently linear in their organisation, Sherlockians now also use computers in their search for and trading of information on the life and times of the great detective and the man who created him, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If one views computers as the logical extension of Holmes’ own practices and habits of mind, the use of the latest twentiethcentury technology by a readership that defines itself through affinity with a nineteenth-century popular hero appears reasonable. But, from another perspective, it seems rather puzzling that Sherlockians, who proudly proclaim that “It’s always 1895,” can wholeheartedly embrace a technology that is so emphatically Windows 95. This chapter explores that paradox, focusing on the Sherlockian bulletin board service, the Hounds of the Internet, or Hounds-L. I will suggest that a tension exists between the mythic and the historic in the Hounds’ discussions of Victorian history in relation to the Holmesian canon. In addition, I will speculate that the Hounds’ experience of history may be qualitatively transformed by their participation in computer mediated communication (CMC), as the historical, mediated through the latest technology, becomes a constant factor in their everyday lives.1 The argument constructs itself at the intersection of several ongoing scholarly inquiries concerning fandom, computer mediated communication and the mediated representation of history. It is also part of a larger project concerning the diachronic and synchronic ideological appropriation of popular heroes. Before returning to the central topic of the Hounds and history, then, permit me to digress somewhat in order to provide what scriptwriters refer to as “backstory.” This chapter is part of a larger project on popular heroes and their ideological appropriations, following work by Bennett and Woollacott on James 46 chapter 2 Bond and by Pearson and Uricchio on Batman.2 Both Bond and Batman owe their longevity partially to their mutability; the characters are shifting signifiers relatively easily reconfigured to suit different ideological formations . Holmes shares this mutability. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Sherlock Holmes apotheosised the scientific rationalism on which the period predicated its notions of progressive history as well as its domination over “lesser breeds without the law.” Since his first appearance in the pages of the 1887 Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Holmes has been appropriated for...